If one happens to approach
Back to Basics, the first release from diva-in-training Christina Aguilera since 2002's
Stripped, unaware of the pop star's recent repetitious media pitches and image overhaul, they won't remain in the dark for long. The scene is immediately set, with names dropped (Etta James, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, etc.) and assertions made:
We're gonna set the mood
Gonna go back to an old school groove
Gonna rewind to another time
When the originators, innovators were alive.
Such dissertation is normally reserved for pre-release hype exclusively, so to find it infiltrating two songs within the album's first ten minutes may be surprising for the Aguilera uninitiated. Though this dumbing down of concept may prove useful for her jazz- and blues-challenged fans, it unfortunately comes across as awkwardly overcompensating. If you're going to do something, don't talk about it; do it. Yet despite Aguilera's insistence upon repeatedly walking us through exactly what we're supposed to be getting out of her newest musical reinvention, it's hard to fault her ambition. Encompassing twenty-two tracks spanning across two discs, giving her ample opportunity to ape everyone from Fiona Apple to the Andrews Sisters,
Back to Basics is meant to usher in Aguilera's own brand of artificial antiqued nostalgia, as well as set her up as a serious and respectable artiste in the eyes of her audience and peers.
While the first disc is dominated by sample-strewn and retro-infused modern R&B helmed by DJ Premier, Mark Ronson, Kwamé, Rich Harrison and others, it's the second disc, produced by Linda Perry with a more conventional approach to this vintage-styled pop, that has the most to offer. The fantastically freakish carnival curtain-raiser "Enter the Circus," which sounds straight out of a Danny Elfman-led Tim Burton film score, opens the show before bleeding into "Welcome," a strings-laced epic that slowly winds out of control before its two and a half minutes are up. With the exception of "Nasty Naughty Boy," the only time Aguilera's posing crosses over into cartoonish territory, disc two works and, at times, even exhibits true emotion, particularly on the regret-driven ballad "Hurt" and "The Right Man," Aguilera's wedding day ode to breaking the fractured family cycle. Other highlights include the "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"-esque "Candyman," the gorgeous "Mercy on Me," which sounds pulled from Fiona Apple's back catalog, and "Save Me from Myself," where the quintessential banshee wails are put away in favor of subtlety for once.
Yet despite how enjoyable the nine-track second disc proves to be, it can not make up for the back half of the first one, which, bogged down by soggy throw-aways, is almost entirely skippable. Whether you look to the self-defeating "F.U.S.S." or the braindead concoction that is "Still Dirrty," it's hard to believe that the Aguilera who sounds so uninspired and aimless here is the same Aguilera who will soar through the Perry-piloted numbers minutes later. Back to Basics is admirable in concept and frequently well executed, but, just as it was with Stripped, has been watered down by Aguilera and company's inability to trim away the excess. Slim it down to one disc, and convince Aguilera to do away with the thinking that the image supplied in glossy booklets will make up for any musical shortcomings, and you'd be holding on to an album that doesn't leave you with the overwhelming sense that what you're listening to is a wasted opportunity.
