Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (Spanish: Fijación Oral, Vol. 2, ) is the seventh studio album and second English-language album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, released on 27 November 2005, by Epic Records. After attaining international success with her fifth studio effort, Laundry Service (2001), Shakira decided to create a two-part follow-up record. She released the project as the follow-up to her sixth studio effort, Fijación Oral, Vol. 1, with which she had attained international success five months prior. As the record producer, Shakira enlisted assistant producers including previous collaborators Gustavo Cerati, Lester Mendez, Luis Fernando Ochoa and Rick Rubin to work alongside newer partners Jerry Duplessis, Wyclef Jean, Tim Mitchell and The Matrix.
Musically the album follows in the vein of her earlier works: heavily influenced by Latin pop styles, it additionally incorporates elements of dance-pop and pop rock. Upon its release, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented it as her strongest project to date. The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 128,000 copies. The album was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over 1.7 million units in the country. It additionally topped charts in Denmark and Mexico.
Three singles were released from the album. Its lead single, "Don't Bother", reached number 42 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Due to its underperformance, the album was reissued on 28 March 2006 with a revised tracklist and two added tracks: "Hips Don't Lie" and an alternate version of "La Tortura". "Hips Don't Lie" was released as the lead single of the reissue and second single overall. It peaked at number one in seventeen countries including the US, becoming her first single to do so. The third and final single, "Illegal", peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs component chart. In December 2006, the album was included in a box set along with Fijación Oral, Vol. 1, titled Oral Fixation, Vol. 1 & 2. Both projects were promoted through the Oral Fixation Tour, which visited 39 countries throughout 2006 and 2007.
Background and composition
After attaining international success with her third studio effort, Laundry Service, in 2001, Shakira opted to create a two-part follow-up record. Having co-written nearly sixty tracks for Laundry Service, she put herself "on the mission of selecting [her] favorite ones" to record for Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 and its predecessor, the Spanish-language Fijación Oral, Vol. 1. While recording the project, Shakira worked with previous collaborators Gustavo Cerati, Lester Mendez, Luis Fernando Ochoa and Rick Rubin, and newer partners Jerry Duplessis, Wyclef Jean, Tim Mitchell and The Matrix.
For the album, Shakira wrote all the lyrics, and wrote or co-wrote all of the music. "To start seeing people's first reactions, and how people start relating to these songs and appreciating every single piece of work I have done over the past two years, is the best reward an artist can have after so much hard work," says Shakira. "I will not lie to you; it was not a path of roses. It was painful at times to come up with two albums, to write more than 60 songs and to fight my own insecurities and doubts." While speaking about the difference about expressing herself in Spanish and English, Shakira said, "When I express myself in Spanish, I find elements that help me express an idea in perhaps a different way than when I do it in English. There are different aesthetics, but there is a certain style to the way I write my own songs, a particular way of describing feelings and emotions that I have developed over all these years making songs. I have gotten in touch with my own gift - I am sure, 10 years ago, I was not half as good as I can say I am today, and I am still not good enough. There is a long way to go."
Cover art
Shakira designed the artwork for both Oral Fixation records, and commented that they were inspired by the biblical figure of Eve, elaborating that she wanted "to attribute to Eve one more reason to bite the forbidden fruit, and that would be her oral fixation" and that "[she always felt] that [she has] been a very oral person. [It is her] biggest source of pleasure". The second volume's cover sees an unclothed Shakira covered by a tree's branches and leaves while holding an apple in her hand. The baby girl she held in her arms on the cover of the first volume is sitting in the tree, alluding to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's theory that infants begin discovering the world through their mouths during the oral stage of psychosexual development.
