Album of the Week: Oral Fixation/Fijación Oral

If you speak Spanish, it's Fijación Oral. If you speak English, it's Oral Fixation. If you have good taste in music, it's both. This album explores a pop-rock sound that helped her create the best album of 2005. Yep, I said it. No other pop album released that year can hold a candle to the masterpiece that is Oral Fixation.

A lot of people don't really get Shakira. Some people think her voice is too harsh. Others don't understand what the fuck she's saying. Her music is too smart for some. Other's get confused at the genre hopping she does as she leaps from classical elevator music to punk rock to bubblegum pop. For those of us who like Shakira, we just appreciate albums that have the full package; A great production. Well thought out, intelligent lyrics. And vocals that are at least a little bit different from the rest of the pop stars in the industry. That's exactly what this collection of albums is. 

The difference between the albums only exist in a few song changes due to rough translations and vocal clarity. Shakira obviously flourishes in Spanish because you can often hear her thinking about the lyrics while singing on the English version of the album. Otherwise, the only difference between is the language. Alternate versions even offered up alternate versions of her big hits that weren't featured on the originals like the Spanish version of "Hips Don't Lie," "Sera Sera." and the English version of "Las de la Intuicion," "Pure Intuition." 

Music, this is Shakira's most unhinged album. We see her wildly sexy, extremely vulnerable and head over heels in love. Love songs "Dia De Enero," "Obtener Un Si" an "Something" are almost vomit worthy for being so beautiful. She really has a knack for capturing emotion that even Beyoncé admitted to envying in her anthology DVD behind the scenes footage. Then there are the classic Shakira tunes like "La Tortura" and "Escondite Ingles" that take us right back to "Laundry Service" when Shakira really started to flourish in the United States and break away into an English crossover act. All that, and the songs that still stand out the most are songs like "Don't Bother" and "Las de la Intuicion" where Shakira unleashes her more sure of herself vocal and far away from the frivolous pop sound we all thought she would have after hits like "Wherever, Whenever." 

Shakira has faltered on later albums by losing her vulnerability. Here, she is at the top of her game and I sincerely hope she brings back this raw emotion with her upcoming album which is due out this fall!

You can listen to samples of the album on iTunes, here. I suggest you buy both.

Please excuse my lack of accent marks.