Love 'Good Stuff' on first listen especially. :wub:

YES! :wub:

 

REALLY like the album so far :heart: (on the half mark atm)

How I'd rank the album (best to worst):

 

10/10 Men In This Town

09/10 She Wolf/Loba

09/10 Did It Again/Lo Hecho Esta Hecho

09/10 Mon Amour

08/10 Good Stuff

08/10 Gypsy

08/10 Spy

07/10 Why Wait/Anhos Luz

05/10 Long Time

 

 

Thoughts:

 

09.5 - She Wolf - I still love it. One of her best singles. The way it creeps up on you is remarkable, I still love it like I did a hundred listens ago if not more.

 

09.0 - Did It Again - I love the melancholy vibe and it's a great song but I'd love it even more if it wasn't for the awful 'eh, eh' sections after each chorus. They're so messy and the beat underneath them is all mashed-up and horrible. They almost ruin the song but thankfully not quite. I'd love an edit without them though, if anyone can muster one up!

 

07.0 - Long Time - Now the instrumentation is amazing but generally pop songs need a hook or a melody and it seems like they forgot about any of that here. Although on second listen it's already growing on me massively. Oh dear!

 

08.0 - Why Wait - This is really powerful somehow. It's huge. Listening to it is like an experience. If you closed your eyes you could be at a tribal bonfire in the Sahara somewhere. I'm not sure it's a Shakira song, it sounds like something from Hard Candy, but it's definitely interesting. I imagine I'll come to love it...

 

09.0 - Good Stuff - Wow at the chorus. You think the song is all fierce and hard-edged and then the massive, warm chorus kicks in. Sensational!

 

09.0 - Men In This Town - I'm glad she's still in the habit of making barnstormingly insane pop music. This is funny, memorable and very catchy. Future single surely?

 

08.0 - Gypsy - A much more conventional song than those before it but I don't hate like I had imagined I would based on the clips. It's quite cute and endearing.

 

08.5 - Spy - I love the chilled disco vibe in the verses and the way the whole song is based around James Bond. Wyclef sounds great too but it's strictly an album track.

 

08.5 - Mon Amour - The only song on the album which really channels the pop-rock of Laundry Service. It kind of reminds me of Te Dejo Madrid actually. Great lyrics.

 

I love the album! I really was worried that she'd sold out and released an album full of hot beats and without substance but it's not like that at all. It's lyrically smart and musically feel-good, typical Shakira in short. I just wish it had an extra song or two!

 

I do hope Why Wait isn't going to be the third single though (as suggested by it having a Spanish equivalent on there). It really needs to be Men In Ths Town!

LOL at the start of Spy, those baa baaa noises made me giggle, first album ain't great on first listen but gonna give it more ^_^

I've given the album a bunch of listens, and I've formed a proper opinion of the album.

 

I was unsure at first, it feels sort of half staying to her roots, half sellout, which she sometimes flits between. Though thinking about it, it's probably the best route to go down, since this way she's combining artistic integrity, and the reasons she so commercially successful in English markets. It's what a lot of people have wanted her to do, and she's finally mixed them both successfully in the same songs. In terms of consistency, it feels like her strongest since Pies Descalzos, unlike an album like OF2, which although i think is stronger (maybe that will change in time), it tried to embrace a whole bunch of styles. Also the whole sexier vibe of the album relates to Shakira feeling more confident and womanly. This is probably her "sexy" album. Also, although she may not tackle a whole bunch of issues lyrically, she sounds at her most natural in English here, whilst still maintaining her quirky style. Almost as if she's can write without trying now.

 

I think the Spanish album will be a lot more musically fulfilling, but i'm very much pleased with this effort as well.

 

Also I just saw an advert for the album, they play HDL :mellow:

:heehee:

 

I think I'm going to write a proper review of the album in a few days because there's so much to say. It's a genuinely brilliant album though. Listening to it all the way through (all half an hour of it...) is a real experience. Lyrically of course it's as wacky as ever (I still want to be the mother of your child) but musically she really manages to avoid the beats becoming the focus of the song. It's always all about her. There's pretty much nothing I'd change.

there's been a couple of album reviews;

 

the times; 4/5

 

If last year, video-wise, was all about Beyoncé’s rumptacular display on Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), any debate about the defining video of 2009 effectively ended with the return of Shakira. The song, of course, was She Wolf. If you haven’t seen the video, then most of what you need to know is summed up in the singer’s subsequent explanation of her actions on it. “When I was in the case,” she told Jonathan Ross, “I found myself taken by the moment.”

