A friend introduced me to Shakira's music around 4 years ago after finding Latin artists such as Gloria Estefan and Elvis Crespo lurking amongst my CD collection and told me then that one day this girl would be a huge international star if she ever released an English language album. With multi-platinum music sales across Latin America and Spain it was arguable that she was pretty big already before the release of the mainly English language Laundry Service in 2001 really catapulted her almost uncategorisable, very distinct brand of Latin-pop cross-over onto the global market. The golden locked Colombian?s music draws from numerous influences and by her own admission this former child musical prodigy (who released her first million selling album aged just 13 years old) tries to incorporate as many of those styles as possible onto her albums which makes her very difficult to pigeon hole. Shakira's roots are certainly Colombian, but she grew up listening to rock bands like Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and The Cure and through having a father with Lebanese roots she also picked up a taste for Arabic musical culture and the fusion of all these elements and more can be easily seen within her music.

Those who have tried to categorise Shakira, and there are always some, have tried to label her as the "Latin Alanis" (Morisette), which is an interesting idea and indeed her voice does sound scarily similar at times, but serves to do little but give the uninitiated misconceptions about what Shakira's music is all about. One myth it might dispel is the false impression you are looking at little more than yet another Christina Aguillera/Britney Spears style teenie bopper which has spread through some odd advertising on these shores because rest assured she is far more talented than that and at heart, she is definitely a rocker, not a pop-queen. However, aside from vocal similarities and a passing similarity in musical style there is little more to compare the two as Shakira's music is far more positive and I would say more mature in outlook than Alanis Morisette's has even been or probably ever will be. Shakira herself rejects categorisation or comparison to other artists, even Madonna, insisting she has "a unique musical proposal" and with the blend and fusion of styles on her albums you'd be hard pressed to argue.

Laundry Service is an oddly titled album, but apparently is so named she says because she "went through a stage when [she] felt cleansed, renewed, thanks to love and music, which are like soap and water" so we'll forgive her. The UK release of Laundry Service opens with "Objection Tango" and closes with erm, "Objection (Tango)" again but in Spanish (Te Aviso, Te Anuncio(Tango)) which is a bit of a nuisance if you have the album on continuous play because you get to listen to the same track back to back. It also serves to illustrate (and underline by proximity) once more just how much more impressive and expressive the tracks on this album would have been were they sung in Shakira's native Spanish, but ahh well. Maybe it's a clever marketing ploy to get you to see this and buy her Spanish albums. Objection (Tango)/Te Aviso Te Anuncio (Tango) also features a very different lyrical content in both songs, both are about being part of a love triangle, whilst the English version almost trivialises it as "ooh I'm so jealous", the Spanish version speaks volumes of the pain and sadness of love betrayed. Remember, she can think in English, but only truly feels in Spanish - this song is the perfect illustration of her words.

If you can stomach some of the over-kill airplay the track "Whenever, Wherever" (track 3, co-written with Gloria Estefan) has received then it's another highlight from the album, but better once more in the original Spanish language as "Suerte" (Lucky) which also features on the album and has far more expressive lyrics...if you can understand them. "Whenever, Wherever" is a very danceable track and one of those which is guaranteed to get it's hooks into your mind so you find yourself unexpectedly humming it to yourself whether you like it or not! Shakira's Latin roots shine through here with Andean pan pipes accompanying the up-tempo backing and I defy anyone not to find their hips involuntarily swivelling to this one...or rushing to switch it off if MTV has killed it for you of course ;o)

The weakest tracks on the album are the disco inspired track 6 "Ready For The Good Times", which is incredibly cheesy and sounds a little like a Madonna B-side from the 80s but you can't win 'em all and Track 8 "Te Deja Madrid" which is a little too erm...'Eurovision' for my liking to be honest. It's not that either of these are really awful tracks and I suppose "Ready For The Good Times" is the kind of up-tempo, brainless sing-a-long track girls might play whilst slapping on the war paint before a night out clubbing but if you understand what I mean by the term "filler" then you'll understand my problem with these two tracks. The Spanish language track "Que Me Quedas Tu" is also quite weak musically and hides it's true beauty which is in the ballad's lyrics being the language barrier, so unless you hunt out the meaning you'll also see this one as quite uninspired, whilst "Poem To A Horse" is a good rock track (and another with an Alanis feel to it) but lyrically seems to be about a guy who is so vain you may as well read a poem to a horse than expect attention from him...maybe it's a well known Colombian phrase, but it just makes me giggle.

All things considered there are enough good tracks on this album to make a purchase worthwhile. There are tracks you can sing along to, tracks for lovers, ones to shake your booty to and a few chart friendly hits to allow Shakira to take full advantage of the Latin pop revolution which is still in full swing. This is certainly an album aimed more at the mainstream pop market than her previous albums which have been more influenced by her Latin roots and rock music tastes (the latter is almost non-existent here as an influence I might add, and you certainly won't see any of the childhood influences like Iggy Pop she often cites here that's for sure) and older fans might find that just a little disappointing. Of course, most of the English speaking world wouldn't have known of a diminutive dark hairdo Latino artist called Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll before Laundry Service was played to death over the airwaves so just purchase it, sit back and enjoy your ignorance....then do yourself a favour and buy the much better "Donde Estan Los Ladrones?" when you've got hooked and hope the fling with the teenie pop charts is just a passing one.