In the four years since her retro-styled album Back to Basics, Britney arose like a phoenix, Katy kissed girls, and some girl named Gaga went up and effectively took over the pop world.So where does that leave Christina Aguilera, the undisputed top vocalist of the bubblegum pop era?
Don't worry about the woman once nicknamed Xtina. Marriage and a kid hasn't deterred the pop diva a bit. In fact, after a rather chill period, she's taking some pages from her highly successful Stripped album with "Not Myself Tonight", the lead single from her June release "Bionic". Produced by Polow da Don and written by Ester Dean, the track brings Christina back to the sex-drenched club sound she introduced with 2002's "Dirrty". Of course, the song is more restrained (even with a lyric about kissing all the boys and the girls. Hear that, Katy?), which ultimately keeps it from being the ultimate club banger of 2010. Even with the winding electro and the thumping beats, it lacks the energetic bombast that has been topping the charts recently. It's a shame, really, since Aguilera's signature vocals deserve a song that will allow to truly show off her range ("Bad Romance" comes to mind). Her voice is still in fine form, carrying the sexy and diva roles as well as she has in the past. Yet, the song's production has the unfortunate trait of making her sound all over the place at times.
"Not Myself Tonight" definitely is not the best Christina Aguilera has offered up, but it does put her back amongst her contemporaries (Back to Basics, although brave, put her far off). Although she claims she's not herself, I hope it's a joke, because the Christina we love, the one who could blow the rook of a concrete house, is needed, desperately.
Brandon says: 6 out of 10 (download it, or stream it on Pandora/YouTube until you want to)
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