Artist: Shakira
Song: Loca
Album: Sale El Sol (Translates: The Sun Comes Out)
Out: October 19th, 2010 (Tentatively)
"Dance or Die!" opens the new English language version of Shakira's new single, on her next (mostly Spanish) bi-lingual record, due out October 19th. There's only one problem; it doesn't have enough "dance" in it. So does it "die?" Not completely...
Shakira has had an interesting past year attempting to transition to disco dance diva. Its been rough, debuting at a disappointing number fifteen on the Billboard album charts last year with her, highly underrated, She Wolf record. Compared to her normal command of the number one spot, this is a poor showing. Shaki and her team have been on the clean up recording more music for her next release before hitting the road next month. Since last year, She Wolf has only sold 300,000+ copies in the US (2.5 million worldwide), which is shameful compared to the 1.8+ million (US) (8 million worldwide) of her last English language release, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. Her last record yields the most downloaded song of the '10 decade, Hips Don't Lie, which is monstrous compared to the whimpering "howl" of She Wolf.
But enough of Shaki's short comings, lets get to Loca.
Shaki brings it back to the Spanish roots with Loca, blaring the horns and the Mexican drums as loud as she can. Now, I know I was the only person who really liked her sexy She Wolf moment, but she didn't have to go all chips and salsa on us. I believe a marriage between her pulsating, should of been a single, Men in this Town and her equally titillating La Tortura would have sufficed. The thing I believe with Shakira is that she can never go too far away from her Latin roots, but I like when she experiments with the new wave of European club beats that are sweeping America currently. Perhaps trying out Steve Mac, David Erikson or the oh-so-obvious David Guetta would have been more exciting choices when crafting her last album. Loca seems to go too far back into her early years of South of the boarder success, and gives me a hankering for a quesadilla. There really isn't much of a pumping beat that can play it in a club setting, but it does sit better in its native Spanish language. If Shakira's people are smart, they will promote the new Spanish language album heavily, and offer the four new English language tracks as part of a re-release (digitally) of her last She Wolf record. Shakira still has quite a bit of staying power, selling out arena's across America, even with a poor selling record. But she should focus on promoting She Wolf rather than pushing a completely new record on us with this new Earthly Delights Tour later this year.
Bottom line: Loca isn't as crazy as she'd like it to be, but safe enough to like anyway.
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