³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

'Illegal' is the egg and cress sandwich of Shakira songs, all laid back of tempo and breezy of melody. It's a slowie, with sleepy synths and along-for-the-ride blues guitars (courtesy of Carlos Santa, apparently, which is appropriate...), at a time when Shaks should be busting out the jelly and ice cream of pop bonkerishness.

But it is still Shakira, and so that locked dowwn whinnie of hers is never far away, which counts for something, but really, this is the morning after song, when what you really want to know is, what happened to the party?

Released: December 11th

(Tae M)