NEW ALBUM OFFERS FRESH SOUNDS, AND AMAZING VOCALS

By Lucas Villa
Published on May 27, 2010

After going pursuing a more retro feel on 2006’s Back to Basics, Christina Aguilera looks toward the future for a new musical direction with electro-romp album Bionic. The 18-track set consists of Aguilera’s most fun and playful songs to date. Also notable is Aguilera’s interesting choices in song collaborators, with artists like Sia and Nicki Minaj rounding out Bionic’s sound. Though the album has drawn criticism from some for feeling like a rip-off of Lady Gaga’s style, Aguilera slays the comparisons with her powerful, gargantuan voice.

Among the best tracks on Bionic is the flirty Peaches collaboration “My Girls,” a song that cleverly riffs on the track’s title — which could mean either best girlfriends or a pair of boobs — over a video-game-styled background and funky guitars. The raunchy track is a perfect candidate for an updated “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

Aguilera also delivers on the rave worthy “Elastic Love,” finding the songstress likening love to rubber bands with her hypnotic drone over Euro-pop beats and stuttering synthesizers on the M.I.A.-assisted track. The best of the ballads on Bionic is “You Lost Me,” where Aguilera puts herself in a league of her own with amazing fluttering vocals during the pre-choruses on the hauntingly beautiful track, co-penned with Sia. The song alone reasserts Aguilera’s relevancy to the current music scene with each note she belts out. While recent dance tracks’ production often consumes songstresses’ voices, Aguilera instead has the beats compliment her big voice like one hot mess on her first single, “Not Myself Tonight” and Lil Jon crunk jam “Prima Donna.”

The set falls short on the Tricky Stewart number “Glam,” which was touted as a modern day “Vogue,” though the stiff track lacks personality and doesn’t get remotely interesting until Aguilera unleashes her killer vocals near the song’s end. Bionic would have been an indestructible set if it was shorter and tighter, but instead, the filler material on the album exposes the chinks in Aguilera’s otherwise glorious armor.

Source: DailyNexus