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| Back to Basics | 
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| Artist: Christina Aguilera
Label: RCA
Category: Music
List Price: $21.98
Buy Used: $4.65
You Save: $17.33 (79%)
New (61) Used (51) from $4.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  418 reviews
Sales Rank: 1322
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 82639
UPC: 828768963425
EAN: 0828768263921
ASIN: B000G759LW
Release Date: August 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Back to Barfing. September 26, 2006
15 out of 22 found this review helpful
Yeah she has a "great" voice (whatever). But she so oversings everything that it completely ruins anything she is trying to achieve musically or emotionally. Too much is too much!
 Back to basics, yet still so overrated August 28, 2006
13 out of 21 found this review helpful
Will someone explain to me why this pop tart Christina Aguilera is considered so spectacular? While there's no denying that she has a stronger voice than most of her peers, that doesn't change the fact that her songs are as generic as they come and lack a certain timelessness that the best music has (her last two albums are already very dated sounding - this one is likely destined for the same fate), and the lyrics read like the prose of a grade schooler. I haven't even mentioned the fact that some of the hooks are flat out annoying. Take "Ain't No Other Man", for instance: It uses a repetitious horn sample, and Aguilera goes from her overuse of melismas (you would think by now she would have learned how to really sing) to basically spitting out the lyrics during the chorus as if she drank about 20 espressos.
The album is admirable in its attempt to integrate classic sounds with the overproduced contemporary pop that has become Aguilera's bread & butter over the years. Where fault can be found is that Aguilera always feels the need to oversing, much like her childhood idol Whitney Houston. The great singers of the past were known for often using restraint when it was called for - in Aguilera's case, it's always brash and in-your-face belting, even during the quietest moments. The overreliance on contemporary technology, with samples and sequencers often being used in favor of live instrumentation, also brings this album down. The themes also get tired after a while as well - yes, Christina, you've found a man and you're happy, and that's just peachy ... now sing about something else already!
On another note, you can't help but notice that there's something artificial about Christina Aguilera. In a matter of years she has gone from "Look at me, I'm a perky little cheerleader" to ""Everything is so dark and bleak, and I have a million piercings now" to "I want to be Jayne Mansfield or Marilyn Monroe". This is reinvention taken to the extreme, and not knowing who she is or what she stands for makes her difficult to make any kind of connection with - but then again, she fits in with the lot of pop acts these days in that sense. One thing hasn't changed, and that's the fact that Aguilera always tries to play the sex appeal card. Whatever. Hey, Christina - if you really want to shock people, how about walking around fully clothed for a change? I won't say that she isn't attractive, but in all phases of her career she has looked less like a recording artist than someone who walks the streets of the Red Light District.
In summary: A commendation for an attempt at musical reinvention (hence the extra star), but nothing special and really not deserving of all the publicity it has received. This might have been stronger if more of it was in the vein of Aguilera's collaboration with Herbie Hancock, but instead it falls back too often into safe territory for her. While there is some potential here, Aguilera still needs to learn how to sing properly, and she also needs to spend as much time on her songs as she does her image and how she chooses to dress. Oh yeah - she needs to step out of the comfort zone more often. Back To Basics is alright, but it's nothing to write home about. Don't believe the hype.
Back To What? August 29, 2006
13 out of 30 found this review helpful
I was intrigued by this concept album and bought it on its strength. I'm sad to say that although there are some fun moments on the album where everything gels nicely, mostly it feels overbloated and surprisingly, a bit directionless.
Christina mixes in some old sounds and horns to conjure memories of the past, but never goes far enough. She stops short at conjuring the innocent fun and musicality of teh time. Instead she samples which I find a bit shallow. All the songs definately sound of this era and not of the past. Add in the trite pean to fans "Thank You" and the cloying "The Right Man" along with "Save Me FromMyself" and you begin to see the half-hearted effort in actually paying respect to the past and building upon it.
I applaud the idea (and wish it was done more often) but the execution on this album fails to live up to expectations.
Slutina Uglyaira September 12, 2006
13 out of 30 found this review helpful
She tries too hard to copy every other diva and she has no originality what so ever. Her voice has got to be the most annoying sound ever. She can't carey a note longer than a second or two. Her fake soul sound is cheap and pathetic like her. Hate this so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't know music could be this bad September 12, 2006
13 out of 30 found this review helpful
Every time one of the songs from this album comes on the radio, I have to turn it off. This was one of the most pitiful attempts at music I've ever heard.
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