Much like our ‘Retro Rewind’ and ‘From the Vault’ segments, readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past. So in a quest to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday we introduced a new retrospective segment – ‘TGJ Replay’.
Unlike its ‘Rewind’ and ‘Vault’ predecessors, ‘Replay’ looks to dust off and showcase albums (and eras) from a library of pop music hits. Today, we go ‘Back To Basics’ with Christina Aguilera‘s third official studio LP (5th overall)…
Despite its critical and commercial success, Christina Aguilera’s 2002 sophomore album ‘Stripped’ earned her about as many fans as it did detractors. Yes, while serving up a collection of her most artistic offerings to date, the singer’s hypersexualized image (see: ‘Dirrty’ video) was equated to Madonna‘s ‘Erotica’ era and was criticized by a number of viewers – namely those who were enamored by her ‘Genie In A Bottle’ teeny-bopping phase.
In what appeared to be an effort to synthesize substance and style (while exhibiting an evolution thereof), the ‘Beautiful’ singer began crafting a throwback album in homage to music’s big band/jazz era (’20s-’50s). Giving the tunes a “modern twist”, the 2006 album was christened ‘Back To Basics’ and was kicked off by the horn-filled ‘Ain’t No Other Man’…
‘Ain’t No Other Man’
Showcasing Aguilera’s soaring siren, the single skyrocketed to Billboard’s top 10 on the heels of its glossy music video and high octane performances…
‘Ain’t No Other Man’ (live)
‘Hurt’ (MTV Video Music Awards 2006)
Some critics opted to question Aguilera’s authenticity in regards to her knowledge of the era, often citing her “influence” of classic singers Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzerald (and more) as “gimmicky”.
Fans must’ve disagreed. By the time the two-disc set dropped in August 2006, it had drummed up enough buzz to lend the songstress her best first week sales ever. While following singles ‘Hurt’ and ‘Candyman’ did not know the commercial success of the album’s lead single, their underperformance did not hurt long-term sales of ‘Basics’ as it was a steady seller well into the end of the year.
‘Hurt’ (video)
‘Candy Man’ (video)
2007 saw no signs of the ‘Slow Down Baby’ singer slowing down. Indeed, after notching a Grammy for the album’s lead single ‘Ain’t’, the singer imparted what has become one of the most praised Grammy performances of the millenium when she continued her homage to music past with a tribute to ‘Godfather of Soul’ James Brown…
It’s A Man’s World
Later ingressing on a world tour that would later go on to be 2007’s top earner by a female, Xtina was indeed on fire. The announcement of engagement and pregnancy would once again take the songstress out of the spotlight for an extended time until 2010’s ‘Bionic’ saw her re-emerge (and we know the story from there).
We constantly applaud Aguilera for her willingness to venture “outside of the box”, even if it does not result in commercial success like ‘Basics’. As we press play on ‘Still Dirrty’, here’s hoping next-go-round the multi-octave songbird goes back to basics aka ‘the drawing board’ in a different way – one that will yield radio friendly tunes while still satisfying her own artistic desires.
‘Stripped’ is proof that there is such thing as style/substance balance.
‘Still Dirrty’
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Wonderful album inspired by the Iconic “I’m Breathless” by The Queen of Pop Madonna.
That’s just one of them Back To Basics is a concept. Like, Stripped, it showcased different sounds, & images from it.
It’s Xtina at her best IMO.
Awww, this just touched my heart so much TGJ. Thank you for acknowledging Xtina’s creativity. She’s a chameleon! A distinct voice, vision, & artistry. You don’t get to hear a cool Lotus Intro than her.
The last era she was relevant with
Like Beyonce last sucessful era was bday awwwwwz
amen to that on beyonce last real good music was b day lol
It was a downward spiral from then
stripped was better.
this was bad cabaret music.
end of discussion.
sit yo ass down at least her stripped and back to basic albums pretty much better than any album beyonce ever put out.
B**** you really need to stfu….. Old ugly f** worry about whoreyonce n when shes guna put out that flop single u fat b****
She’s a very versatile artist like rihanna that why she love riri so much cause she can see a bit of that good girl/bad girl personality in riri. Who also explores different genres of music and pull it off effortlessly. Only Xtina, rihanna and Madonna can do it. No other heifers can’t.
Xtina &RiRi>>>> Beyonce
Love this album it has real music on it much better than any album Beyonce or Britney that they could ever release…
Re-read , Re-write
you are crazy if u think back to basics is better than beyonce or britney album.. in terms of vocals yes, christina is the best but albums like in the zone or i am.. sasha fierce are musically truly better than back to basics
Such an amazing album, a true masterpiece. I don’t give a f*** if you will tumb down my comment, but Hurt >>> any Mariah/Whitney song, they cannot touch that song/emotion with their cheesy and generic ballads. I want Xtina to release an album like this.
