Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics

Unlike most artists - who let their personality dictate the direction of their music - Christina Aguilera's always been one to let the direction of her music dictate her personality. Or rather, the direction she wanted to take her music in.

Her eponymous debut was the kind of bubblegum schlock indicative of the time frame and age demographic in which it was released. Yet she wanted to inject more sex appeal into her image so she made sure her lyrics were laced with as many sexual innuendos and double entendres as she could get away with.

By 2002, she became desperate to shed that wholesome, girl-next-door image pinned on her against her will and so she used the genre-hopping, experimental chaos of Stripped as an excuse to experiment with her sexuality and overall image via various dye jobs, body piercings, and clothing of a more provocative nature.

4 years later, Christina's finally seemed to have settled into her own "natural" skin and is now comfortable portraying herself to the public as the new millennium's Marilyn Monroe of sorts. No more piercings and streaks and barely-there attire. Now she fancies platinum blond curls, cherry red lips and vintage couture - a style that coincides quite well with the "theme" of her new album Back to Basics. This go-round, Christina's attempting to take pop music back to a simpler, more sophisticated time where real talent succeeded and the music spoke for itself.

The album is (in)conveniently split into two discs; disc 1 being the more "modern disc". The production roster consists of Rich Harrison, Kwame, Mark Ronson, and DJ Premier and has the quartet splicing their best vintage soul and jazz samples with their hardest backbeats, drum loops and synthesizers for a mostly spot-on amalgamation of old and new.

Rich sets things off with Christina's fervent testimonial, Makes Me Wanna Pray. Right away, you notice a definite change in the shape of Christina's lyrical bent. Where on her last album, she proudly proclaimed her independence and singleness, becoming a married woman has thrown her head over heels and now she's proudly singing her husband's praises in the tired but true "you are my everything | I'd die without you" fashion.

But one would think that with her tapping into such a new reservoir of emotion, the connectivity she has with the subject matter at hand would shine through. Yet Christina's mesmeric pipes are as loud and hollow as ever.

Thankfully, the production value stays robust all throughout and helps keep the listener engaged. Rich's sampled church organ is skillfully wrapped around a pulsating drum loop and poised to blow off the roof should Christina's hollow vocal fall short. DJ Premier also keeps things interesting on the lead single Ain't No Other Man where Christina's song of praise to Jordan takes a backseat to Premier's infectious horn blasts, record scratches, and drum thumps.

Kwame knocks out a homer with the highlight of disc 1: Understand. Had this been an instrumental, it still would've been an amazing track. The echo of Betty Harris' sampled vocal gives the record its subtle edge of confusion and heartache wrapped around Kwame's staccato horn section and percussion that melds the chord progression of two distinctly different melodies together into one awesome track. Christina's brazen vocal about how she's grateful for Jordan's patience with her hesitancy towards their relationship - again - heightens the emotion of the song but doesn't intensify it, leaving the song on the short side of brilliant.

Mark Ronson dirties up the groove and makes the hip-hop thump more prominent on the gritty Slow Down Baby - a tune which has Christina loudly blowing off some secondhand Casanova's advances while on Premier's Still Dirrty, Christina takes some funked-out horns and percussion and reaffirms her status as a sex kitten and on Here To Stay defends her independent agenda as far as her image is concerned. In these instances, more subtle and sassier vocals would've had a much better effect as they do on tracks like the mellow On Our Way (boasting an ingenious piano line and contagious melody) and wistful Without You (which makes awesome use of the Spanish guitar).

Love isn't the only thing on Christina's mind, however, when it comes to disc 1. Oh Mother is a stark and haunting look at the effects her father's domestic abuse had on her mother and their relationship with each other. Thank You is Christina's "cutting-edge" tribute to her fans sang over Premier's thumping backbeat spliced with the song that started it all - "Genie In A Bottle". And F.U.S.S. is a elegantly blatant kiss-off to a certain producer who's diva attitude and prima donna demands permanently severed his relationship with Christina.

And so on most levels, disc 1 works extremely well. That may have more to do with the producers than the performer but there's no denying the skill it took to construct such a detailed tapestry. Now disc 2 is the more "traditional" disc. Exclusively produced by Linda Perry (with a couple assists from Mark), this side of the album is raw and no-frills. No samples, no loops, no canned instrumentation. Everything heard is live and original and is Christina's attempt at earning her audacious concept album some solid credibility.

After the creepy introduction, Enter The Circus, Christina takes her turn as a bizarre circus performer on Welcome where she basically states her reasoning on why it was necessary for her to record an album such as this. But the loud and overbearing calliope arrangement (with a string section that seems to have lifted its melody from Lina's "I'm Not The Enemy") distracts the listener from Christina's overpowered vocals and sets the album off to an uneasy start.

Candyman is Christina's most obvious attempt at replicating that big bang sound Christina's so enamored with these days. And the arrangement is very faithful to its template; blaring horn sections, an agile percussion section, and finally a genuinely sassy and flirtatious vocal from Ms. Aguilera. Hearing her vintage jones being so soundly satisfied makes one rethink the necessity for basing an entire album around it.

Especially when a cheesy cabaret number like Nasty Naughty Boy comes into play. Again, the production is spot-on with the horns and percussion emanating a strong "hot and bothered" vibe. But Christina's coquettish "come hither" vocals are nothing short of laughable and layers the entire record with a thin - yet still evident - film of cheese. Same can be said for her tribute to blues/jazz/gospel/R&B legend Etta James - Christina's reported all-time favorite singer - on I Got Trouble. The bluesy arrangement and lyric melody is derivative to a fault and the whole use of a "muffled" vocal to give it that vintage effect makes the whole routine reek of calculation and gimmick.

Yet the closing quartet redeems the album from being completely insipid and void of validation. Hurt is destined to become the album's touchstone ballad (much in the same way "Beautiful" was for Stripped). The vocals are a bit overwrought and the production is a bit too dramatic but it still works on some level. Mercy On Me is a page stolen right out of Fiona Apple's songbook - from the dreary vocal to the melancholic organ and militant drumline. Yet it sheds Christina in a rather refreshing light and proves she is capable of coming up roses when she lets it flow natural opposed to forcing it out.

Save Me From Myself is easily the best vocal on the album as Christina's feathery soprano checks in over a plaintive acoustic guitar and casts her in the most natural light the album could've hoped for. And The Right Man is the finale and yet another dedication to Christina's father - this time her informing him of how she found all the man she ever needed in her husband and will now have a better, more fulfilled life because of it. Again, exhausted subject matter, dramatic arrangement, and overwrought vocal. Yet it all combines to make a gorgeous piece of honest music that proves, if nothing more, Christina has some of the best coaching in the studio that money can buy.

So when all is said and done, if you like this, embrace it for the shallow stroke of brilliance it is. If you dislike it, then no worries because a few years from now, Christina will have grown tired of this image and found a new wardrobe closet to play dress-up in. One can only hope that by then, the words "emotion", "connection", and "progression" will be firmly rooted into her vocabulary.

Despite her lack of emotional connectivity to the music resulting in the majority of her ambition being phoned in, Christina Aguilera still managed to go Back to Basics and construct a solid and memorable wall of sound.