Christina's 'emotions' stripped (Stripped - Christina Aguilera)

Member Name: Dooyaa

Product:	Stripped - Christina Aguilera
Date:	22/03/08 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Obvious talent

Disadvantages: Songs are weak

*INTRODUCTION*

I do like Christina. Obviously, not as much as I adore her former Mickey mouse Club co-star and general arch nemesis Britney Spears, but Christina stands out in the world of pop as the voice and talent of her generation.

Back in 1999, in the midst of the bubblegum pop explosion fronted by NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, and of course, Britney Spears, Christina was the latest in a long line of young blonde girls who could sing and dance, made centre stage by record companies eager to cash in on a successful formula.

Christina, while very successful at this time, never seemed quite at ease with her image and style of music. Her powerful vocals didn't seem to fit with the throwaway pop music written for her. Christina is a singer first and foremost. Other like Britney have overshadowed her with showmanship and entertainment, but Christina's strength lies in her being able to belt out a tune like noone else can.

With the release of her second album looming, the first taster that we got of what was to come was her Lady Marmalade video with Pink, Mya and Lil Kim. All dolled up like a high class hooker from the Moulin Rouge, Christina may have claimed to be purely playing a character, but the more urban sound and more sexual image seemed to suit her a whole lot more.

That, of course, was nothing compared to 'Dirrty' the first single from the album. Everything about the song and video was indeed dirty, from a guest rap from Redman to a video where a barely clothed Xtina boxes, spits and rolls around in dirty showers. Quite a far cry from Genie in a Bottle and bubblegum pop. People were understandably shocked and the song was boycotted across America by conservative Americans who were appalled. The song, while not a hit in the US, was a smash everywhere else. But then, the problem was that people weren't quite sure what to expect from this, her sophomore CD. Was it just going to be more trashy hip hop influenced sex anthems? The thought turned people off, until the release of second single 'Beautiful', which showed people that here she shows, in places, her genuine musical talent through singing and songwriting, and her ability to experiment with different styles, moving lyrics and REAL messages. The thing is, we know that she is talented, we know she can sing, but can she produce good tunes that we can sing and that will entertain us as well as impress us?

This is also notable for being so much longer than her debut. While that was 12 songs long, this comes in at 20 tracks long, quite an epic in pop standards.

So, with a CD so very long, with a dizzying amount of styles, reckless abandon for decency and an overall attempt to mature and develop, does this pull it off?

*TRACK LISTING*

1. Stripped intro
2. Can't hold us down
3. Walk away
4. Fighter
5. Primer amore interlude
6. Infatuation
7. Lovers embrace interlude
8. Loving me for me
9. Impossible
10. Underappreciated
11. Beautiful
12. Make over
13. Cruz
14. Soar
15. Get mine get yours
16. Dirrty
17. Stripped part 2
18. The voice within
19. I'm OK
20. Keep on singin my song

*TRACK BY TRACK BREAKDOWN*

1. Stripped intro

I HATE INTROS!!! AARGGH!! Get it off! It's a particularly annoying one at that, with Christina singing 'sorry I break the mould' and other ego driven statements. Sorry Christina, but as yet you have not broken the mould, you have stuck to it pretty faithfully, so I don't know what you're talking about.

2. Can't hold us down

The fourth single from the album, and a fairly good girl power anthem. However, it is fairly average rnb, with a guest rap from Lil Kim adding absolutely nothing to it. The lyrics at least, are pretty good, addressing the subject of female inequality, an important subject. The chorus is catchy and easy to sing to at least, but this isn't anything spectacular.

3. Walk Away

Christina is of course an amazing singer, and it shows on this song, which is deeply emotional and soulful. It is slow without being a typical ballad, and definately sung from the heart which is a bonus. You can tell it means something to Christina and I respect that, but the problem is, IT'S BORING!! It's soooo long for a start, there is no real chorus, and the whole thing is just a bit dreary.

4. Fighter

Much better. Christina gets a bit rawk with the help of Dave Navarro on guitars for this, yet another girl power anthem (this album is chock full of them!) with powerful screamy vocals and a chorus that millions of girls are going to be able to relate to. This was the third single from the album and it's a great choice. I love it.

5. Primer amor interlude

Well, interludes are no better than intros in my opinion, but at least this one serves some purpose. It signals a turnaround in the album, easy to tell because this is a spoken interlude in spanish. My spanish is weak, but I think she's saying something about going to tell a story about her first love, a dancer. Or something like that, I don't really know.

6. Infatuation

A latino sounding track (of course) to follow the spanish interlude. It's good enough but not as good as any of the stuff on her spanish language album. Come on Xtina! We know you can do latin music! Try harder! The whole thing is just a little bit disposable.

7. Lovers embrace

Sigh, interlude. All it does it slow the album down, jar it, and bore me to tears. This sounds very pretty, nice birds singing, high notes singing, la la la, and now its over, thank God.

8. Loving me for me

This reminds me quite a lot of Walk Away. Lyrically, it is very different, as this is a blissful happy song about true love and acceptance, which is very nice and makes me happy for Christina, but again, this is SO BLOODY BORING!!! It goes on for what seems like forever and goes absolutely nowhere.

9. Impossible

This was co written with Alicia Keys and has a twinkly little piano bit at the beginning to prove it. This is fairly good, a nice soulful tune that allows Christina to show off her voice, but there is no real chorus which is what is lacking and would have made this song very, very good indeed.

