the album into three "directions," one of which she described as "romantic" in nature. Shakira felt it was something she had not "tapped into for the past three years," and its inclusion in the album resulted in "very intense, very romantic" songs. "Antes de las Seis" is one such song from the album. The Latin pop ballad was written and produced by Shakira and her frequent collaborator Lester Mendez, who had previously worked with her on songs including "Underneath Your Clothes" (2002) and "La Tortura" (2005). The musical instrumentation of the song is simple and consists of a piano and acoustic guitar. According to Jennifer Schaffer from The Stanford Daily, its "softer" production helps in putting the focus on Shakira's voice, which she opined had been "stripped to its sensitive core." The singer delivers sad and emotional vocals that address issues of "longing, regrets and loneliness." Shakira talked about the deep meaning behind the balladry of the album and expressed difficulty in explaining it, saying: "We all go through hard moments. Whatever happened, it's right there in the songs. I've decided that I'm not going to explain every song this time. It's hard to explain a song. These songs explain me better than I can explain them." Release and reception "Antes de las Seis" was chosen as the fourth single from Sale el Sol and was made available to digitally download from the iTunes Store on 21 October 2011. An announcement confirming its release as a single appeared on Shakira's official website on 24 October. Although the announcement mentioned that the single would be released to the iTunes Store on 31 October, it had already appeared on there ten days before. Critical reception "Antes de las Seis" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic highlighted it as an example of Shakira's versatility and commented that the album "catches its breath on the ballad." Mikael Wood from Entertainment Weekly termed the song a "gorgeous ballad" and encouraged readers to download it. Jesus Yanez-Reyes from Northern Arizona News gave "Antes de las Seis" a very positive review and praised its lyrics and Shakira's "heartfelt" vocal delivery as having the ability "to overcome whatever language barriers may exist between the artist and the listener, truly making it a song of note within the release." Jennifer Schaffer from the Stanford Daily complimented the sensitivity of the song and commented