To be honest, I had forgotten that Christina Aguilera existed as a musical entity. Most of the attention she has received the past few years has been as a result of, well, her attempt to come off as the world\u2019s biggest slut. Attitude does go a long way sometimes in the music business, but hers just seemed wrong. <\/p>\n
Now, with 2006 \u2018s Back To Basics<\/em>, Aguilera is attempting to completely redefine her music and her image. I have to give the lady credit; I don\u2019t think any of the other pop princesses would have the balls to release a double album. Granted, this isn\u2019t The Wall<\/em>, but Back To Basics<\/em> does not give off the impression of an artist resting on her laurels. This is probably as avant-garde as Christina Aguilera can get, which is the album\u2019s biggest selling point.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that \u201cexperimental\u201d quality doesn\u2019t arrive until about halfway through the running order. Up to that point, you\u2019ve more relatively standard, Christina Aguilera pop\/hip hop fare. She does show off her chops but goes a little overboard. By that, I\u2019m talking about the vocal gymnastics Aguilera has a tendency to engage in. Yes, we know you have a great voice, but please refrain from trying to hit every damn octave in every song!<\/p>\n There are a few choice tracks to be found towards the start of the disc, which hook you in immediately. \u201cMakes Me Wanna Pray\u201d is a delicious funk\/gospel attempt, and here Aguilera\u2019s vocals come off as genuinely impressive and effective. I love the horns thrown into \u201cSlow Down Baby\u201d and the Stevie Wonder-esque 70s soul of \u201cF.U.S.S.\u201d \u201cAin\u2019t No Other Man\u201d was the leadoff single but I don\u2019t really see why; there\u2019s no great hook to draw in the listener.<\/p>\n Once you arrive at \u201cEnter the Circus,\u201d this record truly takes off. It travels the road from conventional to eccentric and totally changes style and mood. Instead of sounding contemporary, it looks back to the 40s through the 60s and the female singers of that era. I absolutely love this portion of the album, a place where Aguilera needs to direct her attention. Crafting retro-styled yet still retaining a hint of modern music is a rare gift to possess.<\/p>\n \u201cEnter the Circus\u201d doesn\u2019t even have Aguilera singing; instead, it sounds like a Sgt. Peppers<\/em> outtake, of all things. \u201cWelcome\u201d should have been the lead single, as it seems to capture what this album was supposed to be about. It’s one that could fit into any later Beatles or ELO album; the orchestral arrangements alone are outstanding.<\/p>\n \u201cCandyman,\u201d sees Aguilera just having a little fun, throwing the proceedings all the way back to the 40s. Someone made the comment that this is essentially her version of \u201cBoogie Woogie Bugle Boy,\u201d and that sentiment is not misplaced. \u201cHurt\u201d is a suitable grandiose power ballad and \u201cMercy On Me,\u201d taps right back into the gospel\/blues but is effective this time.<\/p>\n Lyrically, no one expects Aguilera to be this generation\u2019s Dylan, so when she talks about subjects like sex it\u2019s expected. It is not poetic, it is not mind blowing, and if you don’t expect that you’ll be just fine. <\/p>\n I was originally going to downgrade this album but the more I listened to it the more I loved the back nine of the running order. Should this have been a double LP? Hell no. Does that fact hurt the overall strength of the disc? Indeed it does. However, I love the second half so much it overcomes the misgivings of the first half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6908],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39912","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-christina-aguilera","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39912"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39912"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}