mrkstvns's Full Review: Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 by Shakira
Shakira's fans have been waiting a long time to see how she'd follow up on her multi-platinum Laundry Service hit engine, and now we know. The wait is over. Shakira's new album, Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 showed up in record stores yesterday.
Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 is the first of a 2-release concept --- a schizophrenic release schedule that mirrors her schizophrenic audience profile. For years, she's been a musical goddess of the spanish language rock audience, but it's only been since 2002 that she's reached out to the American english-language pop audience with hits like Underneath Your Clothes (selling more than 13 million albums along the way), and this year she's out to do something just a little bit different...she'll release a complete, cohesive album in Spanish, and a few months later, Vol. 2 will come out --- a complete, cohesive album in English.
I've heard rumors that Fijacion Oral Vol. 2 is not going to be just translations of songs that Shakira first wrote in Spanish, but rather, that it will be a holistic artistic work, conceived and executed completely in English, and will include works that stand on their own with no exact counterpart on the Spanish-language volume. Is this the way it will play out? I have no idea. I hope so...it sounds like a wonderful concept, but we'll have to wait about 5 more months before we know for sure. Until then, we can content ourselves with Vol. 1.
First Impressions Count...
My first impression of Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 is that it's a bit mellower in mood and tone from Shakira's earlier works. With her focus on love rather than more "social" or "painful" issues, she's showing more of a tendency towards accepted mainstream themes and less of a tendency to break molds or even to even question any kind of establishment status quos. It may win her a wider audience, but it troubles me at some level because pushing the envelope is what makes an artist really stand out on their own two legs. Boldly going where everyone has gone before isn't how "great" works come about...
Not to worry. Shakira knows what she's doing, and even though most of the tracks on her new album are fundamentally basic love songs, she does enough variations on the theme to keep things interesting, and of course, there's the constant wild card of her amazing vocal range, full of depth and emotion. Plaintive verses practically bleat in agonizing insistence while seductive verses carry a throaty depth that would make any red-blooded male halt in his tracks to do the bidding of the siren who can tempt him thus...
So, without further ado (and before I start seeing all kinds of media interpretations to color my opinion), let's slide this new disc into the changer and settle back in the Barcalounger with the remote in one hand and a cool bottle of Hoegaarden Wit in the other...
What's Big? What's Bold? What's a Hit? What's Gonna Be?
Well, the song that's currently getting all the airplay is La Tortura --- it catapulted to the number 1 slot on Billboard's latin singles list, so that's the obvious place to start looking. It's also the only song from this album that I'd heard before actually buying the disc. It's a good song too...
La Tortura packs amazing complexity for a pop hit. It works on many levels, from the obvious stress on the female perspective of a relationship drawing to a close, to the counterpoint and constant juxtaposition of the male perspective. It does this via the duet format with the deep voice of Spanish pop singer Alejandro Sanz fading in and out alongside Shakira's powerfully resonant voice. The macho toughness of the male perspective are a great match for the deep bass tones that Sanz brings to his vocals. It's also a song that lets the percussions punctuate the points and its a song that pulls elements and tones from different styles, and indeed different genres, to match shifting moods. The song kicks off with a droning reggaeton beat, and it carries a deep bass percussion sound throughout the whole work, but it also works in a thrumming flamenco guitar and even some cumbia beats. It's an amazingly eclectic blend that really forges a mood in and of itself, and when combined with the changing moods of the lyrics, creates a wonderfully powerful aural image.
Although I'm not usually a soft and slow mellow music kind of guy, I absolutely love what Shakira's done on Para Obtener Un Si! This is a song that positively smolders with the sultry bossa nova sound of Brazil. It's a throwback to the 1960s and Tom Jobim singing to us about the sashaying hips of the Girl from Ipanema. Wonderfully done! I think anyone who is into the sexy sound of Bebel Gilberto will definitely want to give a good listen to this song....the lyrics are Spanish, but the sound screams pure Portugese...
