I just heard the whole album, and I am blown away. It is hands down some of her best work. There isn't one song on the album that I didn't enjoy. They are all gems in my opinion. This album also showcases Shakiras voice very well. She has great vocal range when she uses is properly, which is so evident on this album. If this is any indication of how great her English album is going to be, then we are in for a real treat. Oral Fixation 2 will be in stores in November, 6 months from now, and will include all new tracks. Shakira stated that the Enlgish album will not have any songs that appear on the Spanish version, which saddens me because they are so amazing. But I know she will make it just as masterful as Volume 1. She is also writing all of the tracks, and producing both albums, which I think is so spectacular. It takes a real artist to do that. I don't see how anyone that doesn't speak Spanish could not enjoy this album, its just so undeniable. I don't speak Spanish at all, but I still think this album is incredible. I hope it is a success, and La Tortura is shattered to pieces in comparison to all of the other songs on this disc. Don't get me wrong I love La Tortura, but there are much better songs on the album. It's definitely an original piece of work, and the production is outstanding. I would recommend for anyone that liked her older work, or Laundry Service.

If you would like to hear a few tracks please request it in this thread, and I will upload them for you, so you can hear them.

Key Tracks:

La Pared
Escondite Ingles
No
Las De La Intuicion
Lo Imprescindible
Obtener Un Si

Billboard News


La Tortura jumps up 9 spots this week from #61 to #52

The music video is also continuing its heavy rotation on MTV and VH1. :grin:

Good to hear that there are better songs in the album than La Tortura, because that one is easily the worst single Shakira has ever released. I did hear the acoustic piano mix of La Pared and it's one of her most beautiful songs. I just love it. Can't wait to get her album and hopefully to meet her when she stops in Puerto Rico to do an in-store!

Too bad she didnt release this album in English.

you poor thing.


go read entertainment weekly.


or something.

(or you can just actually read the first post for once)

Did she have a child or is that child just a model?

i think is her nephew/niece

That is true, she said so on MTV.

Standout Tracks:
En tus Pupilas
La Pared
La Tortura
Obtener un Si
Dia de Enero


It's really good

My favorite is Mamar es Amar

I'm really glad you liked it Rod.

Not interested in this album.

It is time...for you to die!


This is my Shakira we're speaking of!

Your Shakira, I created this damn thread. :razz:

I didn't realize Shakira had written or co-written and produced or co-produced every track on the album.


I think Oral Fixation 2 has a chance to do for Shakira what Like a Virgin did for Madonna, if it's as good as the Spanish one is. It better at least be much better than Laundry Service. It's time to get serious.

Just a few hours before going on sale globally, Shakira's new CD "Fijacion Oral" sold-out in Mexico.

In Mexico Shakira's new "Fijaction Oral" CD sold-out in only four hours, 150,000 copies of "Fijacion Oral" where shipped to stores in Mexico, which ended up not being sufficient for the Mexican public.


Hmmm...are sales for col. 1 and 2 gonna be counted as one, the way sales for part 2 of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack were jsut added to one?

Meaning if vol. 1 sold a million copies and vol. 2 another million (just as an exaple) would we jsut have one figure, of 2 million? Or seperate?

Sales Updates:
Mexico: Over 150K in one day (Platinum)
Colombia: 60K 3X Platinum
Ecuador & Venezuela: 20K each, Platinum

Basically it should have no trouble getting past the 1 million mark wordwide in only its first week.

Hehehe. Good to know our cultures so reliable.

I read in Mat's thread that it was on track to having the biggest SPanish album debut in America.


Its terrific that Shakira never lost her spark after being absent for so long.

heres a review from the NY times

By JON PARELES

Fijación Oral Vol. 1
Shakira

No one expects pop sex symbols to be as smart or ambitious as Shakira, the 28-year-old songwriter from Colombia who regularly shows the world her navel. Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was already a superstar in Latin America when she switched to writing and singing in English for her 2001 album "Laundry Service" (Epic) which sold two million copies in the United States. Her new album, "Fijación Oral Vol. 1" (Epic), returns to Spanish, but it's hardly a retreat; in November she is scheduled to release a companion album, "Oral Fixation Vol. 2," with songs in English. And just to be multilingual, she has a few lyrics in French and German.

