Oral Fixation Vol. 2 (20th Anniversary)＜完全生産限定盤/Opaque Bone Vinyl＞

世界的歌姫=シャキーラ 2005年発売『オーラル・フィクゼイション vol.2』20周年記念盤(オぺーク・ボーン・ヴァイナル)

3度のグラミー受賞、11度のラテン・グラミー受賞し、英語圏&ラテン圏でも圧倒的な人気を誇る世界的歌姫=シャキーラ。英語版セカンド・アルバムとなる『Oral Fixation, Vol.2』(オーラル・フィクゼイション vol.2)が、オペーク・ボーン・ヴァイナルで登場。マルチ・プラチナムを獲得した世界的大ヒットを巻き起こした 「Hips Don't Lie (feat. Wyclef Jean) 」が収録。この感染力のあるリズムに、シャキーラの革新的なグローバル・ロック&ポップ・サウンドの進化を目の当たりにできるだろう。更に、このアニバーサリー・エディションには「Don't Bother」「Illegal (feat. Carlos Santana)」「La Tortura (feat. Alejandro Sanz) 」の別バージョンも追加収録。愛すべき楽曲達を堪能して頂きたい。

Shakira delights in confounding expectations, and nowhere is that better seen than in how she secured a massive crossover audience on her own terms. She blended Latin pop and American mainstream pop, on both the dance and easy listening sides of the equation, on her 2001 breakthrough, Laundry Service, but it was no crass cash grab -- she eased herself into the transition, balancing songs in Spanish and English on the record while crafting tunes in both languages to appeal to both longtime fans and new listeners. That set the stage for her magnum opus of 2005, the two-part album Fijacion Oral/Oral Fixation. Volume one was her first Spanish-language Latin pop album since 1998 and the second was her first ever all-English crossover album, and if anybody was expecting the latter to be a continuation of Laundry Service, consisting of nothing but sexy dance tunes and power ballads, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 will be a bit of a surprise: it's a deadly serious, ambitious pop/rock album, most assuredly not frivolous dance-pop. Even when the album dives into pulsating neo-disco, it's in the form of a protest song in the closer, "Timor," which isn't exactly by-the-numbers pop. And that's a pretty good description of Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 in general -- it's pop, but it's unconventional. Even when she alludes to pop divas past, whether it's with the foreboding gospel choir on "How Do You Do" that brings to mind "Like a Prayer" or how she cribs from Alanis Morissette on "Illegal" ("You said you would love me until you died/And as far as I know you're still alive" is very close to "You Oughta Know"), Shakira twists these references to her own purposes, taking the music in unexpected directions. All these turns and detours lead to the same general destination: the sound is grandly theatrical, darkly sultry, and unapologetically lurid, a place where Madonna and U2 exist not as peers, but as collaborators. For if this album is anything, it's a global pop/rock album with each of those modifiers carrying equal weight: these are pop songs performed as arena rock, belonging not to a single country but to the world as a whole. As such, the album touches on everything from the expected Latin rhythms to glitzy Euro-disco, trashy American rock & roll, and stomping Britpop, all punctuated by some stark confessionals, as Shakira sings about everything from love to religion, stopping along the way to reveal that women with 24 inch waists may indeed be heartbroken. If some of these ideas don't necessarily gel, at least Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 is alive with ambition and, more often than not, Shakira winds up with music that is distinctive as both songs and recordings. And that means that Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 is not only a markedly different album from Fijacion Oral, but from every other record in her catalog -- or, most importantly, from any other pop album in 2005. Other artists may be bigger than Shakira while others may make more fully realized albums, but as of 2005, no other pop artist attempts as much and achieves as much as Shakira, as this often enthralling album proves. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine