Shakira -- Live & Off the Record

7/10

I shamelessly bought Shakira's Laundry Service because I liked the way she looked, but soon realized that if I only listened to her music, I couldn't see her. Her 2004 live DVD, Live & Off the Record, remedied that issue. It's 90 minutes of Shakira belly-dancing in leather pants, and includes a moment where she somehow makes picking up a microphone with her toes sexy. I make that last comment as someone who is firmly NOT in the foot fetish camp. The DVD comes with an accompanying live CD (missing five songs from the DVD). Fourteen years later, what does this live CD sound like?
...
Well, this is unexpected. Were you expecting a bunch of exotic instrumental jams? I'll never dispute Shakira's integrity as an artist. She writes her own music and lyrics, and she can play more than a handful of instruments herself. That comes through here in the way she lets her band stretch its legs. The studio recording of "Ojos Así" is under four minutes long. It's over eight here, with a stretched out hard rock instrumental intro, and a lovely, hypnotic Middle Eastern instrumental bridge, including solos for violin and hand drums. This is not some run-of-the-mill pop album. This version of "Ojos Así" asserts itself as a worthy piece on its own. Not every song here is equally stretched out--"Underneath Your Clothes" and "The One" add little to the studio versions but live energy. However, these jams happen enough to make this abbreviated set of songs feel special.
Fans that prefer Shakira's Spanish-language output will also be pleased to hear that nearly half of these tracks are in Shakira's native tongue. She also performs a fairly raucous cover of ACDC's "Back in Black." It's, of course, in English, but as fun as it is, I feel like she could have made it vital had she sung it in Spanish, too.
Live & Off the Record is a throwback to a time where pop artists leaned on organic instrumentation over programming. However, you still don't expect a pop artist to have their musicians jamming like this in the songs. Well, maybe you do, but I don't. Overall, I think this album is a rousing success. It showcases Shakira's talented band, diverse genre-hopping (not many live pop albums jump from Arabian to Latin to classic rock to piano ballad to drum circle to hard rock to Peruvian mountain music in an hour), and Shakira's strong songwriting. Also, did we need an eight minute live version of "Whenever, Wherever?"
Yes, yes we did.

2004 Epic
1. Ojos Así 8:14
2. Si Te Vas 4:36
3. Underneath Your Clothes 4:13
4. Ciega, Sordomuda 4:58
5. The One 3:46
6. Back in Black (AC/DC cover) 5:23
7. Tú" Dillon O'Biren, Shakira 4:50
8. Poem to a Horse 7:13
9. Objection (Tango) 4:22
10. Whenever, Wherever 7:52