When Christina Aguilera released her debut album a decade ago, she was branded as a big-voiced Britney Spears clone. She did everything she could to break out of that box, transforming herself into a durrty girl and a torch singer. Her ability to change helped her remain relevant after her contemporaries reached their expiration dates. Now the tables have turned. Instead of being ahead of the curve, Aguilera is desperately trying to keep up.
Christian Aguilera’s biggest asset has always been her voice, which has the ability to hit notes that only dogs can hear. Her vocal pyrotechnics have made people forget that she has no personality whatsoever. Her banality wasn’t a problem in the past because she had decent material. Bionic proves that her voice isn’t enough anymore.
Bionic is supposed to be a futuristic pop album in the vein of Lady Gaga’s The Fame. Aguilera talk-sings about how great it is to be glam and all the freaky-deaky things she can do in the bedroom. This is a fine concept for an album, except Aguilera clearly has no idea what glam entails.
In the first 30 seconds of “Not Myself Tonight,” she breathily proclaims that she is “not a character.” Christina, honey….glam is all about character. You create an idealized version of yourself so that you can live out all your fantasies.
The lack of character also manifests in the vocal arrangements. Aguilera’s vocal style is still locked in the year 2000, when a pop star’s worth was judged by the volume of their voice. This method doesn’t work on Bionic because instead of a lush pop production, the songs are built around synthesizers and drum machines. Aguilera’s vocals come in two varieties; breathily sexy and maximum overdrive. For instance, “Glam” begins with Aguilera coyly telling the listener “paint yourself like a beauty queen and embrace the diva inside.” She sticks with this façade for a while, but can’t resist the high notes. She belts, and belts and belts. For someone that is apparently not herself, she sounds just like Christina Aguilera.
The high notes are not the problem here. Aguilera has been blessed with very powerful pipes and she should use them. But Aguilera has never learned how to use the voice to her advantage. When you belt out “OH YEAH!” in every song, it loses its impact. It turns into a game. “When will she do it? There it is!”
Lyrically, Ms. Aguilera tries to push sexual boundaries. She wants to go all up in that club and kiss girls. She wants sex for breakfast. She wants the men of America to turn Japanese as they watch her brazen image. This approached worked when she was 21, but is a tad creepy coming from a married mother of a toddler. Sample lyric: “Your rubber band is what I call your love for me/cause it comes and goes and pins me like a trampoline.” Really?
The lyrics don’t work because she can’t pull them off, not because she is a mother. She’s trying to hold onto something that left a long time ago.
Aguilera’s last album, Back to Basics, was a fine example of a pop star maturing. It worked because Christina understood the genre she was going for. She understood how to deliver torch songs. She has no idea how to sing like Lady Gaga, because Gaga’s music is based on genres that Aguilera has had limited exposure to. Bionic makes Christina Aguilera sound dated, which is the last thing a pop star wants to be.