Album Review: Christina Aguilera, "Bionic"
Christina Aguilera has gone from teen pop tart to Dirrrrty chaps-wearing provateur to jazzy blues songbird, comparing herself to legends like Billie Holiday and Etta James. After having her son, Max, Christina took a few years out of the spotlight to enjoy motherhood and some modern romance. Now, X-Tina prepares for a double-header comeback. First, a new album, unlike anything she’s released before. Next, her feature film debut – the big screen musical adventure, Burlesque which co-stars icon Cher, and is set to release in November. Today, we focus on Bionic, the much-anticipated new album, which I’m afraid, is guaranteed to rub critics the wrong way and deliver the blonde bombshell a heap of negative reviews. But not this critic!
At first listen, I hated the album. I heard it on my laptop, found the lyrics silly and the overall sound seemed a little desperate and sort of what Madonna did with Hard Candy. Give the kids what they want, even though it doesn’t really represent them as an artist. Then, I burned the album onto a disc and played it in my car. A week later, it’s the only thing I can listen to and I’m finally ready to give it a grade. There’s a lot of talk about X-Tina trying to be like Lady Gaga and I’d like to address that by saying everyone needs to get off Gaga’s DICK! She didn’t invent blonde hair and she doesn’t hand-make all the music you hear her singing. Like Christina, GaGa is smart about who she works with and Aguilera couldn’t have teamed up with better collaborators for the creation of Bionic. Lending their lyrical skillz and bass-bumping beats are celebrated artists like M.I.A, Peaches and my favorite, Sia. Sia (who’s new album, We Are Born hits next!) lends X-Tina her brilliance on the slower tracks - like the beautiful, You Lost Me, which Aguilera performed on American Idol last week, wowing America. What I love so much about this record are the songs in which Aguilera is completely unrecognizable. When you give Elastic Love, My Girls and even the opening title track a listen, you wouldn’t even know it was Christina. Same goes for one of the ballads, and one of my favorite tracks, I Am. It doesn’t really scream X-Tina and much of the album is like that. There’s lotsa multiple personality disorder going on here, which, at first listen, made me feel like the album was more Bi-Polar than Bi-Onic.
After listening to Bionic a good ten times I’ve come to the conclusion that it is flawless. This is her best work to date, and even though I know she’s going to get slammed for it, I’m very proud of Christina for taking risks and doing something different. The end result is stellar, from start to finish. Bionic is an adrenaline-pumping, feel-good time, ending with a track that will knock your socks off and become the new gay anthem. Even my least favorite tracks, like Sex for Breakfast, Prima Donna and Lift Me Up have grown on me, allowing me to give Christina a rave review and hailing Bionic as one of the year’s absolute best albums. Bitch is back and better than ever!
My Grade: A
