Has some interesting stuff regarding that old riff between her & Brit & I think that the media is starting to view her as a musical legend. Hope you like.

July 31, 2006 issue - Aguilera has been a Mouseketeer in starlet's clothing, a bubblegum pop star in S&M gear ... and so on. She's changed her look as often as other girls change handbags, and with each new image comes a new sound. This Harlow glam fits her new double CD, "Back to Basics," a set of new songs that pay tribute to vintage blues and jazz. It's a risky move for a pop star, but Aguilera's taken chances before. If any of her peers had tried to pull off the deliberately ugly makeover on the cover of her last record, "Stripped" (ratted black hair, dirty fingernails), they'd now be doing infomercials. But unlike Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, Aguilera can really sing. "She has one of the best voices out there," says Linda Perry (who's worked with Pink, Gwen Stefani), who wrote the songs with Aguilera and produced disc two. "Her competition is no longer Britney. She's on another level, one where she can compete with those great old voices from the past."

On "Back to Basics" Aguilera takes her cues from Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James, who's now a friend of hers. Her take on the blues is not as sacrilegious as you'd think. The first disc, produced by DJ Premier (D'Angelo, Mos Def), mixes hip-hop beats and vintage samples while the second uses all live instruments; together they add up to a unique take on swing and speak-easy blues. Aguilera's vocal range is still awe-inspiring, but there's more to her performance than acrobatics. You can feel these songs. When Aguilera's sexy, she's supersexy; when she's down, she's all the way down, and when she's rowdy, she blows the roof off the joint.

"At a really early age I connected with old soul and blues," Aguilera says. "My grandma used to take me to little record stores around Pittsburgh and buy me old records. I was 6, and I'd sing the songs at block parties. My grandma would get a kick out of hearing me do material that was far beyond my years. I was known around the neighborhood as the little girl with the big voice, and I always liked that contrast." But Aguilera had deeper reasons for gravitating toward the blues: a truly painful childhood. "There's a lot of pain and angst in those songs," she explains. "They spoke to my life before I moved in with my grandma—my father, all the abuse I endured." On one track, "Oh Mother," Aguilera sings about that period directly. "On that song, I thank my mom for leaving him, for getting us out of that situation because it was life-threatening." Aguilera, who got married last November, still avoids contact with her father. "He tries to send letters every once in a while, but I have amazing people around me now and I'm happy, so I don't really long for that relationship. I just don't see the need." At 12, Aguilera managed to put on a happy face—and plastic ears—when she became a Mouseketeer and shared the stage with Spears, Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. Her media training from that period seems to have stuck with her: when she's at a loss for words during interviews, she'll fall back on such phrases as "staying true to your heart" and "believing in yourself." Aguilera still has contact with her old Disney clan. "Justin's always been a friend," she says. "I know if I ever needed to call him for anything, I could. Britney and I, we've sent each other wedding gifts." So she and Spears didn't hate each other? Aguilera rolls her eyes. "We were like best friends, but the media saw a navel and blond hair and had to create some drama."Call Aguilera what you want, but there's no denying she's a great talent. And the newfound sophistication of "Back to Basics" should turn some scoffers into believers. "The sexuality coming forward on this record is more softened," she says. "It's more pinup, tongue-in-cheek. It's playful. People take sex far too seriously." If people haven't taken Aguilera seriously enough up till now, you just watch. And listen.

Another Unnecesary Xtina thread
and No, If I wanna I'll enter to this thread and all the million of threads about Xtina and Beyonce to say that I'm sick of this
You insane fans really need to give us a break

I just posted it so that other Christina fans would know that the album has been sent to critics for its review. All the critiques so far have been positive!!

In every interview she does she ends up talking about Britney Spears. Anyway, thanks for the article, I can't wait for the album.

I like Christina....but she isn't close to musical legend, atleast not in my list.

She is young though, there is time.

Ur welcome. I think that this was the only new interview where Brit was mentioned so I posted it. But yeah, she's been getting a lot of reviews this past week and they're all good. She should be getting more this week. I can't wait for the one from NY Times. & don't be so Manic Mazen.

