Christina Aguilera

Bionic: Deluxe Edition [2010]

3/5

With people like M.I.A, Santigold, Goldfrapp, Ladytron and Sia on board for this project, it's hard to imagine how the final product for this album became so uninteresting. Christina chose the best people for this album, and she seems to have merely sprinkled their work over a handful of tracks, and chosen more generic pop songs produced by 'Tricky Stewart' to make up most of the tracklist.

What's even more baffling is that this album was meant to be her big first step into electronic music, so how the 'electronic' artists helping her out got pushed to the back of the line just makes no sense. Either she had NO idea what she got herself into, or she wanted to play it as safe as possible. Either way, she's missed the boat.

There are a few songs that do stay in line with what direction this album should have gone in. The title track, 'Bionic' [produced by the epic Santigold] is a nice opener to the album, 'Elastic Love' [produced by M.I.A] has a cool new wave sound sound to it, and 'Glam', although lyrically cringe worthy and forced, does have some decent electro production on it. Other than those three songs though, we don't get much else from the world of electronic music. The Ladytron produced track 'Birds of Prey' was even pasted onto the bonus disc of the deluxe edition, while awfully bland songs like 'Desdunodet' and 'Vanity' made the "official" standard tracklist. Huh?............a bit of a mess, yes.

Speaking of 'Vanity', talk about atrocious!!!!! it's the worst song she has ever done in her career and one of the most inflated ego driven pieces of crap i've ever heard. The lyrics MUST be heard to be believed! it's just unbearably tragic to hear. How anyone can stand listening to anymore than 30 seconds of it is beyond it. Just awful. Not to mention how it made it on the album when Goldfrapp's entry didn't event make ANY of the discs!.

It's not ALL bad though, as generic as most of it is, and as awful as a few of the songs are, there is some enjoyable stuff on the album as well. 'WooHoo' is an IMMENSE club track, and some of the ballads are really nicely produced, mainly 'Lift Me Up' and my favourite off the album, 'I Am', such a beautiful track.

If you think of the album and see the producers it had on board, it comes across as a bit of a failure. If you ignore that though, it's a DECENT ENOUGH pop album for the most part. After 4 years, you think she'd be a little MORE adventurous with it though. I'm certainly playing the album a lot, but it's nowhere near what it should have been, and it barely touches the records her peers put out like Britney or Gaga, who know pop like the back of their hand. I struggled with giving the alum a 2.5 or a 3, but i decided with a 3 after i heard the bonus disc.

I appreciate Christina's attempt, but maybe she should stick to what she does best.............which ain't electronic pop music.