Shakira's 2001 English-language debut, Laundry Service, may have expanded the Colombian superstar's audience far beyond her Latin fan bases, but it also scrubbed her particular blend of South American pop, Middle Eastern-influenced melodies and decidedly international dance music a little too squeaky-clean. Earlier this year, Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1 reunited the gyrating beauty with her native tongue and more substantial material. Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 sustains that album's eclecticism and darker moods, but in English. "En Tus Pupilas" and "Dia Especial" have been rerecorded as, respectively, "Something" and "The Day and the Time," but the other nine cuts are more of a slightly inferior continuation than a bleached-out rehash. "Illegal" features Carlos Santana's instantly recognizable and somewhat disruptive guitar licks, but the "My Sharona"-biting riffs of "Animal City" effectively kick and snarl. 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.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.