The high IQ’d hip shaking singer/songwriter Shakira’s self-titled 10th album is a big sounding record that bounces off many walls stylistically and unapologetically.
Shakira follows in the singer’s high profile of late, as a judge on The Voice and sultry video partner with Rhianna.
The Shakira/Rhianna duet, I Can’t Remember to Forget You, hits a reggae-rock groove that’s driven with a cliché country lyric hook. It’s got energy, but the duo’s video chemistry doesn’t carry over into the song.
The album is teeming with ominous choruses that strut along purposefully but come across as overly dramatic. But this is a Shakira album and weird lyrics and strange vocalization is expected.
Shakira’s penchant for whacked out vibrato (a cross between a high octave note and a catch in her phrasing) places her next to Jewel in the yodelling sweepstakes.
Shakira and her producers lean on the power of electronic beats more than previous efforts but it works to interesting effect on You Don’t Care About Me and Dare (La La La), which sounds like clubland music circa 1998 with its stuttering synths and cheesy oscillations.
This gets revved up by Shakira’s Latin-disco mix up on the verses. The album is consistent in its kitchen sink fusion of country, reggae, pop, electronica and other elements.
The other part is Shakira, who brings all those sounds together in her own weird way. Her commitment to doing her own thing with aplomb points towards integrity, but the ride isn’t smooth.
The country strain hinted at earlier appears in full-on Shakira mode in Medicine, a romantic twanger of a duet with Blake Shelton. Pills, whiskey and desperation – it’s all there with the duo mustering some believable drama.
This song is preceded by some organic material that’s acoustic guitar based, The One Thing and 23. The latter song is the album’s most honest tune despite the awkward lyric, “I used to think that there was no God, but then you looked at me with your blue eyes and my agnosticism turned to dust.”
There are no tracks like Whenever, Wherever here, but Shakira projects all her belly dancing guitar strumming charm into the songs with irreverence.
— Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who reviews new releases every Friday for The Morning Star.
