Perspective: Christina Aguilera, Lana Del Rey play with personas

When Christina Aguilera declares at the top of her new album, "There's a thousand faces of me," she's exaggerating, but not by much.

How many Aguileras have we seen since the onetime "Mickey Mouse Club" member rocketed to superstardom in 1999 with "Genie in a Bottle"? She's been the good girl, the bad girl, the Lady Marmalade; she's gone blond and brunet and purple-and-pink; she's worn long pants, hot pants and no pants at all.

And her music has metamorphosed with her, from the tinny teen-pop entreaties of her self-titled debut to the lusty thump of 2002's "Stripped" to 2006's "Back to Basics," a lavish double-disc tribute to old-school jazz, soul and funk.

PHOTOS: Christina Aguilera's style through the years

In 2010, under threat of being usurped by Lady Gaga, Aguilera attempted yet another makeover with the harshly futuristic "Bionic," but the album tanked (at least by pop-diva standards); its failure was followed by a string of personal and professional troubles, including a divorce, a big-screen dud in the form of