On the Vol. 1 album, Shakira is as poised as she is unpredictable. She's a pop songwriter above all; the songs are catchy, with melodies good enough to tempt non-Spanish speakers to sing along. But multiplicity is everywhere: in the arrangements, in the mixed emotions of the lyrics, in Shakira's mercurial voice. The album is dedicated to her boyfriend, Antonio de la Rua, but it's not all valentines by any means.

The romances she sings about can be ecstatically fulfilling or bitter and turbulent. In "La Tortura" ("The Torture") the album's first single, the husky-voiced Spanish pop singer Alejandro Sanz plays a straying but now remorseful boyfriend; she wrestles with her own warring impulses to take him back or dump him forever. Her lyrics evade clichés, finding new imagery for archetypal situations: "I'll be a plot for your mind/The object of and reason for your perdition and your good luck," she sings in "Escondite Inglés" ("Hide and Seek"). Her voice can be coy and airy, or dive into a torchy near-sob; it can quiver and break or turn punky and self-possessed.

And the music is blissfully pan-American. "In "Obtener un Sí" ("To Get a Yes"), a genial bossa nova with a touch of cha-cha, Shakira is backed by an orchestra like a 1950's crooner, while she glimpses at the 1980's with the new-wave organ and staccato guitar of "Escondite Inglés" and the synth-pop of "Las de la Intición" ("Those of Intuition"). She's not just retro, either; she's got her own hybrids. "La Tortura" mixes the tootling button accordion of Colombian cumbia with a beat from dancehall reggae and some abstract electronics; a remix, included on the album, goes all the way into electronica. None of it sounds forced: for Shakira it's all pop, taut structures for volatile passion.

If only the reviewer had done some research... Laundry Service sold 3 million copies in the U.S. and La Tortura takes from reggaetón music. Not that I'm proud about it, and on second thought, reggaetón was born as a mix of dancehall reggae and a couple other mixtures thrown in, so it's not exactly false (what the reviewer said, I mean)... The Shaketón remix is disgusting and is also pure reggaetón. I really hate that mix. It's probably Shakira's first bad song in her career. The original mix of La Tortura isn't much better, but definitely not as bad. With all that said, I have not listened to the album yet. I need to buy it but school and work have left me with no time for human pleasures like going to the mall, shopping or even listening to a full album. I did see Shakira perform No (2nd single) on Despierta América and it sounded great from what I can remember. Also, the Piano Acoustic version of La Pared may be among her 10 best songs she has yet recorded. It's SO good!

I can't wait for this to hit my country. Shakira is my fave singer ever. And where ever I look the album has great reviews...

It's one of those rare CDs that has no bad songs on it.

What country are you waiting in?

A few other reviews:
Entertainment Weekly :

No more yodeling bizarro metaphors in broken English. Shakira has found herself again. Fijacion Oral vol. 1 may not be the commercial juggernaut that 2001's Laundry Service was, but it finds the Colombian goddess doing what she does best: placing her operatic vocalizing at the service of Spanish poetry. From the bouncy electronics of the accordion-laced Alejandro Sanz duet ''La Tortura'' to the dreamy romanticism of ''En Tus Pupilas,'' there's beauty to spare in this lavish compendium of raw emotions — Shakira's finest work to date.

E!
Shakira doesn't play by the rules: The follow-up to her English-language debut, 2001's multiplatinum Laundry Service is the Spanish-language Fijacion Oral Vol. 1. For most (okay, Ricky Martin) that would spell career suicide. But the 28-year-old Colombian sensation seems to have no such concerns: Mainstream radio and MTV are even cranking her chest-jiggling jam "La Tortura." And why not? The hot single tunes such as "Escondite Ingles" work in any language, mixing mad Latin percussion with big rock riffs and Carribbean rhythms. Imagine Def Leppard making an album in South America--except with a totally hot chick instead of five English guys in Union Jack shorts. And for those that aren't convinced, the second part, Oral Fixation Vol. 2 (completely in English), will be released this fall.

Amazon.com:
It's thrilling--in any language--to hear new music from Colombian superstar Shakira. And it's been a long time coming. Shakira's English crossover opus, Laundry Service, was released in 2001. The Spanish Donde Estan Los Ladrones came three years before that. Fijacion Oral, Volumen 1 is the first of two new discs; an English counterpart is due in November. Shakira's bleating, biting voice is in fine form, and it gives the material an electric urgency. She's girlish and innocent during the glittering "Dia de Enero" and sensual and seductive amid the thundering beats of "Lo Imprescindible." A talented stable of producers, including former Soda Stereo vocalist Gustavo Cerati, has swathed Shakira in rhythm-based arrangements. But the album's best moments come when Shakira channels her inner--and innate--rock goddess. "La Tortura" is a hurts-so-good break-up duet with Alejandro Sanz, and "Escondite Ingles" rides a beach-party guitar groove.

