Decent Pop from a very good Voice3 Out Of 5 Stars
Now that she's jumped to a bigger stardom than she probably ever imagined "The Voice" would bring her, Christina Aguilera
now has a full media press where her music is concerned. This compilation does her some justice, as it's about 2/3rds a decent listen. It does not include any songs from "Bionic," released after this was issues, but covers the first three albums (her debut, "Stripped" and "Back to Basics.") It also leaves off her collaborative "Lady Marmalade" from the movie "Moulin Rogue."I'd always viewed Christina as a radio creation, and this best of does little to dispel that notion. Both "Genie In A Bottle" and "What a Girl Wants" are decent earworms, with killer hooks and Christina's rich singing. But like so many of the Disney Kid-Singer grads, she tends to really over-sing. It comes to the fore in the songs from her second album, "Stripped." "Dirrty" is an obvious attempt to break from the teen-boom image but can't be called anything but an annoyingly dated song, complete with "who let the dogs out" faux 'barking.' Fortunately, she had the song "Beautiful" up her sleeve, a stunning anthem of a ballad that, over-sung or not, offered proof that she wanted to do more than sing psuedo-soul pop singles.
That ambition was confirmed when she dropped the double disc "Back to Basics." In turns playful, forceful and ambitious, Christina jumps from the Big-Band swing of "Candyman" to the brassy "Ain't No Other Man." While the likes of Britany Spears was grabbing the headlines, Christina was proving she had some serious chops. The new "Keeps Getting Better" is the best of the two wholly new songs, a sharp bit of girl-pop that works its way under your skin like the best of the rest of her singles. However, the revamped versions of "Genie" and "Beautiful" are mere filler, an indication that she could have waited until after "Bionic" (even if it was something of a commercial dud) to get to the compilation point of her first decade.
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