Opener "She Wolf" is a contagious electro-pop lap dance that has her wondering what Madonna's Music might sound like sung by a rabid Dolores O' Riordan (remember The Cranberries?), replete with lycanthropic pants and lost in translation lyrics of which feeling "just a little abused like a coffee machine in an office" isn't even the most peculiar. 'Werewolf pop' is a hip sales pitch just now, right?

Sure. But Shakira could make reciting a lentil soup recipe sound supernaturally sexy. Not that she needs to. Many of her lyrical s-excesses here are unambiguously promiscuous. "I wish I had longer legs that I could fasten to your body so you'd take me everywhere" she snarls on stalker song "Long Time" over producer Pharrell Williams' mash-up of subterranean kwaito-house grooves (yes, kwaito) and Latin jazzy clarinets. It's a bit of a bizarre genre clash. 

And it gets weirder. "Why Wait" recasts her signature Oral Fixation Latin warble as an auto-tuned electro-pop dervish about the good-old-fashioned joys of getting laid. "Good Stuff" is a glitch-driven, man-eating, mating call crammed with creepy ululations and predatory dares about being a mind-reading witch.

This isn't your toxic prefab pop slut pretense a la Britney though. Shakira's pop seduction lies in her knack for baring her heart while she's baring her teeth. "Gypsy" is a gentle acoustic serenade that meditates on the heartache and heartbreak of life on tour. In contrast "Mon Amour" is a middle-fingered salute to a cheating Romeo that boasts this year's most memorable rock curse:

"I really hope you have a horrible vacation....Hope the French fleas eat you both alive. And your room smells. And the toilet doesn't flush. And the locals treat you mean. And the service takes to long....'Cause I'm fragile and you broke my heart in two."

It's such preposterous sincerity that elevates her "Spy" duet with Wyclef Jean from being a funky peeping tom fantasy into a strangely sensual robotic disco deliberation on voyeurism. Hell, by the time you’re shaking your hips to Spanish sung reanimations of "Did it Again" ("Lo Hecho Esta Hecho"), "Why Wait" ("Anos Luz") and "She Wolf" ("Loba"), it's pretty nigh impossible not to be seduced by the sheer absurdity with which Shakira deconstructs desire itself.