Escondite Ingles is, in my opinion, a hit in the making. It will probably take a little while for it to simmer its way to the top of the charts, but I see it heading up once the promoters decide that La Tortura is getting a bit long of the tooth.
What I like about Escondite Ingles is its fast beat, its hard driving rock and roll spirit, and its retro 1980s sound that bears a remarkable resemblance to the B-52s Rock Lobster but with the throaty kind of vocal delivery that I often associate with Mexican rockera Alejandra Guzman. It's got a wonderfully light and playful mood with lyrics that conjure up images of childhood joy and innocence.
La Pared catches me from the get-go with its richly textured electronic keyboard intro that sounds for all the world like early synth-driven Tangerine Dream, though as the song develops, the sound intensifies, deepens, and becomes sharper....sounding more like the 90s sound of New Order. It's a great juxtaposition of sounds. The acoustic version that shows up on the end of the disc isn't wildly different in mood or sound, it's a little lighter with the richer sound of strumming guitars, but otherwise, same stuff, same sound.
Dia Especial is another very works in a lot of techno effects, but in a classy, competent, low-key way. (I suspect this may be the contribution of Soda Stereo's Gustavo Cerati, who worked with Shakira on the track), but if its techno you want, you should give a listen to Lo Imprescindible --- it's got a dark mood with a decadently techno edge to it, an edge that reminds me of Tina Turner's cuttingly sharp theme song for the James Bond flick Goldeneye. If you like dark techno, you'll love this track...
Bottom Line...
I've only had this album in my hands for a day, but already its impressing me no end with its rich tapestry of different sounds and moods --- a surprising feat for an album that could have been easily dismissed as a trivial collection of trite love songs. There's nothing trite about this collection though. Like all of Shakira's albums, it shows a huge range of influences and sounds. While the Arabic influences that made Laundry Service such a unique work are largely tamed on this disc, the uprising influences of reggaeton and a thoroughly 2005 era tropical edge more than fill the big shoes.
I absolutely love this CD and I will be shocked if the two Fijacion Oral don't, over time, grow to become regarded as defining works in the maturation of one of Latin music's brightest stars.
Give it a listen!
Makin' Tracks...
Twelve tracks, 2 of which are remixes, 43:38 total running time. Here's what you'll hear...
1. En Tus Pupilas 2. La Pared 3. La Tortura 4. Obtener Un Si 5. Dia Especial 6. Escondite Ingles 7. No 8. Las de la Intuicion 9. Dia de Enero 10. Lo Imprescindible 11. La Pared (version acustica) 12. La Tortura (Shaketon remix)
The "Extra" Disc...
There's a bonus CD that comes with this album, but I'm a bit surprised to find that it doesn't include any videos or multimedia extras. It's just 3 extra music tracks (nuthin' wrong with that!)
The three tracks are:
1. Fool 2. Donde Estan los Ladrones? 3. La Tortura
Fool and Donde Estan los Ladrones? are both live cuts taken from a concert in Rotterdam. Both are excellent versions, and I especially like this rendition of Donde Estan los Ladrones?. La Tortura is kind of interesting since it's a reggaeton version that's actually cooler than her "Shaketon remix" version on the main album --- I imagine that the reggaeton version was her first take at adapting her work to the very cutting edge urban reggaeton sound, but that she or her producers felt that it was pushing the envelope too much for her audience. Too bad since I think it's quite a powerful mix and reggaeton has been all the rage this past year, what with the absolutely mind-boggling success of Daddy Yankee and his mega-blockbuster hit Gasolina --- Shakira's reggaeton mix pulls in the same kind of insistently driving beat with the deep bass sound and the droning chorus. If you like Daddy Yankee or any other reggaeton artist, give a listen to Shakira's reggaeton mix of La Tortura --- I think you'll be in for a real treat!
Want More Shakira?
Who doesn't? Here are a few more reviews that might tickle your ears...
Further Recommendations...
If you like Shakira's finely crafted rock en español sound, here are a couple discs that I can highly recommend --- both by fellow cutting edge Colombian rockers. Great stuff!
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