Comes on opaque bone 2LP vinyl.
Anniversary reissue of Oral Fixation Volume 2, Shakira pulls off a high-wire act that only she could make look effortless: a full-throated crossover that doesn’t dilute her identity so much as magnify it. This is Shakira at the peak of her global pivot, leaning hard into English-language pop while smuggling in rock nerve, Latin rhythm, and a distinctly idiosyncratic sense of humor. It’s ambitious, restless, and knowingly messy in the way big pop statements often are. The album opens with “How Do You Do,” a jittery, new-wave-tinged meditation on faith and doubt that immediately signals this won’t be a simple radio grab. Shakira’s voice—elastic, sharp-edged, unmistakable—bends around odd phrasing and unexpected melodic turns. Then comes “Don’t Bother,” a snarling breakup anthem powered by distorted guitars and wounded pride, Shakira playing rock frontwoman with claws fully out. The record’s most iconic moment arrives with “Hips Don’t Lie,” her genre-collapsing smash featuring Wyclef Jean. Built on Colombian cumbia DNA and pop maximalism, the song is pure kinetic joy—body music with brains behind it. It didn’t just dominate charts; it rewrote the rules for what global pop could sound like in the mid-2000s, all hips and history moving in sync.
“The Day and the Time,” co-written and performed with Gustavo Cerati, drifts into dreamlike territory, a meeting of Latin alternative royalty that feels less like a feature than a shared headspace.
Tracks like “Animal City” and “Your Embrace” show Shakira stretching into darker, moodier textures—less concerned with hooks than atmosphere—while “Costume Makes the Clown” and “Something” tap into her playful cynicism, pairing clever lyricism with muscular pop-rock arrangements. The album closes on “Timor,” a politically charged, percussion-heavy protest song that underscores her refusal to let pop stardom blunt her worldview.
Oral Fixation volume 2 captures an artist mid-transformation, fearless enough to take risks on the biggest stage possible. Loud, strange, seductive, and smart, it’s the sound of Shakira claiming her place not just as a pop star, but as a singular global force.
