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"Christina-Aguilera" CD Cover Download

Amazon.com Review:

Album Description: Japanese pressing of the highly anticipated two CD 2006 release from Pop diva Christina Aguilera features bonus Enhanced Video material. Christina Aguilera has transformed her image and musical style with every album. With the new Back to Basics album, her musical style has changed from the urban and light rock sounds of Stripped to a soulful and jazz-inspired album. Aguilera has described this album as a soul record combining elements of 1920s, '30s and '40s blues and jazz with modern day influences. The record finds her working with hip-hop producers DJ Premier, Kwame and Mark Ronson for the first time. It will also find her working with Linda Perry, who worked with Aguilera on Stripped (2002). RCA.Back to Basics, Christina Aguilera's first disc in four years, refines and clarifies the--let's call it "sexy"--aura surrounding this platinum firebrand. Here, the best belter in a class that counts Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears on its roll call has turned her attention to love songs: the supercharged and ubiquitous first single "Ain't No Other Man," for one, and the hushed stunner "Save Me from Myself" for another. That doesn't mean she's foresworn being nasty, though. Dive deep into this set, past the gorgeous crackle that frames the old-school jazz-, blues-, and soul-inspired tracks on the first disc, and you'll reach a playful and familiar raunch; "Candyman" celebrates a "one-stop shop" who "makes the panties drop" to a boogie-woogie beat, and "Nasty Naughty Boy" sends out a heated, big-beated invitation to "sip on my champagne/Cause I'm gonna give you a little taste/Of the sugar below my waist." Thoughtful listeners should snap out of their fascination with Xtina's undiminished yet newly un-tramp-like sexuality, though, because what they'll really want to focus on throughout these 22 tracks is the honest-to-God artistry. While the rock producer Linda Perry helps disc two pop in interesting and unexpected ways (check the muffled blues number "I Got Trouble" and "Mercy on Me," an obvious nod to Fiona Apple), DJ Premier, a mainstay on Jay-Z and Nas projects, pipes a batch of aural high-fives into the nostalgia-bitten first disc (the deep-down funk of "Back in the Day," the strut-strut early hip-hop sound of "Still Dirrty"). Their nudges aside, though, Back to Basics is all Aguilera's baby--she executive-produced, and she's found herself artistically. Nobody would argue, in fact, if she swiveled around the chorus to "Ain't No Other Man," written for her husband, and aimed it at herself: "You got soul, you got class/You got style, you're bada--." --Tammy La Gorce

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Christina Aguilera CD Cover Download

Amazon.com Review:

Album Description: Features guest appearances by Eve, Redman, and Dave Navarro. Track production by Rockwilder, Glen Ballard, Alicia Keys, Scott Storch, Steve Morales, Rob & Heather and Linda Perry. Underneath all Christine Aguilera's coy affectations and vocal gymnastics lurks a rare talent. With her second album, Aguilera allows it to flower by abandoning all pretense at courting the teenage market. Stripped is a seemingly effortless move into weightier adult territory. Using her extraordinary voice as a much subtler instrument, Aguilera sings movingly and with grit and anger about the disintegration of a relationship; she's ultimately stronger for the pain. But that's not her whole agenda. Aguilera also extols the power of women on "Can't Hold Us Down," which features Lil' Kim. Other guests include Dave Navarro, Redman, and Alicia Keys. Aguilera cowrote most of the songs on the disc and produced one cut. She also partnered with former 4 Non Blondes leader and Pink collaborator Linda Perry on four songs, which gives Aguilera a rock edge that she has never before displayed. --Jaan Uhelszki

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Christina Aguilera CD Cover Download

Amazon.com Review: Lea Salonga, best known as the voice of Jasmine in Aladdin, steals the show here as the title character in Disney's Mulan. The former star of Miss Saigon adds touching elements to the feature, especially on introspective numbers such as "Reflection." Unfortunately, the voice of Donny Osmond, relegated to anthems such as "I'll Make a Man Out of You" doesn't really enhance the story line, a saga set in ancient China. Jerry Goldsmith provides the Far East tinge to the score, almost reminiscent of early Les Baxter. While Mulan is a far cry from the memorable Beauty and the Beast, it is both funny and charming. --Jason Verlinde