When her album comes out, I'll look in metacritic.com for the average score of her reviews.

Stripped got a 53/100

90/CDNow
As a pop record, Stripped is practically flawless.

80/Billboard
A must-hear recording rich with pleasantly surprising depth.

80/Dot Music
Forget all you know about Christina Aguilera. She's discovered sex, rebellion, rock'n'roll and, at one amazing instant, drum'n'bass.

70/Launch.com
Overall, the album is a little more rock, a little more sophisticated and includes actual artistic input from the artist herself. A wonder in these modern times.

60/Blender
Aguilera cowrote most of the songs, and she sounds surer of her themes than [Britney] Spears did in a similar I'm-coming-out role last year. [#12, p.138]

60/Rolling Stone
With its lack of gimmickry and a surplus of sweet Seventies soul, Stripped is almost an album for grown-ups.

60/New Musical Express
It looks like a Mariah Carey album, it sounds like a Mariah Carey album.

60/Spin
As an artistic statement, Stripped is all over the place--it's a move toward hip-hop, it's a move toward rock, it's ghetto, it's Disney. [Dec 2002, p.137]

58/Entertainment Weekly
Nearly every second of this overlong, 20-track workshop communicates the overwhelming struggles she endured -- while trying to become a superstar by age 18.

58/E! Online
If she had just shown up and sang her ass off, Stripped would've been a better show.

40/All Music Guide
It's the sound of an artist who's given too much freedom too early and has no idea what to do with it.

40/Q Magazine
Sadly, bra-burning rhetoric and gospel warbling make poor substitutes for addictive songs, and nothing here rivals her previous best, Genie In A Bottle. [Jan 2003, p.112]

36/Stylus Magazine
In attempting to show all of the things she has been doing since we heard her last, Aguilera lessens the impact of the better songs on the record. Instead, in between ten to twelve mediocre/good songs, we have eight to ten songs that would be better served as B-sides.

30/Village Voice
t's nü-Mariah on mood stabilizers, extended with pseudo-pastiches of semi-popular songs.

Cool, I didn't even know about that site. I'd love to do album reviews but I wouldn't want to have to listen to an album that I don't want to hear. I think that this album & about one more (English) album would launch her as a legend. I want her to go totally retro w/ the next one. I liked the 2nd disc much better; I think that her voice is more suited to that style.

That's one of the reasons why I'm calling you a freak, FREAK.

Mazen seriously, people who are manic depressive act the way you do. CHILL OUT.

nobody is a freak. much as am not an aguilera fan (ie i like some of her music but not necessarily her personally), i do admit that it was an interestin article to read but its too early for all the 'legend' talk. lauryn hill is not a legend and neither is alicia keys, for example, becos as critically acclaimed as they are being a legend is something that more often than not is achieved by age and an overall assessment of musical/image impact on popular culture.

i'm wondering which of these girls are lying..in an interview for Bazaar, Britney says that they haven't contacted each other for 2 years...whereas Xtina says that she still keeps in touch and exchanges wedding gifts with each other....

hmmm...

Good to see she getting some well deserved recongization

Nah, Mazen is right
you are OVERREACTING
Xtina is a btich and she stays in that way ..Legend? Never my friend

Go the hell away Panobsessed because all these Christina topics are pissing people off. The Bee stans have stopped the 7 topics a day so shouldn't you? Go find a Christina forum is not please kthxbai ]

People relax, it's actually an interesting article. Well except for the part where they refer to Jessica Simpson as not having the ability to sing...

I am so over her lying about her relationship with Britney. I can expect lying from a pro like Britney but Christina....give me a break sweethear. Whenever Britney is brought up she says something really nasty like about her Madonna performance, K-Fed.

She just needs to stop lying or I will be done with her too

I like the part about Christina taking risks and how if anyone else tried it, they'd be in informericals by now.

How true is that? In reality, actual talent is what it comes down to.

You can be a celebrity forever (i.e. Britney Spears #1 searched on Yahoo, STILL to this day). But to actually be in a craft like music, or acting, something's gotta give.