 

Thank God for the moment. Thank God for Shakira and her inspired decision to preview her new album with a song about a woman’s right “to defend her deepest desires with teeth and claws”. Perhaps most of all though, thank God for Shakira and her ability to levitate her bum from a horizontal position while keeping the rest of her body flat. That Shakira appeared to be stuck inside a giant urinary tract somehow underscored what her fellow Colombian Gabriel García Marquez referred to as her “innocent sensuality”.

 

In a world not short of female singers who foreground their sexuality while in the process obscuring their identity, Marquez’ s words were well chosen. If on Shakira’s third English- language album she defines the terms of her sexuality, she’s also defending her inalienable right to be, well, a bit silly. Anyone who remembers her 2002 breakthrough hit Whenever, Wherever will be aware that Shakira has a little previous in this respect. The woman who once sang, “Lucky that my breasts are small and humble/ So you don’t confuse them with mountains” is in ripe form here, not least on Gypsy: “I’m a gypsy/ Are you coming with me/ I might steal your clothes and wear them if they fit me.”

 

Shakira’s claims to have learnt English with the help of a rhyming dictionary are no less borne out by the fantastic Bedouin funk of Why Wait. Shakira impatiently shifts her gaze between the clock and the subject of her affections. “Why wait for later/ I’m not a waiter,” she exclaims.

 

Even allowing for the accidental second-language poetry which we have long since grown accustomed to hearing on our old Abba records, there’s a playful core at the centre of She Wolf that is no less discernible on the three bonus Spanish versions that append the CD. Perhaps because of her impoverished childhood, Shakira has the air of a woman who can’t keep a straight face, even when, on Mon Amour, cursing the former lover holidaying in Paris with his new girlfriend: “Hope the French fleas eat you both alive/ And your room smells/ And the toilet doesn’t flush.”

 

But just because, here and on a Wyclef Jean balcony scene duet called Spy, she remains poised on the brink of perpetual laughter, it shouldn’t detract from the meticulous attention to detail that distinguishes this as a superior pop album. In recent interviews Shakira has referenced Canadian electropop nihilists Crytal Castles and you can hear their influence all over She Wolf and Men in This Town. On the four songs recorded with Pharrell Williams, his streamlined future-funk creates welcome room for the insistent hot-tin-roof rhythms that made Hips Don’t Lie the most downloaded song to date. On the last of those songs, she declaims, “You know, a girl like me is difficult to find”. In a world where far more modest talents make far more immodest claims, who would dare to disagree?

Digital Spy; 4/5

 

1. Like Shakira herself, the album is short but bursting with ideas. To be precise, it features nine new English songs followed by Spanish versions of three of those songs ('Why Wait', 'Did It Again' and 'She Wolf').

 

2. Nothing else on it sounds like 'She Wolf' the song, but if you like 'She Wolf' the song, you'll almost certainly find something to like on She Wolf the album. You know what we're trying to say, right?

 

3. The album's second track, 'Did It Again', is also its second single. It's a midtempo Neptunes production with an "eh-eh-eh-eh" hook, marching band percussion and lyrics about that guy you keep going back to though you know you really shouldn't. Click here to watch Shakira performing it on US TV over the weekend.

 

4. There are three further Neptunes productions on She Wolf. 'Long Time' is a sparse, carnivaly party tune; 'Why Wait' is the sort of thing you can imagine Shakira belly-dancing to; and 'Good Stuff' is a midtempo track with a Middle Eastern feel and a chorus that's a bit '80s radio. That last one, apparently, is Shakira's favourite on the album.

 

5. A mooted third single is 'Gypsy', an Amanda Ghost co-write that's probably the most subdued moment here. It's got a countryish feel to it, complete with mandolin and strings, but the beats are as contemporary as Cheryl Cole's dress sense.

 

6. Most likely to split opinion? 'Men In This Town'. It's an '80s-style electro stomper, a bit reminiscent of No Doubt perhaps, with loads and loads of hooks that keep leaping up out of nowhere. The lyrics are all about the lack of blokes in LA and it ends with Shakira singing "It's a suicide waiting". Ominous.

