The music industry is rarely kind to artists who disappear from the spotlight for more than a few years, especially artists who put their professional lives on hold in order to do the things that others take for granted, such as starting a family. Music fans want their idols to produce, to tour, to return to the studio, to release another album, to tour again, and to keep this cycle going until they find another artist to idolize. Artists know this, and it is for that reason that so many of them retire (or, at least, announce their retirements) to focus on their personal lives, only to return a decade later with a new album and a high-grossing reunion tour.
Christina Aguilera did neither. While she took several years off, married, and gave birth to a boy, she never made any grand pronouncements about her future, and she never told anyone she was leaving. She just left. It was a risk – and one wonders how calculated it was – because in the time that she was out of the musical spotlight, other artists, like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, have burst onto the music scene with their own unique personas, and have filled the female pop niche which was left barren after the departures of Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson. Beyonce has filled the gap, to some extent, but she is often pegged as more of an R&B singer who produces pop hits and is therefore rarely compared to the previously-mentioned singers.
So, when it was revealed that Aguilera was returning to the music scene with Bionic, her first studio album in four years, it was not entirely unsurprising that she would be compared to some of music’s current hitmakers. And it was also not surprising that people would question Aguilera’s relevance and her ability to connect with a fanbase that has, at least partially, shifted its attention to the next big thing. It did not help that Aguilera, who was known for her penchant for flashy outfits was being compared to Lady Gaga. Some with short memories implied (and some flat-out said) that Aguilera was attempting to copy Gaga’s style. And while Aguilera has responded to critics who have floated the Gaga theory, there is something unsettling about the transient nature of fame. Music fans seemed to forget the big difference between Aguilera and her peers: That voice.
She doles it out on Bionic, from the title track to “Elastic Love,” and instantly reminds the listener why they were wowed by Aguilera the first time they hear her. But she doesn’t overdo it. Instead, she tempers her voice on the ballad “Lift Me Up,” allowing the song to be bigger than the singer. And she spends as much time reminding the listener that even though she is a mother, her sexuality has not diminished. From “Woohoo” to “Sex for Breakfast” (sometimes, it’s that obvious), Aguilera uses her vocal platform to bring the heat and, in a way, to show that though she has been gone for a while, she hasn’t missed a trick. There is nothing groundbreaking on Bionic and some would say this album is all over the place but with songs like, “You Lost Me,” Agueilra reminds fans that she hasn’t forgotten how to write a hit ballad.
It’s difficult to become relevant instantly, especially after a lengthy break, and it’s not clear that the release of Bionic alone will be sufficient to carry Aguilera to the heights she once inhabited; however, the disc proves that Christina Aguilera might have been gone but the voice still remains.
Britney Spears “3″, a track espousing the joys of threesomes from her upcoming greatest hits set, became the first single in more than three years to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week. The track, which sold 255,000 downloads in its first week of availability, also topped the Digital Songs chart. The track is the first to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 since Taylor Hicks “Do I Make You Proud” opened in the top spot in July 2006.
