It’s been 10 years since the world was first introduced to the little girl with the big voice. The girl who proved all cute, blonde pop stars weren’t talentless manufactured robots in a year when they were being churned out faster than Vanilla Ice’s career. To celebrate this milestone in her career, Christina Aguilera partnered with Target to release Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits.
The album appropriately starts with Christina’s first single off her self-titled debut album, Genie in a Bottle. It’s amazing how well this gem has stood the test of time. The song is still infectious, dance worthy and not even a little annoying.
What A Girl Wants and I Turn to You remind me of just how well this girl could sing. It’s hard to believe the vocals on these cuts are coming from a 17-year-old. They’re powerful and well controlled.
While singles Dirrty and Beautiful will probably be stand outs for most from the Stripped era, it’s Fighter that does it for me. This stronger-now-that-you’re-gone song shows the shock and awe factor of Dirrty was not needed.
The album does a slight dip at this point. The formulaic style of the singles from third album Back to Basics are very hit or miss. While Aint No Other Man and Candyman are in no way bad, they do not stand up to the pop masterpieces of her past.
Newly recorded tracks Genie 2.0, Keeps Gettin’ Better and Dynamite unfortunately continue the dipping trend. Aguilera’s new futuristic sound comes off as trying too hard to be different and does not showcase her best asset: her voice. You Are What You Are arrives too late to save the second half of the album. The ho-hum beat on this remake of Beautiful could bore some but I find it…beautiful!
It has been a long journey for Christina Aguilera and there is a reason she is still in the game 10 years later. In order to stay in it, she may want to re-think the direction of future projects. Her breath-taking voice will always be a plus, but she has to remember that her material needs to keep getting better as well.