 

7. The album's nutjob moment comes on 'Mon Amour', a noisy hunk of stadium rock on which Shakira wishes her ex and his new girlfriend a terrible vacation in Paris. "Hope the French fleas eat you both alive," she sings, "And your room smells, and the toilet doesn't flush, and the locals treat you mean, and the service takes too long..."

 

8. The only track we haven't mentioned so far is 'Spy', which is a bit naughty because it's one of the best on the album. It sounds like the sort of thing Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones might have come up with if they'd been asked to produce a song for a film noir soundtrack: disco strings, a 'Billie Jean'-style bassline and trumpets that suggest something sexy's about to go down.

 

9. Before we wrap up, we should make clear that this album isn't nearly as bitty and disparate as we've made it sound - Shakira may shimmy from genre to genre here, but She Wolf still sounds like a cohesive record as opposed to a grab-bag of tracks.

 

10. It's also very, very good - a comfortable on first listen - and we're really looking forward to hearing it again.

 

The Guardian; 4/5

 

Shakira is music's fourth-richest woman, after Madonna, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. They'll never trump a lyric like 2002 breakthrough single Whenever, Wherever's "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble/So you don't confuse them with mountains", though. Sure, a combination of Latin licentiousness and English self-taught via Bob Dylan lyrics and a thesaurus means you're never quite sure the Colombian singer knows what she's saying, but third English language album She Wolf certainly supports September's announcement concerning her eight-year engagement to Antonio de la Rúa, the son of a former Argentinian president: "Yah! We're so ready to reproduce!"

 

The title track's video sees her exploring a pink fleshy cave, then humping a cage floor. "Every night I pray that you don't knock her up/ 'Cause I still want to be the mother of your child," wails Mon Amour. "My business to love you until you've had it," asserts Good Stuff, terrifyingly. "Where are all the men in this town?/ Did they all run off when they knew that I was coming round?" demands Men in This Town. Possibly, yes. "Matt Damon's not meant for me!"

 

Elsewhere she's "like a coffee machine in an office", warns "I'm a gypsy/ I might steal your clothes and wear them if they fit me" and asks "Why wait for later/ I'm not a waiter", conjuring the unlikely image of Shakira clearing dessert and brandishing the pin machine. The music's Pharrell Williams-assisted dancefloor pop; the words entirely Shakira's. Preposterously brilliant.

Think this albums gonna take a while to grow on me, on 3rd listen of it all I don't think theres a good enough second single at all :unsure:

You don't think Men In This Town would be an amazing single? Or Did It Again, or Good Stuff?

Now am in love with album. Fave tracks: Did It Again, Long Time, Why Wait, Men in This Town, Spy, Gypsy and Mon Amour. All for 5+!

i bought it today from hmv, love this moon cd.

 

heres my rate n review:

 

10 She Wolf - thrilling, sexy, quirky, futuristic track, an truly original cocktail of electronic, disco + lycanthropy. no one else could get away with this song only shakira. a totally distinctive shakira classic

 

9.5 Did It Again - lovely chugging track with a melancolic edge, best thing about it are the superb lyrics about making mistakes in love (full review in DIA topic thread)

 

9 Long Time - this the grower on the album, it doesn't hit you like a truck cause its subtle like the intro, its all about the vibe. love the subtle fusion elements the reggaeton beat with pharrell dreamy polished production then add latin clarenet sounds. a track to dance too while loungin on roof top on a hot sweaty night in rio. no fuss track, shakira sounds really good breathy and seductive.

 

6.5 Why wait - quite a hollow clinical track, do not like the verses or the lyrics, the chorus is ok. but i do like the part the tabla comes in. bit eurovison for me, the arabic music is too cheesy, i'd have prefered if she found a killer sample like timbaland did for aaliyah's "more than a woman". the im not a waiter line rhyming with later upsets me. not cool imo

 

7 Good Stuff - love the production lots of attitude, like a demented electronic wasp, so much going on the track more shakira bonkers elements, it keeps switching but it works and is fresh. nice slowly down in the chorus

 

10 Men In This Town - my current favourite, what a track!! Hit written all over it, such a strong song. love the intro and the opening line...and then when the beat kicks....hevaen, dancey feelgood track, so fresh this track gleams! her voice it fantastic with lots of personality. so the she wolf is free looking for men in LA but where are they? best part? why its the ending dreamy trppy vocals "its suicide waiting". aural heaven. also the maria world sound, nice touch.

