We haven’t heard anything new from Shakira until now, since her debut singles Whenever Wherever and Hips don’t lie: Her previous albums Laundry Service and Oral Fixation were successful, yes, mainly due to her alarmingly mesmeric appearance and those two hit singles alone. Her spicy and distinctive voice has proved Shakira to be talented along with her belly dancing methods that lure us in.

Explosive is one way to describe this recent development from Shakira. She Wolf, as a single, was sold to me instantly. Its electronic pop sound is catchy, stimulating and uses a very unusual idea. The use of a vocoder works well with the enticing violin instrumental at the end of the song. Regardless, the song screams sex, with Shakira’s skin coloured full body suit, the she wolf idea is an interesting concept. The music and sound effects of the single is in keeping with the electronic pop and disco trends of the times. It evolves her sound while quintessentially remaining Shakira.

I like that she keeps with her own trend of using animals and earth through her songs and videos; the owl and horses, for instance, in Whenever Wherever and now basing a song around a wolf. Ironically, Shakira’s voice was mocked in school for being “animal-like”; now look where it’s got her. She uses her femininity to embody the wolf in this song- making a link between wildlife with human characteristics.

The second track, Did it again is a bit more downbeat and is followed by Long Time which, with another slow beat, is less appealing compared to She Wolf. The album takes a liking to sound affects like the crying baby sound in Why Wait; not a great use of imagery there. The song Spy featuring Wyclef Jean is appealing enough to make charts, especially with his addition. The song’s sound effects are a bit ominous and the song on the whole isn’t an award winner, yet Wyclef keeps it alive.

Mon Amour instantly has a Snow Patrol feel to it and is not similar to anything else on the album. The record lacks a huge amount of creativity, bar She Wolf, and is just like an electronic upbeat version of her earlier material. There is no consistency as it springs from electronic pop, to rock pop and back to disco pop but this doesn’t take away from the songs individually.

Despite the rigid flow of the album, I can see Men in This Town making the charts because, well it’s just controversial. The song has that inspirational, empathetic appeal through its sound and lyrics to sell as a single. She talks about longing to find a man and complains “Matt Damon’s not meant for me”! The song resonates with “It’s a suicide waiting, others say”, which is a powerful statement in itself.

After such an enigmatic song, the album then jumps to Gypsy which is a slow acoustic feeling song. It’s too disconnected, but then again Shakira is not one for making method albums. Overall, I would buy the album for Men in This Town and She Wolf alone.

The thing about She Wolf as an album is it doesn’t need to have a lot of innovative songs to become popular. It is Shakira and she has already formed a stable public plateau for herself; as long as one song is memorable, she is wearing alluring clothing in the videos, the song will hit the charts, and people will buy the album. Her music is aesthetically pleasing through sound and sight but what will she offer us in the future?!

- Jacqui Swenson

CHECK OUT THE VID FOR THE FIRST SINGLE FROM SHE WOLF: