Christina Aguilera has transformed her image and musical style
with every album. With the new Back to Basics album, her musical
style has changed from the urban and light rock sounds of
Stripped to a soulful and jazz-inspired album. Aguilera has
described her upcoming album as a soul record combining elements
of 1920s, '30s and '40s blues and jazz with modern day
influences.[2] The album's title was confirmed in the March issue
of Rolling Stone magazine, and Aguilera was featured in a cover
story of ELLE UK magazine confirming her work with producers Mark
Ronson and P. Diddy. The record finds her working with hip-hop
producers DJ Premier, Kwame and Ronson for the first time. It
will also find her working with Linda Perry, who worked with
Aguilera on Stripped (2002). In February 2006 at MTV's TRL
Awards, she previewed three unmastered tracks from the upcoming
album including "Candy Man" and "Back to Basics". Back to Basics
is a double-CD.
.com
----
Back to Basics, Christina Aguilera's first disc in
four years, refines and clarifies the--let's call it "sexy"--aura
surrounding this platinum firebrand. Here, the best belter in a
class that counts Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears on its roll
call has turned her attention to love songs: the supercharged and
ubiquitous first single "Ain't No Other Man," for one, and the
hushed stunner "Save Me from Myself" for another. That doesn't
mean she's foresworn being nasty, though. Dive deep into this
set, past the gorgeous crackle that frames the old-school jazz-,
blues-, and soul-inspired tracks on the first disc, and you'll
reach a playful and familiar raunch; "Candyman" celebrates a
"one-stop shop" who "makes the panties drop" to a boogie-woogie
beat, and "Nasty Naughty Boy" sends out a heated, big-beated
invitation to "sip on my champagne/Cause I'm gonna give you a
little taste/Of the sugar below my waist." Thoughtful listeners
should snap out of their fascination with Xtina's undiminished
yet newly un-tramp-like sexuality, though, because what they'll
really want to focus on throughout these 22 tracks is the
honest-to-God artistry. While the rock producer Linda Perry helps
disc two pop in interesting and unexpected ways (check the
muffled blues number "I Got Trouble" and "Mercy on Me," an
obvious nod to Fiona Apple), DJ Premier, a mainstay on Jay-Z and
Nas projects, pipes a batch of aural high-fives into the
nostalgia-bitten first disc (the deep-down funk of "Back in the
Day," the strut-strut early hip-hop sound of "Still Dirrty").
Their nudges aside, though, Back to Basics is all Aguilera's
baby--she executive-produced, and she's found herself
artistically. Nobody would argue, in fact, if she swiveled around
the chorus to "Ain't No Other Man," written for her husband, and
ed it at herself: "You got soul, you got class/You got style,
you're bada--." --Tammy La Gorce
More from Xtina
Christina Aguilera (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JY9M/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )
Stripped ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006CXXU/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )
Mi Reflejo ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004WJDG/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )
My Kind of Christmas (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004Y7SF/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )
Christina Aguilera -Stripped-Live in the UK (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000TWMMA/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )
Christina Aguilera-My Reflection (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005IA82/ref=ed_mus_6x_xtina )