The Singles Jukebox

So, is our top 10 about to be comprised of only five artists? Well, no…

[Video][Website]
[5.30]

Hillary Brown: So what if it always sounds like she’s undulating her torso–she probably is, and I’ve become steadily more enamored of Shakira’s semi-orgasmic strangled grunting style of singing over the past few years. This ain’t as good as “Loba,” but I can put it on repeat for an hour and not get annoyed or bored.
[7]

Al Shipley: This sounds almost exactly like something an American pop star would put out these days, but sped up about 10 BPMs, and in a weird way that rushed feel and Shakira’s general vocal weirdness are enough to make it way better than it’d otherwise be.
[6]

Keane Tzong: “Did It Again” suffers slightly from being presented away from the eight other oddities with which it shares an album, but it’s still pretty great on its own. Shakira’s English remains charmingly mangled, potentiated by her manic delivery and a series of wordless vocalizations; Pharrell provides a production that enhances and supports her dramatics but knows just when to get out of its own way. I don’t know how Shakira plans to sell records off the back of this and “She Wolf”, but I can’t say I’m at all perturbed that she’s going to try to.
[8]

Martin Kavka: The Neptunes have, for lack of a better term, castrated Shakira for this lyrical retread of Madonna’s “Bad Girl.” The song reaches its nadir in the middle eight, when she suddenly affects a baby-doll tone to her voice that is closer to a she-spaniel than a she-wolf. If we were reviewing the Spanish version (“Lo Hecho Está Hecho”), I’d add a point for the description of a hotel room as a “minibar Eden.”
[4]

Dan MacRae: After being dazzled by the loopy fun of “She Wolf”, it’s frustrating to hear Shakira being bludgeoned by Pharrell’s club of ill-suited production. Shouldn’t this be on an underwhelming Janet Jackson album instead? The elegant comedown bit around the two minute mark is positively striking, though.
[4]

John Seroff: I simply cannot enjoy Shakira in English. En Inglés, “Did It Again” has a clumsy rhyme scheme, clunky lyrics and a vaguely strangulated tone hobbled by Barcelona etheth and Popeyesque “I Yam”s. In Spanish, the attack on each syllable snaps, the rhythm flows naturally and Shakira moves the sound from the back of her throat to mid-palate, transforming from 70s Cher into Garcia-Marquez’s crush-worthy angel. Both versions share an atypical Pharrell production job with the same pros (the slightly off-beat squeezebox and ragged percussion on the chorus) and cons (The-Dream-style rip-off AY AY AY UH UH UH barking on same), but the Español burns bright enough to fully gel all the elements into something exciting. Undoubtedly my ignorance of the language makes the dish more palatable to me, but something is definitely gained in lack of translation that’s easy to quantify. “Lo Hecho Está Hecho”, while not as strong as the awesome “Loba”, still merits a solid [8]; in English, about half that sounds right.
[4]

Michaelangelo Matos: There’s personality here, but the over-rushed pace, intrusive Auto-tune dusting, and negligible hook bury it.
[4]

Alex Ostroff: This is one of four Neptunes collaborations from She Wolf, which are improbably the most conventional tracks on the album. It’s better than “Gimme More” retread “Why Wait”, but doesn’t approach the brilliant insanity of “Mon Amour” or the Latin-flecked funk of “Long Time”. “Did It Again”’s verses float atop languid synths propelled by Shakira’s double-time ramblings, excitedly describing being overwhelmed by attraction before tomorrow’s regrets (and her paramour’s wedding ring) emerge in the chorus. The HEY!s are infectious, the drums pounding, and the bridge unexpectedly effective in its restraint. For anyone else this is an [8], but on an album with strange 007-disco and Satanic Airlines, this is a pretty tepid single.
[7]

Additional Scores

Briony Edwards: [3]
Alfred Soto: [6]