@LIKICA
Cheesy & generic ballads??I won’t even thumb you down
Yes h**, their songs sound the same and boring, there is nothing spectacular about them. No song has as strong emotion as Hurt, deal.
I love Hurt’s song stucture.
To bad Genie can’t fit in the bottle anymore.
LMAO
TIME OF DEATH: 7:27pm
I never liked her voice. Its like shes mocking the soul voice and tries too hard in everything instead sounds like a screaming cat.
Still sounds better than Lady GaGa with her poor vocal range of 2.7 octaves.
And… I still HATE her voice and prefer Gagas no matter how many damn octave ranges she has. Watcha gonna do about it?
This era was perfect in every aspect, image, sounds, promo, everything was perfect and Christina was marvelous.
too bad she lost it afterwards…
she had the right image during back to basics… she was grown up, s***, artistic…
and during the bionic era she became a s*** again which really did not fit..
this is the christina i miss. Back when nobody could come close to touching what she did and she was the only one who could start a trend and everybody else followed in behind her.
True, she was known as the Queen of Reinvention after Madonna , she was the only one able to revamp her image and sound successfully and still is if you ask me, Rihanna is just about her looks not the music.
Amen.
B**** this album was a trash. Someone with ears can tell that this was nothing but a failed uninspired vegas cabaret mess.. Im glad amy winehouse released back to black the same year to show yall what a true throwback feel sounded like….
her attempt to be throwback and classis with this album was so transparent, unnatural and a fail. Amy Winehouse gave you a true Classic retro feel album with Back to black. this was nothing awful cabaret music, and the end of her career… not sure why yall dont wanna accept that the fans are over her… Floptus is filled with radio friendly singles but no one still cared..
Shes might not fade into ashanti irrelevancy, but her time as one of the top stars is definitely over (has been since Floponic). like it or not…
I don’t see any lies.
This album was good but nothing to cry home about. The whole retro vibe was gimmicky.
Nope
Just so you know, Xtina made it clear that she’d do a futuristic sounding album before Gaga even did her own cray-cray. A total opposite to Back To Basics.
And she flopped with it #poordat
ThatgrapeJuice staff you should post about Andrea Bocelli and Jennifer Lopez performance on “Dancing with the stars”, just beautiful.
in the top five albums of the last 20 years for me. that is all.
OMG…Candyman gets me everytime and its playful,classy music video enjoyable til this very day…i’m going to keep it real here,i thought BIONIC was an amazingly done album and a worthy follow-up to B2B regardless of sales…infact to me,BIONIC>>>>her debut cd
Back to Basic had some very great songs…but I think overall the album was just ok.
Why not do a piece about “stripped”? This is the album that Danity Kane kept from #1 by like 100K!
This album came and went after that…her career did the same.
Her fans might think she is still this huge star..but the general public has turned away from her
Like I don’t understand how you are a judge on a popular talent show and still can’t do gold in the Us or any place else…
I don’t get why XXLTina left The Voice, which is a relevant, show to go to the obscurity again. See Adam Levine, he’s still on the show while Maroon 5 is on the top, having hits, having Platinum albums and on tour.
Her Best Album to date.
Said Almost Everyone on Earth.
my fav song is “Here to stay” !
I don’t think an Urban music blog, with educated music heads on its team should be praising this album so highly. Sure there are some good songs on it, notably “Hurt”, but the album is full of samples, lacking originality, and has her screaming at points to confuse us into believing it’s passion, soul and real artistry.
“Ain’t No Other Man” was a horrible sounding song. So gimmicky, with a poor quality looped sample, annoying, cheesy horns and bad, overhyped singing. Grammy win or not, “Candyman” is better. Shame that song was so suggestive.
Xtina needs, at some point, to realise less is more, and 12 songs of original throwback music is better than 20 of oversinging, cabaret music and poor sounding production. It’s also obvious that here her ego started talking for her as she included that song “F.U.S.S.” (F U Scott Storch) because of some dispute they had. I miss the class that existed in stars before the late 90’s and arrogant Hip-Hop culture negatively impacted Pop culture. Back then you could be a fan of almost anyone and you didn’t have the worry about crazy, trolling stans or having to see your faves drag each other’s weaves all over Twitter. Check the relationship between Whitney, Mariah, Janet etc.
This album seems to be a fan fave but I still think some of these people are in love with everything she does and can’t critically assess what makes a good or bad record. Knowledge in this area is key to success!
Comparing this work to Amy’s Back To Black is pointless. Again, Back to Basics (& all her works alike) is a concept (a big concept). Xtina’s song choices are eclectic.
i have to say, this album is just ok… there are great songs on it but also there ar songs which are just non sense. i still think her best work is stripped.. that was a great album, from the first song to the last one. oh, well but i have faith in christina, thogh i am not a fan of her, i think she has talent…
A lot of the songs sound like s***** B-sides though…
“Ain’t No Other Man”, “Mercy on Me” and “A Man’s World” are easily some of the greatest vocal performances in pop music history.