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Hey, does Christina Aguilera have a new album out? She seems to be everywhere lately. The NY Times says that “Back to Basics,” Aguilera’s new double album, is half-good half-bad. The lyrics reveal XTina’s fight to stay at the top and are an attempt explain to the world why she looks like a blowup doll and is such a pain in the ass:
This demand is the main theme of “Back to Basics,” a double CD that contains a roughly even number of great songs and lousy ones. The first disc is full of rationales, ranging from the self-referential (”I’m going back to basics,” she sings, in the introduction) to the paradoxical (”I pay no mind/To the negative kind,” she claims). Perhaps this is the weird but (in hindsight) predictable result of our hyper-tabloid culture. In print, online, on television, celebrities are constantly being asked to explain themselves. So we shouldn’t be surprised when they comply.
The second disc, largely written with Linda Perry, ends with a couple of songs clearly meant as odes to Ms. Aguilera’s husband, Jordan Bratman. But even these literal-minded love songs seem like explanations: having told us how much she has changed, the singer now wants to tell us why. “Never felt like I needed any man,” she wails, in the beyond-bombastic finale, “The Right Man.” But she’s not really addressing her husband; she’s addressing listeners who are confused about all the mushy stuff. Even when she’s singing a love song, Ms. Aguilera sounds a bit defensive.
In this interview on Good Morning America yesterday, XTina tells the same old childhood abuse story as if she’s practiced it for ages. She seems genuinely excited about her new album and how she craftily copped it off the jazz greats of the 30s and 40s, though. Somewhere underneath all that arrogance and makeup she really does love music.
She also reveals that she gave Britney a basket of gender neutral baby gifts when she heard she was pregnant, and that Britney sent her a crystal vase and a crystal drink bucket as a wedding present.
Thanks to ONTD for the video link. Also thanks to readers Karen and Jess for letting me know that I fell for Aguilera’s sob story in an earlier article I posted about it.
Here is Aguilera leaving the Koko club on an unknown date in a see-through dress. I think I’ve seen these before, but maybe that was a different sheer black dress. Even totally wasted, Aguilera manages to keep her lipstick and makeup perfectly applied. Maybe one of her minions helps her with that. [via]