10. Underappreciated

By this point, I'm starting to get sick of all the man hating girl power. This is a tale of a no good man who needs to be kicked to the curb, yes, another one. I can so far only count one song on here that doesn't man hate in some way. It's not even very good either. It has no real musical style except it really wants to be a sing along anthem. Utterly forgettable.

11. Beautiful

Absolutely sublime. The real reason for buying this CD is this song. It is heartfelt, moving and carries a message that everyone in the world should take to heart and believe in. It also manages to hold it together as just a great song in general, with a beautiful piano introduction to it's great chorus, and Christina's restrained, scratchy vocals sound real and barely produced. An absolute classic and Christina's best song ever.

12. Make over

Continuing on a streak here, I love this one. I think Christina and Linda Perry write really good songs together and this is a quite rocky song. The reason I love it so much is the amazing chorus, which Christina literally screams at the top of her lungs. It sounds weird, and it is, but it's so powerful and cool to listen to.

13. Cruz

The problem with this album is that it is so long you can't help but wonder why they even put certain songs on when they could have left them off for a shorter and sweeter album, and noone would have even noticed the difference. Such is the case with Cruz. Don't get me wrong, it's ok. The chorus is very nice and the whole thing is very uplifting, almost like driving music, but it's very forgettable.

14. Soar

I like this song as a whole, but again, the subject matter is starting to wear thin. There are many themes on this album that could have been dealt with in one or two songs with instead are dragged on and repeated across the whole CD. This is another one about believing in yourself, being strong and powerful, blah blah blah. You can tell Xtina really believes it which I respect, but she already has 'Beautiful' on here, there is nothing else to say that cannot be summed up in that one song.

15. Get mine get yours

As standard rnb this works quite well. It's a little (dare I say it) Britney Spears ish. There are some super sexy lyrics, a quite hypnotic chorus and generally I like it. It's not much different to many other songs in the same genre though, and it's an abrupt change of style from the songs that went before it.

16. Dirrty

Well, everyone knows this song. There are good points and bad points to it. The good is that is really helped Christina to reinvent herself and show a different side to her personality, it's very original and daring, and her vocals sound amazing. It's a great party song that always gets a great response in clubs. The downside it that sometimes this is a bit of a mess. It's very all over the place and the harsh hip hop sound dramatically changes the mood of the whole album. That, and some people may find it all a little tarty, but that's up to you to decide.

17. Stripped part 2

As if the intro wasn't bad enough, here is part 2 of the exact same track, saying basically the same thing again. NEXT!

18. The voice within

Now this is very nice. Although it's yet another 'be strong' anthem, this at least comes in the form of an old school Christina ballad that lets her let loose with her vocal chords and show everyone how it's done. This was the fifth single from the album too.

19. I'm OK

This is very disturbing, and I'm not sure what to make of it. Respect to Christina for being able to write and sing such a personal and evidently painful song. It's a stripped down acoustic ballad telling the story of how she and her mother suffered abuse at the hands of her father. Christina's vocals are strained and tearful, and the overall song is painfully emotional and haunting.

20. Keep on singin my song

Well, we have reached the end of what seemed like an endless journey. Just to keep us in torment that little bit longer, this song is about six minutes long, and dull, repetative, and tedious. GO AWAY CHRISTINA YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO ANNOY ME!!

*LYRICS*

Whilst I really respect Christina for having the guts to sing about topics personal to her, and whilst I feel the messages she is trying to put out there are meaningful and definately something girls could look up to, the whole album just repeats itself again and again. Considering there are 20 songs on here, every single song carries one of a few messages -

1. I am woman, hear me roar, noone can tell us what to do!
2. You are a man and therefore you are no good.
3. But you'll do for when i want to dance and get dirrrrrty.

*VOCALS*

Christina has reigned her vocals in dramatically from her first album. The influence of Linda Perry has led to her adopting a rockier tone. Also, the songs are a lot more personal and so a lot more emotion comes out in her voice than before. She seems less worried about perfect pitch and more concerned with being real, honest and vunerable, and just singing her lungs out. She sounds amazing.

*MUSICAL STYLES*

There is a pretty vast array of musical styles here. Rock, soul, hip hop, rnb, pop, they're all here. It shows her talent as a musician and a songwriter that she can turn her hand to so many different styles, but the result is that the album doesn't always fit together as a whole. Songs like Dirrty sound very out of place.

*LENGTH*

This album suffers greatly from just being too long. By the end, you simply stop caring as you are bored of listening! There are several tracks that should have been left off here to make it more compact and easier to listen to. And get rid of those interludes!!!

*COVER DESIGN*

It's certainly an eye catching cover, with Christina's hair the only thing covering her breasts and all of her fake tan, piercings and scratty extensions on full show in black and white. The album title is supposed to refer to her emotions being stripped away and laid bare but when it comes to record sales being literally 'stripped' never seems to hurt either.

Overall, I would say that it is obvious tha Christina is a huge talent, with huge potential, and the ambition to go very far. It's great that she managed to break away and produce something with musical vision and creativity. However, unfortunately I have to say that the songs just aren't all that good. By attempting to straddle so many genres she end up being not very good at any of them, and by stretching it out for so long the quality gets stretched out too. The singles are highlights, but nothing else her makes you sit up and say 'WOW!!'

Thank you very much for reading!

Summary: This had so much potential but didn't deliver.