 

7.5 Gypsy - tradional song, simple, gentle, playful. great melody commercial, too commercial and cheesy? thankfully the nice use of indian sounds and banjo give this song some character. sounds like a number in a musical. a grower.

 

6 Spy - too self indulgent track, i wanted something more epic and earthy. do not like the trombone noise and the chorus is not strong enough, verses are ok, this may be too weird for me. i don't mind weirdness but i was expected something different and better. wyclef & shakira really messed with sony by not giving them a radio friendly commercial track like HDL. i would lie to see remixed.

 

9 Mon Amour - another fantastic intro, the fisrt 20 seconds are perfection! this is don't bother part 2, shakira tapping into her jealous and venomous side. the lyrics in the verses are original and hold your attention with all the drama that is taking place with did she really just say that in the verse? yes she did. no cliches here, she hopes the toilet doesn't flush, its as simple as that, not a lyric you'd ever hear some manufactured pop puppet utter. the ending is fantastic original.

 

10 Loba - nice variation, her voice more girlish, sounds exotic in spanish with the incredible thumping extra bridge, 2:18 onwards is pure perfection!! the way it builds up and shakir's voice getting deeper until she hits the climax like she pounces on the victim and then we get the S.O.S distress call, another moment of perfection.

 

 

overall rating 8.5

 

a very successful attempt at tackling electronic music with flashes of brilliance and total uniqueness, shakira definately puts her stamp on it. this isn't a warm, earthy album, no really personal tracks and i miss the seriousness and warmth of the fixation albums, this is quite a risky album cause once again shakira messes with sony by not putting a exotic fusion feelgood hip shakers like WW, LT and HDL which are guarentee worlwide monsters.

 

single contenders: Did It Again, Gypsy, Men In This Town (this has to get released!!)

 

 

 

#3 in midweeks! :D

 

and shockingly, OF2 has sold 375,999 in the UK :o

Edited October 13, 200915 yr by Kiseki

excellent start lets hope she hangs on in there. top5 would do me!

 

oh that chip diddy chip, i saw his album yesterday and it was selling for £7.99 Vs Shakira £8.99.

 

OF2 was a subtle seller, last thing i knew after the era was over the album reached 300k but somehow 75k worth of sales were generated.

 

i wonder how much LS has sold now?

Edited October 13, 200915 yr by Bullet Wolf

They removed two Spanish tracks from the uk release, ripoff :(

They removed two Spanish tracks from the uk release, ripoff :(

lol I only imported the english songs on my iTunes - can't stand the Spanish ones!

 

Loving the album - standouts for me being Gypsy, Men In Town and Mon Amour. Really wish there was an Underneath Your Clothes/Illegal song on here - anyone else think beginning of Why Wait sounds like mash up of Milkshake and Gimme More??? Love it!

 

She surprised me, like her others I thought, oh go on, I'll get it, I never get excited for her albums but this is very good. Outshone Saturdays for me this week, still, album of year? Not yet - something mega has to topple Jordin :D

 

can anyone send me a link please? :)

lol I only imported the english songs on my iTunes - can't stand the Spanish ones!

 

A Shakira fan that doesn't like her spanish songs? Sacrilegio :o

Men In This Town has to be the next single. Everyone I've played it to absolutely loves it.

 

The singles for me should be:

 

She Wolf

Did It Again

Men In This Town

Gypsy

Good Stuff

 

Why Wait is growing on me but there's always a part of it that will sound like a cheap eurovision song (Javine???). It's nice live though; I love how she sings it like a rock song - "I got a premonition" - love it!

Agreed with your single choices once you swap Gypsy and Good Stuff around. I think the album will probably see three singles and then a re-release of some kind. Anyway here's an amazing fanmade cover for Mon Amour. I love the detail that's gone into it! Especially the couple and the suitcase...

 

http://i35.tinypic.com/k474vc.jpg

the next US single will be a new song (only for the us release of SHe Wolf) called Give It Up Yo Me featurig Lil Wayn and Tmbaland! produced by Timbo!

listen to it here > http://ryan.kiisfm.com/pages/news/shakira/