"Sale el Sol"
Shakira
2.5 stars
Shakira has always been America's favorite foreign exchange student. With her new album, a Spanish and English record called "Sale el Sol," she sidesteps the innovative pop trajectory she embarked on last year with "She Wolf." Instead, "Sale el Sol" is half dull, half Latin dance party. Perhaps "Waka Waka" is to blame.
Still, the tracks in which Shakira delivers her classic, playful Latin-lover pleasure are the most successful. For instance, "Rabiosa" (rabid in English), featuring the omnipresent Pitbull, is jaunty and flirty. "Oh ya papi, you're like a mocha," she sings. "Come get a little closer and bite me." The music synthesizes staples of modern pop and Latin tunes, merging kinetic synths and sex-insinuating mariachi horns. It's hard, though, to decide if being compared to a coffee shop beverage is actually hot.
Most of the tracks convey the joy of an endless summer night, in which Shakira, as recounted in "Loca," sips Corona "Like it's nothin' goin' on." Continuing the trend of uptempo foot stompers, the snappy "Addicted to You" employs house piano and tooting mariachi horns along with a thick, crunching beat. Shakira is always a funny, blunt lyricist and this comes through upon translation: "Must be the perfume you wear/Or the water you bath with." "Gordita (Fat Little Girl)," a well-matched and amusing duet between Shakira and Residente of Calle 13, has a popping, bounding and hiccupping groove. This is the best example of flat-out wacky, hilarious lyricism: "Move, move like an invertebrate/I'm the hunter and you are my deer/Yes Babe, I'm like Bambi, your little deer." Shakira, this is a crazy, refreshingly frank and primal duet, but aren't you supposed to be less Bambi, more She Wolf?
But when this "Viva la fiesta" atmosphere fades and the reality of the morning after hits, she hauls out the ballads. They are standard pop-rock adult contemporary affairs. Most successful are the gentle "Antes de Las Seis" and the lyrically aggressive "Tu Boca (Your Mouth)." When she covers The xx's "Islands," it's like the sun peaking through those clouds of doom that The xx loves so much. She lends the track a less mumbly flavor, but it doesn't convey the same delicate, discreet feelings of the original. Nonetheless, it demonstrates her continuous push for diversity.
On "Sale de Sol," Shakira is reaching in a bunch of different directions, harkening back to her rockier roots while embracing her Latin influences. But she's forgotten to grab something in the process. The sexually enlightened, complex, pop-embracing alter ego that debuted on "She Wolf" is almost completely disregarded here. The music may be tame, but at least those awkwardly honest lines confirm that somewhere, in some closet, the she wolf is still lurking.