For Jon Pareles of The New York Times, "For obvious reasons, it's eye-catching, as was the cover of the Spanish-language companion album, Fijación Oral, Vol. 1". On Middle East versions of the album, Shakira was covered up with leaves which left her standing behind a bush, which surprised the singer. Complex magazine selected the album cover as the eleventh "sexiest album cover of all time", writing that it is "the hottest portrayal of Eve in the Garden of Eden we can imagine." Maxim also listed the album's cover as one of the "sexiest album covers", writing that, "A naked girl holding up an apple in a garden is played out, but not when the girl is hip-shaking Shakira. Damn, it could happen all over again, couldn't it?"
Music and lyrics
At AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted the album included "[the] expected Latin rhythms", "glitzy Euro disco", "trashy American rock & roll", and "stomping Britpop".
Songwriting Universe compared the opening track "How Do You Do" to Sarah McLachlan's "Dear God", calling it "bold" and noting its "eerie reciting" of the Lord's Prayer.
The first single, "Don't Bother", presents the final chapter of a relationship and the confusion that faces anyone in a break-up. It includes the lyrics, "For you I'd give up all I own and move to a communist country/If you came with me, of course/And I'd file my nails so they don't hurt you." She quickly follows with: "And after all I'm glad I am not your type/I promise you won't see me cry/So don't bother/I'll be fine, I'll be fine." For Shakira, "I think 'Don't Bother' has a lot of pain in it as a song, but also a lot of humor and sarcasm. Yes, it is a way of exorcising all of these feelings, a form of catharsis, getting rid of all of those emotions that torture us women at some point in our lives."
"Illegal" features a guitar solo by Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana, and features lyrics such as, "You said you would love me until you died/And as far as I know you're still alive", which were compared to Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know", according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic.
"I'd like to be the owner of the zipper on your jeans," she sings on the racy "Hey You", which was compared to the works of American rock band No Doubt, by Slant Magazine. Mariachi horns bump up against surf guitars in "Animal City", a don't-go-there warning against fame and fake friends, while bossa nova accents wind through "Something", one of only two tracks reprised from Fijación Oral, being called En Tus Pupilas on the first edition. "The Day and the Time" is on the first edition, with the title "Día Especial". Meanwhile, gypsy-caravan violin and marauder guitar complete "Your Embrace", a teardroppy, adult-contemporary ballad, whilst "Costume Makes the Clown" talks about her cheating on her guy, over battering-ram guitars. Shakira also dives into pulsating neo-disco on the closing track, "Timor", but in the form of a protest song.
Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, "Oral Fixation" received an average score of 74 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album a rating of 4 stars (out of 5), calling it "a deadly serious, ambitious pop/rock album, most assuredly not frivolous dance-pop, [...] it's pop, but it's unconventional". Erlewine also wrote that Oral Fixation "is not only a markedly different album from Fijación Oral, but from every other record in her catalog -- or, most importantly, from any other pop album in 2005." Matt Cibula of PopMatters agreed, writing that Oral Fixation is "the best pop record of the year". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that "Oral Fixation is the sound of an utterly unique voice in a uniform world." Agustin Gurza of the Los Angeles Times wrote the album "is a stronger work as a whole, with sharper edges and darker undertones," praising its music, writing that "this work stands on its own, squarely within the mainstream of U.S. pop and rock with a lot less Latin flavor."
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B- rating, writing that, "Although Oral Fixation is hardly the first time a Latina act has aimed straight for the middle of the North American road and nearly lost control of the wheel in the process, it's among the most disappointing. For all the musical ingredients at her disposal, Shakira winds up with a relatively bland dish." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the weakest part in some songs on the album are "the main(stream) hook, an attempt at radio-accessibility that white-washes the personality that sets Shakira apart from her competition." Barry Walters of Rolling Stone acknowledged that, "Occasionally clumsy but most often clever, Shakira's English lyrics and performances still lack the confidence of her Spanish tracks, yet Oral Fixation manages to maintain the musical credibility that Fijacion Oral won back." Edward Oculicz of Stylus Magazine concluded that, "Oral Fixation Volume 2 strikes a good balance between the creative audacity of its more extreme songs, all of which work as good pop, and the filler, which is well crafted and catchy."
Commercial performance