Christina Aguilera
Bionic

I had the honor and pleasure of previewing the entire new work by Christina Aguilera and, therefore, I can express my personal opinion about this album quite exhaustively.

Many of my kind DeBaserian colleagues associate, have associated, and will associate Aguilera's name with that commercial, superficial, and banal world of mainstream pop, a reality containing many other well-known celebrities. Ok. You can't place this artist in other musical contexts, yet I believe (but of course, this is just my personal reflection) that even this musical field can produce interesting and innovative works.

But let's talk about Christina Aguilera's new album. "Bionic". As usual, a work whose preparation lasted a good 4 years, a long period of time which, according to her philosophy of taking a break from the music biz = reflection and creative renewal, should have injected new lifeblood into her in order to conquer a music scene dominated by the electropop of David Guetta and Lady GaGa. And the beginning of the new Aguilerian melodic saga starts precisely with the fierce confrontation with the Poker Face singer to whom, according to detractors and not, Miss Aguilera would have overtly and shamelessly drawn inspiration for her look and latest musical choices, seriously questioning that spontaneity and ability to produce something totally different from the crowd.

The first step of this brand new era was the single and video "Not Myself Tonight," a choice that turned out to be an inconvenient boomerang for the busty singer: poor sales, a lively uproar caused by the clip that sees her in the role of a damned lover, sadomaso, red-light moves, sapphic kisses, bondage..., that is, everything that might be well-suited for a nice after-midnight movie. But the fierce criticisms, more than targeting the pseudo-pornographic naughty direction of the video, intend to concentrate on its general content: the theme of sex in all its forms had been experimented with much more care by Madonna in her late '80s and '90s clips. Here, rather than references to Germanotta (which are perfectly visible to some), the inspiration is to "Express Yourself" (1989), "Human Nature" (1995), and "Erotica" (1992) by Miss Ciccone. And Aguilera herself, noticing with great dismay the swarm of criticism and negative opinions from the "ignorant" masses, thought it wise to affirm the very visible inspirations to Madonna's videos positively as a "tribute" to her art. However, for now, the fate of "Not Myself Tonight" seems far from being uplifted.

Let’s get back to the album. Mrs. Aguilera had warned fans and non-fans of a "futuristic" turn within her music (in line with today's trends), a sharp change of style from the '20s and '30s sounds of "Back To Basics". In reality, "Bionic" represents within its 17 tracks (including the various annoying and boring intros, outros, and interludes that I do not intend to analyze) only a part of this feared turn, in the sense that all this futurism is present only in some songs. A series of others maintain on one hand Aguilera's traditional sounds and the poppish world in general, on the other "reminiscences" of musical styles addressed in the past. As in "I evolve creatively but I don't forget what I produced before."

Let's start with these announced futuristic sounds. It starts with the title track Bionic, which somewhat heavily mixes synths, vocal distortions, and electronic sounds with traditional r'n'b and pop, a track that all in all doesn't say much, at best serves as an "Intro" (even if it is a real song in itself). The best of the "futurism" comes with Prima Donna, Vanity, Desnudate, My Girls (sung in collaboration with Peaches) and Elastic Love. Leaving aside the latter, which presented itself to my ears as a musical confusion caused by an unconvincing mix of heavy percussion, synthesizers, and unprecedentedly distorted tones that contribute to dull Aguilera's real voice, the remaining ones succeed in their intent, that is, to merge dance, electronic, and urban (a fact that is particularly noticeable in Prima Donna, where at least you can hear her real unmodified vocal tone). Although it may seem very childish, My Girls with Peaches manages to get into my head worthily. It’s true, among the "futuristic" ones there is also the already mentioned Not Myself Tonight, but there is no need to analyze it now.

These are the true futuristic tracks, now let's move on to analyzing the others.

Initially hypothesized as the first release from the album and presented to the public as the "new Vogue", Glam is a valid example of pop/dance/urban/r'n'b combined together in a rather dancey track. The attempt to renew Ciccone's 1990 success has succeeded only in part, indeed, as a great connoisseur of her music (by Madonna) I allow myself to affirm that something of Vogue is present, especially in the percussion. However, it is light years away from that great success.

The urban/r'n'b of Can't Hold Us Down (Stripped, 2002, ed.) is revisited in an updated key in Woohoo (with Nicki Minaj), very hip-hop, an alternative to the usual dominant futurism of the album. On the opposite side, I Hate Boys (very similar to Candyman) and the very "hot" Sex For Breakfast recall the retro melodies of Back To Basics. In particular, in Sex For Breakfast, you can enjoy some good Soul/R'n'B, coupled with her warm and intense voice here.

What remains? Ballads akin to Beautiful, rather intense, but sometimes plunging into the lullaby abyss: You Lost Me, All I Need, I Am, Lift Me Up, the latter vocally performed very well, deep but to the right extent, never boring or banal. In these tracks, Aguilera finally unleashes her powerful vocal cords, which remained dull and faint in the dance and electronic tracks where bass, heavy beats, and synthesizers take center stage.

With this hefty review of Bionic, I sincerely hope to have validly described this work, heterogeneous and varied. Now Christina Aguilera's fans and not only can decide whether to dedicate a little more than an hour on any given day to listening to this 2010 Summer novelty of the mainstream.