mixtape maestro (2.0)

When taking a backwards glance at the many pop giants who’ve dominated the music world over the past decade, few register as endlessly fascinating as Miss Shakira.

From one track to the next, she leapfrogs amongst various world-pop musical influences; her voice is a chameleonic wonder, evolving from an imp-ish peep to a froggy growl to a lioness-like bellow, sometimes all within a single verse; her songwriting, whether English or Spanish, bears a clumsy poetic charm; and then there’s her body-ahhh, that body-and the seducing physical contortions that make up her “freestyle choreography”.

With all that said, it’s not all that surprising that Shakira’s new single “She Wolf” would end up being the farthest thing from boring, but we’re also sure no one was expecting what is ultimately delivered either.

It’s zany plot? Triggered by a full moon lighting up the night sky, a bored housewife suddenly transforms into this horny, werewolf-like ho-creature. That outline not interesting enough? How about Shakira’s full commitment to the storyline’s innate campiness with random howling bursts or sex-craving heavy sighs? Or interesting lyrical turns like “Nocturnal creatures are not so prudent/ The moon’s my teacher, and I’m her student” and “To look at the single man I’ve got on me a special radar/ And the fire department’s hotline in case I get in trouble later” (not to mention the use of the term “Lycantrophy”). Or, taking the record to a whole new level of WTF?, the fact that the entire backing track is bathed in a slightly cheap-ish, Studio 54-inspired nightclub groove accented with snippets of disco strings and Chic-y guitar flickers?

Initially, the whole thing doesn’t seem to gel together all that well, with Shakira’s laboured vocal inflections and overly-wordy verses sounding at odds against the dance beat, making one wish that the producers would have went the more easier route and simply saved the track for the next Kylie Minogue album.

But with repeated listens, “She-Wolf”‘s contrasting elements and “Thriller”-ish thematic rip-off (disco meets Halloween) eventually form into quite an addictive whole, establishing it as a highly successful game-changing comeback event. All that’s really needed now is an accompanying music video, cause we can’t wait to see how she plans to act out this “transformation” through her always-mouth-watering dancing.

She-Wolf, the album, is slated for an October release.