Aguilera back on track with 'Lotus' CD
Lotus
(RCA)
Christina Aguilera, we've missed you. Even if it seems like you've never gone away.
It's been two years since the release of Bionic, the album that took Aguilera from legend-in-training to near-last in the pop line. Between then and now, she's gotten divorced, starred in Burlesque, butchered The Star-Spangled Banner and become a weekly TV fixture via The Voice.
But aside from Maroon 5 duet Moves Like Jagger, Aguilera hasn't really seemed like a singer in a long time. Lotus, online and in stores today, will likely change that. It's not a perfect album, but several songs serve as potent reminders of Agulera's talent. She still has a voice that can shake the rafters.
People change/Lord knows I've been no saint, Aguilera sings on Blank Page, her mea culpa of sorts. It's a swelling piano ballad la The Voice Within and Hurt.
At best, Lotus does exactly that, evoking past tunes and sounds that worked. (Aguilera brings to mind old-school Mariah Carey at times, one of her biggest influences.) There's a touch of B! ack to Basics swagger in Make the World Move, a call to turn up the love, turn down the hate that even samples The Mickey Mouse Club theme song (a nod to Aguilera's perky beginnings). Red Hot Kinda Love rides a fluid, frisky dance groove; and Sing for Me is a grooving ballad.
Army of Me (not a Bjrk remake) is a charging electro anthem that evokes Fighter, one of Aguilera's best songs, right down to the self-empowering lyrics (One of me is wiser/One of me is stronger/One of me's a fighter). Best of Me builds the same sentiment on a wave of strings and drums.
First single Your Body is confident, commanding pop, buoyed by a smart, sexy video. Aguilera wails like she's having the time of her life. She picks up a bit of an island patois on the Rihanna-esque Cease Fire and tells haters to spin around in circles on my middle, middle finger, a grimy track that's catchier than it should be. Dance track Let There be Love is a free-to-be anthem that will pack the floor.
Fellow Voice coach Blake Shelton proves an effective partner on Just a Fool, a pleading, dramatic duet. It plays like an event record without feeling crass a sentiment that typifies the best parts of Aguilera's Lotus opus.
joey.guerra@chron.com
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