CD reviews: Christina Aguilera, No Doubt, The Weeknd

By Star-Ledger Staff The Star-Ledgeron November 09, 2012 at 7:45 AM, updated November 09, 2012 at 7:48 AM

Christina Aguilera

LotusChristina Aguilera (RCA)

The TV talent show The Voice changes lives particularly the lives of its judges. Through his participation in the program, Cee-Lo Green completed his transformation from austere, intellectually challenging Southern hardcore rapper to roly-poly crowd-pleasing everyman. Maroon 5 was dead in the water before frontman Adam Levine turned himself into an overexposed chart-topping celebrity with moves like Jagger. Blake Shelton was a second-tier country singer whose best-known song was about a dog; now, hes Nashvilles Entertainer of the Year.

Yet the rising tide has not yet reached Christina Aguilera, the cannon-voiced pop star who has often attempted to distinguish herself from her peers through her authenticity. Aguilera has never needed computer enhancement to blow the roof off the club, and has often acted as if she knows it. Theres an athletic quality to her use of melisma that makes her a natural for a competitive singing show. On Bionic, her 2010 set, she exchanged the organic quality of her voice for something more freeze-dried and modern. That didnt connect with listeners, and with Lotus, the old, familiar Aguilera is back, steaming up 12 tracks of stylistically varied, hook-heavy! pop thats subtle as a sledgehammer and looking to capitalize on the success of the splashy show she judges.

And in case youve forgotten her side gig, shes brought along her co-stars: Cee-Lo and Shelton sing showy Voice-style duets on Lotus. (She already paired with Levine on Moves Like Jagger.) Unsurprisingly, these are two of the least effective songs on Lotus. Just a Fool, with Shelton, feels handsome but perfunctory, and Make the World Move, which sounds like a wannabe soda commercial, is as goofy as everything Cee-Lo is involved with these days. Max Martin and Shellback, the calculating superproducers responsible for goosing up tracks by Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, have been retained by Aguilera, yet as catchy and randy as Your Body is, her voice is too big to fit their spreadsheet comfortably.

Lotus works best when Aguilera leans on the talents of collaborators who take a few more chances careful, neatly circumscribed gambles, but gambles nonetheless. Lucas Secon, a former alt-rapper who lately specializes in pushing pop stars a few inches out of their comfort zones, outdoes himself on Red Hot Kinda Love, which manages to swagger despite a quirky beat. Cease Fire makes good use of a marching band. The slow-building ballad Blank Page was co-written by the veteran Australian pop singer Sia Furler, who has always had a firm hand with a sweeping, anthemic melody. Its a naked attempt to recapture some of the self-affirmative majesty of Beautiful, Aguileras best-loved song, but Aguilera revisits that territory so enthusiastically its hard to begrudge her the trip.

Throughout the set, Aguilera behaves like she has something to prove, and a contest to win. As gauche as that may seem, shes a fighter, and pugilism brings out the best in her. She knows this could be her last opportunity to recover the momentum she lost on Bionic, which muted her most explosive extremes. This time, shes not repeating that mistake.

Tris McCall

TrilogyThe Weeknd (XO/Universal)

It is un! derstandable to ask if Abel Tesfaye the man known as the Weeknd is asking fans to pay money for a commodity he once gave away for free. House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, downloadable mixtapes that turned the internet upside down in 2011, dont really need a remasterers touch. Tesfaye cant sing quite as well as The-Dream, he lacks Drakes lyrical scope, and his producers arent quite as omnivorous (or enterprising) as Kanye West. But by marrying a delivery that recalls The-Dream to Drake-style late-night confessional storytelling and production that resembles Kanye at his iciest, the Weeknd has made some of the most indispensable music of the past two years. Trilogy collects the mixtapes and makes them available in physical form for the first time. Tesfaye appends new material to each entry, but the basic formula remains intact: He plays a Lothario armed with a bag of drugs and a misplaced conscience. His conquests are joyless, his hangovers are ferocious, and his regret is often crippling. He wont say if his songwriting is cautionary, but its as vivid as any film. Fans of classic music and thats exactly what this is should want to grab the Trilogy in a form other than MP3s on a hard drive.

Tris McCall

Push and ShoveNo Doubt (Interscope)

Around the turn of the millennium, No Doubt was one of the most entertaining bands around a former ska-punk outfit with a charismatic frontwoman, a superb bassist and a subtly expressive guitarist as well as a knack for fusing electronics and overdriven six-string in its shaken-soda-pop mixes. That frontwoman went solo in the mid-00s and made hay with a more conventional sound; it got her on the radio but put a dent in her reputation. In 09, Gwen Stefani rejoined her old mates for a tour with Paramore, the most obvious heir to No Doubts throne. Push and Shove No Doubts first album since 2001s Rock Steady, the bands high-water mark is an attempt to pick up where the California combo left off. For the first half, the band suc! ceeds. Ov! er the manic new wave Looking Hot, Stefani addresses (and quickly dismisses) concerns about aging out of the mainstream airwaves. The title track, a collaboration with rappers Major Laser and Busy Signal, is a return to boisterous reggae-inflected party music, Easy is a creamy mid-tempo ballad. The albums second half retreats to generic pop-rock (though bassist Tony Kamal is always worth paying attention to), but by then, No Doubt has reestablished itself as a ruthlessly effective generator of musical pleasure.

Tris McCall

Le boeuf sur le toit: Swing de ParisAlexandre Tharaud, piano (Virgin Classics)

Jazz might seem unexpected from Alexandre Tharaud, who rose to the top of several end-of-year lists in 2011 for his recording of Scarlatti sonatas. Yet while he collaborates here with musicians from the other side, hes still recognizably the same artist, with pristine technique and a strong sense of style.

The title work by Darius Milhaud is named after a musically eclectic 1920s cafe, and Tharauds recording channels its genre-bridging spirit. Although he only plays a selection from that ballet, he also shows how jazz relates to the harmonic language of composers like Ravel.

Even earlier classical pieces are represented with riffs on Chopin and Liszt, and Tharaud trades the piano for the harpsichord for a decidedly quirky Saint Louis Blues. The more Tharaud plays around, the better. Hes particularly enjoyable as he interrupts a sprightly Yes Sir, Thats My Baby with giant pauses and crashes.

Among Tharauds co-stars are Madeleine Peyroux, Natalie Dessay and Jean Delescluse, who lends his voice to a rowdy Caramel Mou.

Ronni Reich

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