Shakira – you bundle of sexy frustration, you. So much to offer, so many missed chances. Greatness is but a footstep away – if only you knew which way you were walking. By my lazy count (it says on the CD) Oral Fixation vol.2 is Shakira's seventh album. Seven! That's nearly as many as Oasis! I don't know exactly which sexually-related innuendo the album title aims at, but the cover shot of Shakira naked in the Garden of Eden, holding an apple is a bit too blatant to ignore. Will she take a bite and lose her innocence, or will she close her eyes and snub the snake (so to speak)?
Rock music and religion have combined to great effect many times in history. Sadly, soft rock and religion haven't – track one, How Do You Do? is adequate proof. Shakira almost had me convinced that I was listening to a duet between Celine Dion and Alanis Morrisette, which is a shame because her original delivery is what holds up the rest of the album. The religious chanting at the start is a bit baffling. Maybe there is a point to it. But she doesn't elaborate, and settles instead for a wah-wah soaked guitar solo instead. One gets the impression that Shakira has been too tempted too much by the fruit of the Kelly Clarkson tree.
But track one is an aberration, and the rest of the album opens up with more depth and ambition - even though its not always fully realised. Don't Bother is a weezer-esque lament about not bothering to even begin a relationship because there are too many better women out there. I can't help thinking she's a bit too modest here – she does herself a disservice - perhaps now is the time to bring up the sleeve notes. Or rather the massive semi-naked picture on the reverse of the sleeve notes. You don't get that with iTunes, do you? Anyway – yeah, if Shakira really means it when she sings that she'd cut her nails and learn about football, while posing naked with nothing but an apple in a fake Garden of Eden, she's a better catch than she lets on.
What's clear from even the first few tracks is that lyrically, Shaz, as I'll now call her, has flamboyance and humour – even if her target is always an un-identified 'you', - she sings with an original, and occasionally pleasant voice. But she is let down by two things. The first is some poor, low budget music, and the second is an apparent indecision as to which style of music she is aiming for. The former almost definitely stems from the latter. Final track Timor is a case in point: 80's electro drums, kids doing the backing vocals, African chants at the start, Franz-light chorus, and lyrics that point towards some moral/political message which is never fully expounded. If only someone would grab hold of her and say (in a northern accent) "Look, Shaz, I like the voice; the lyrics amusing, if a little unusual. But just cut down on the genre-hopping and multi-instrumental fills – it makes everything seem a bit watered down… Oh, and cut down on the warbling a bit – it makes you sound a little scary."
This brings me to the albums low points, of which there are a shade too many to make the album hang together as an engaging listen. When Ol' Shaz's voice or lyrics drop in standard, or enter the unoriginal "I'm just a girl singing a bland love song about some guy I made up" mode, there is nothing there to like or enjoy – at least not for the casual listener. There may be some hidden depth somewhere – in which case someone should unhide it and slap a fig leaf on it. It is a shame because the world needs a daring, original Shakira, who backs up her voice, lyrics and intelligence with some discernable style, not one who's too humble to have a real crack at being her own artist, and chooses instead to tread the path of commercial conformity.
Rating: 6/10
Label: Sony BMI
Release Date: 6th March 2006
Words By: John Culkin
