I had to listen to ORAL FIXATION VOLUME 2 [after hearing Fijacion Oral Vol. 1] to understand what all the hype was about, for this latest piece by Shakira, and to find out whether it was merited. What is my verdict? In all honesty, a lot of the material here left me cold. Though, I won't deny that Baranquilla-born Colombian superstar extraordinaire Shakira Mebarek is a truly multi-talented vocalist, musician, songwriter, philanthropist and alluring bellydancer, this album felt more like filler than substance. I was looking forward to seeing how she would fare on her second English language album (the first being LAUNDRY SERVICE in 2001).

This 2005 release catches our attention with quite an eyeful of Shakira on the cover. In fact, the cover art [Shakira in a quasi-Eve pose with forbidden fruit in hand, her chest area barely covered by the branch of the Tree of Knowledge] was generously altered in more fundamentalist nations, prior to the album's release, to conceal her bare midriff. The music also takes an intimate look at Shakira's life, through a study of the anatomy of broken relationships, evident in her lyrics. Many of the songs are bitter in nature. The first song, "How Do You Do," examines Shakira's broken relationship with God, specifically. The lyrics raised eyebrows and generated discussion regarding her [sometimes sacrireligious] view of organized faith practices. The music and accompanying lyrics are grizzly and pointed. Shaki even opens the song with excerpts from "The Lord's Prayer," in English and Latin, and goes on to sing in Hebrew and Arabic. Many of the other songs lean more toward her setbacks in romantic love, and the musical styles run the range from pop/rock to disco. ("Don't Bother" and "The Day and the Time," as examples) Another controversial song here is "Timor," which closes the set of eleven tunes. Shakira shamelessly calls the media to task, as well as society's apathetic "out of sight, out of mind" attitude toward the victims of third world country violence and social injustice. Actually, that is the one track I really connected with. I love the instrumental on this one, as well as the choral accompaniment. It's just a shame that this last song didn't set the standard for most of the other tracks on the album. Then, I would've given this at least four stars. Give it a listen and draw your own opinions. Far be it for me to call a "yay" or "nay" on this one, so, I will just say that Shakira's latest effort was "middle of the road."

I think Shakira sucks a lot. She can't sing. I don't understand her musical appeal.

I'm only giving her 4 stars because her accent was just too much!! And I hear the same comments from non-spanish speakers who couldn't understand her "Don't bother" song. So, I had to read the lyrics, because otherwise, I wouldn't know what on earth she was singing about.

Once I passed this phase, I really enjoyed her songs. It's true, there weren't many songs that I thought were great, but not one of them was bad. I love this girl, and, personally, they were all decent.

Songs you must have:

Dreams for plans, Illegal, the Day and the Time, Your Embrace, and Something, oh.. and maybe How do you Do.

The others were too pop for my taste and I don't recommend them.

However, if your are a true fan, you must buy this CD!!

Its a CD! If you like the music its great, otherwise its not.

I really like this CD not as good as laundry service, but i still enjoyed most of the tracks. what my complaint is that hips don't lie is not on the first release. I feel cheated, I am not going out to buy a second CD just for a new song. I feel that the record company shouldn't add a song the re-release the cd. I notice some other bands are doing this as well, maybe thats why cd sells are dropping.