Album Details

• Artist: Christina Aguilera
• Album: Bionic
• Label: RCA Records
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: carlita on 2012-05-10

Media

A fan of Christina Aguilera since she wore Mickey Mouse ears in the early 90's and having viewed a few less than flattering soundbytes from this season of "The Voice", now seemed as good a time as any to revisit her last album released in 2010 called "Bionic". Just like she's split on the album cover, it seems like she's caught between being the vulnerable, approachable mother/wife figure and the oversexed bondage alter ego party girl. Ambitiously trying to do something edgy on this record (which critics have often compared to Lady Gaga ironically), the result is a confusing mishmash of electronic dance pop and at times, folk/Christian pop sounds.

The beginning and end of the album mainly highlight living the glitzy life, the party in "da club" and who she'll encounter there - boys, toys and girls included. Starting with "Bionic" and "Not Myself Tonight", the vibe is loud and brash with the latter featuring a scene in the video where she appears to symbolically burn her costumes from her previous albums ala George Michael's "Freedom". When's she's in "sexbot" mode, the images of S&M gyrating, songs with titles like "Woohoo" (the worst song on the album), "Sex For Breakfast" , "Vanity" and lyrics stating she's "doing things that I normally won't do" going "VIP up in this b-tch" grow tiring after a while. The public is well aware that she'll always be " dirrty". When shock and sensationalizing is overused, you almost become numb to it.

In the middle of the album, she abruptly reverts back to a few songs that showcase her voice and are reminiscent of "Beautiful" and "The Voice Within" which were on "Stripped" like "Lift Me Up", "I Am (Stripped)"  and my favorite track, "You Lost Me". Though some may consider it overdramatic, I wasn't distracted by noise and could focus on what she was saying. While I applaud her courage to enter a different genre and how it seems like she could care less what critics think ("If you don't like it, f u"), "Bionic" short-circuited.

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