She Wolf

Last time around, Shakira touched upon so many styles she couldn't be contained on one album, splitting Oral Fixation in two. This time, she focuses on one sound only: a pulsating electro-disco that crosses all boundaries and welcomes all nationalities. Such concentration behooves Shakira, freeing her to release her inner She Wolf, a wild wacko who's as cuckoo as she is carnal. And for as sexy as Shakira is -- crucially, her music is sexy too -- what really gives She Wolf its bite is her inspired nuttiness, how she laments that Matt Damon's not meant for her, and wishes her ex-lover and his new girl a horrible vacation where the room smells and the toilet doesn't flush. "Darling, it is no joke, this is lycanthropy," she sings on the title track with no small trace of humor, and this blend of cheerful weirdness and sick beats -- often supplied by the Neptunes, delivering tough, sensual rhythms in a way they haven't in a long time, but also John Hill and Wyclef Jean -- is giddily addicting, a celebration of all the strange sensuality that comes out at night. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine