As we pointed out last month with her Metallica samba, Shakira is becoming a cover force to be reckoned with. She began performing the xx’s “Islands” live back in May, but the studio version just leaked…sort of. The track has not seen official release, but some enterprising fans pieced together the fragments floating about the web to create a studio version. Her concert performances (like the one at Glastonbury) dictated what went where so this fan mix is probably accurate.

What’s striking is how close it sticks to the original. And the original sounds nothing like a Shakira song. Turns out you only need to add a stronger beat and a few extra guitar tweedles to turn morose indie into a pop single. She moves the song’s spacey outro into the intro position, giving the tune a lengthy lead-in before the vocals hit. Continue reading »