AllMusicGuide
Laundry Service gave Shakira her long-anticipated English-language breakthrough, turning her into a global superstar in the process. A hit of that magnitude is hard to follow, so it shouldn't be a great surprise that she toiled on its sequel for upward of four years. What is surprising is that the subsequent album was split in two — à la Kill Bill — with the first being devoted to Spanish tunes and the second consisting entirely of English songs; the teasing titles Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 indicate which is which and which hit the market first. It's kind of a sharp move to relase Fijacion Oral first, since it not only satisfies her longtime fans who have been waiting a long time for a collection of brand-new Spanish material (she hasn't delivered one since 1998's Dónde Están los Ladrones?), it also subtly signals that she won't be placing American success above anything else. Similarly, Fijacion Oral smartly straddles the line between traditional Latin pop and the sexy, splashy dance-pop and bombastic adult contemporary pop that made Laundry Service a big hit in the U.S.: its heart is in the former, but the production — the omnipresent Rick Rubin serves as the executive producer — is slick and bright, enough to make the first single, "La Tortura," sound like a natural for American radio (even if it will never be played because it's sung in Spanish). Despite the surface sheen, Fijacion Oral is a proudly a Latin pop record, and it conforms to the conventions of its genre, alternating between melodramatic ballads and insistent dance tunes, sometimes working a sleek bossa nova number into the equation for good measure (the terrific "Obtener un Sí," which sounds like it could have been a big hit in the late '60s). Even if it doesn't break convention, it nevertheless does its job extremely well, with an ample amount of style and flair, as well as more songcraft than Shakira is usually given credit for. She's written each song here, sometimes in collaboration with either Luis F. Ochoa or Lester Mendez, and these ten originals (the 12-track album includes two alternate versions) have a combination of commerical savvy and smart writing, making this album a small triumph, proof that Shakira can not only return to her roots, but expand upon them. Since this is a Latin pop record through and through, it will not cross over the way that Laundry Service did, but that's by design: Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1 will conquer half of the world, and the other half will follow with Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 in six months time. Given the strength of this album, it's hard to wait for the second part to arrive.

Chicago Sun Times:
Back after four years, Shakira does not disappoint with this wildly diverse effort that segues from Latin rock, electronica, post-bossa and beyond, all accomplished with the trademark fluidity of her undulating hips.

"Fijacion Oral" -- how's that for a title? -- is just the first of two discs this year from the Colombian-born superstar; the English-language "Oral Fixation, Vol. 2," with completely different songs, follows in November. For both, Shakira serves as producer and author (or co-author) of all the songs, with longtime collaborators Lester Mendez, Luis Ochoa and Tim Mitchell. Uber-maestro Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash) takes the role of executive producer. But make no mistake: Unlike the Thalia/Paulina-type operations typical of Latin pop, Shaki's totally in charge.

She flexes her artistic muscles throughout, but especially well on "La Tortura," a duet with Spanish star Alejandro Sanz that morphs cumbia, flamenco, dancehall and even reggaeton into a dizzy elixir of dying love. And for the disc's biggest surprise, Shakira goes Sinatra on "Para Obtener Un Si," for which arranger Jorge Calandrelli beautifully conjures the sounds of mid-'60s Jobim.

This Technicolor dreamcoat of many musical colors might be a bit too outre for some, but for the adventurous, it's a fixation not easily denied

I cannot stop listening to this album. It is so amazing, definitely Shakira's best work to date in my opinion.

yo se que no he sido un santo pero lo puedo arreglar amor..

\:D/

dance roddy dance!

-- 1 COLDPLAY CAPITOL 740,331 --
X&Y
-- 2 THE BLACK EYED PEAS A&M/INTERSCOPE 295,036 --
MONKEY BUSINESS
-- 3 THE WHITE STRIPES THIRD MAN/V2 171,348 --
GET BEHIND ME SATAN
-- 4 SHAKIRA EPIC 160,037 --
FIJACION ORAL VOL.1
1 5 MARIAH CAREY ISLAND/IDJ 151,492 -8%

highest entry by a latin album!! beats ricky martin's 65K YAY