LindsayBW's Full Review: Stripped by Christina Aguilera
From day one, Christina Aguilera appeared to be nothing more than another glossy eyed blonde teen pop icon destined to selling Barbie dolls, lunch boxes, and hair barrettes. But back then we heard something we didn't hear in her competition / counterparts: talent. After breaking into the music scene, Christina showcased her voice so we all knew, she had it. But what we waited for was for Christina to showcase that talent effectively. No run of the mill pop tunes, no limited-audience Spanish songs, no rinsed dry Christmas washrags. Real, deep, personal songs that let us get to know the real Christina Aguilera, or shall we say, Xtina.
Dirrty is not it. Dirrty is what Christina Aguilera fans like to call a mistake. Make that a huge mistake. Not that Dirrty is a bad song, necessarily; it is catchy, it's fun to play at a party. But deep and meaningful? Hardly. Even worse is the video, featuring Christina romping around flashing every asspect of her body.
But the reason Dirrty is such a mistake in the eyes of anyone who has heard Stripped is because it is a horrible misrepresentation of how good the album actually is. From track one we know what we are getting into when press clips all about "Xtina" merge into our ears, followed by Christina's voice. "Sorry you can't define me, sorry I break the mold." she sings. And we know that we are in for a ride...
Christina explores a lot of different emotions on Stripped. Besides Dirrty and the one-night-stand-anthem Get Mine, Get Yours, every song on Stripped means something. And I mean, they really mean something. From the very first song to the very last, you know Christina has gone through a revolution, an awakening, and become who she really is. If that just happens to be a pierced blonde in chaps and underwear, so be it. We know that's who we're getting right when we pop in the CD.
One of the emotions Christina seems to favor more than any other is empowerment. From the R&B dance hit Can't Hold Us Down, we get the fact that Christina isn't going to let any men stand in her way in being the woman she wants to be. The song is pretty strong musically, exempt from the weak rap L'il Kim supplies. But right as we get the feeling Christina is a bad-girl, take-no-prisoners biatch, we hear her quietly say "What do you do when you know something's bad for you and you still can't let go?" and we know that there's a weakness to this woman. Walk Away is one of the strongest tracks on the album. Christina oozes out every note dripping with sweet emotion and soul, something she tried so hard to do on her 3 previous albums, but never succeeded like this. Walk Away shows the vulnerability of her in all of its aspects.
But this vulnerability doesn't last for long, as a brilliant transition brings us into Fighter, a strong rock song leaked onto the internet months ago, but never fully effective as this album version. This song is so jam packed with energy it's hard to drive the speed limit when you listen to it. Christina belts out every note as if she means every word, and surely she does.
After a sweet interlude, we are brought into Loving Me 4 Me, which is simply shocking. To hear Christina Aguilera, the girl who once did genie poses and sang "rub me the right way", is hear singing a mellow jam with drums by ?uestlove? It's unreal. The song is very sweet and gives you the feeling of running through a field of flowers. Christina seems to mean every word she sings, which is incredible.
Staying with her vulnerable side, Christina goes into the tale of her first love, Infatuation, the first song fans heard from the album. Although the sound doesn't fit in with the rest of the album too well, the record is very diverse, so it's nothing blatantly obvious. When fans first heard this song, they were most impressed by the lyrics, which make something that could just be another Latin-pop radio smash into a real, personal song.
After the strong track comes, in my opinion, the weakest track on the album: Impossible. While "exploring the real her", Christina's record company must have gotten Alicia Keys to write an incredibly short, incredibly similar-to-Fallin' track so Christina could imitate her and they could use her name for promotion. Don't get me wrong, I love Alicia Keys (I saw her in concert, it was awesome!), but this track belongs on her album, not Christina's. True, Christina's vocals sound "like a big ole pimp", but they also do on the incredible b-side I Will Be, which didn't make the album, and also doesn't have Alicia's name on the writing credits.
Underappreciated is also a song I'm not too fond of, if only for the fact that the lyrics are uncreative. The song has a funky beat and some rockin' vocals from Christina, but something about it seems to be missing. But from the two prior tracks, the album is made up for with the amazing power ballad Beautiful, which was penned by Linda Perry. The song is sung beautifully by Christina, and features such a positive message and awesome arrangement that it will more than likely prove to be the most successful single from the album (at current date, it's already hit top 10).
Yet again, exploring new musical styles, comes Make Over an insane imperfect rock track where Christina belts out lines like "Save all your bull**** for another day!" This song is produced wickedly and Christina's vocals sound so different that they're awesome. Up next are Cruz and Soar, the prior which has almost a country feel to it. Both songs sound remarkably similar, but have separate messages throughout, and both feature amazing vocals from Miss Aguilera.
The next two songs on the album are what Christina fans like to refer to as... well, for lack of a better word, crap. Get Mine, Get Yours features slick production, an incredible melody, and slammin' vocals, but it's complete and utter lack of depth makes it a low point of the album. "Come on and freak my body, we can get nasty naughty" is hardly what I call personal. After which is the forementioned Dirrty, a pointless pop song geared towards a comeback it didn't launch.
After somewhat of an outro where Christina gives the advice "keep pressing on", the rest of the album is slowed down and mellowed out, featuring the track most likely to make her first album, The Voice Within. Christina sounds incredible and relays a positive message, but the lack of diversity to this song and any Diane Warren makes it a low point. But the last two songs are high points. I'm OK is easily Christina's most personal song ever, and she claims she cried while performing it. A quiet almost child-like Christina sings "The echos of a broken child screaming, please, no more", which transcends into a lovely acoustic chorus of Christina's incredible adult voice saying "Bruises fade, father, but the pain remains the same."
To close out the album is my personal favorite song, Keep On Singing My Song, a six and a half minute mellow empowerment ballad in which Christina sounds incredible and a choir backs her up for it. I love that this album is closed without something big and fancy, but such a mellow and incredible tune.
The most incredible thing that I've observed about Stripped is the fact that Christina wrote almost every song on it, and that shows that she doesn't have much more to prove. From the beginning we've known Christina is a beautiful, smart, laid back, and vocally inclined girl, but now she has proved what her other blonde competition has yet to do: She has an incredible writing talent. That is what is made this album amazing, and what will make the rest of her albums amazing as well.
So now that we've gotten to know the new "Xtina", I have to say, I'm not going to miss "Christina" at all.
True to its title, Stripped, the audacious new RCA Records release from Christina Aguilera, strips away the last remnants of her previous teen idol pe...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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