1013. Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics (2006)

Track Listing

Disc: 1

1. Intro (Back to Basics)
2. Makes Me Wanna Pray featuring Steve Winwood
3. Back In The Day
4. Ain't No Other Man
5. Understand
6. Slow Down Baby
7. Oh Mother
8. F.U.S.S.
9. On Our Way
10. Without You
11. Still Dirrty
12. Here to Stay
13. Thank You (Dedication to Fans...)

Disc: 2

1. Enter the Circus
2. Welcome
3. Candyman
4. Nasty Naughty Boy
5. I Got Trouble
6. Hurt
7. Mercy on Me
8. Save Me from Myself
9. The Right Man

Review

Doubtlessly the best Aguilera album up until now it shows great musical growth since Stripped, which already showed a big evolution from her self-titled work. That being said it is still mostly tween pop without much to teach.

However the big surprise here comes in the second disc, where a Jazz meets Moulin Rouge ambience works very well indeed. In fact she would be a much more respected singer if she had put out the second disc alone.

Not that there aren't good things in the first one, but the second is clearly superior and self-contained as well as less self-obsessed, in the end the whole thing is too long and sometimes a bit dull, but it shows Aguielra as the best of all the female popstresses, which in such a crap field is a mixed compliment.

Track Highlights

1. Welcome
2. I Got Trouble
3. Candyman
4. Ain't no Other Man

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Critically, the album was a success with a rating of 69/100 (generally positive reviews) on the website MetaCritic and is Aguilera's best reviewed album to date, receiving more praise than her second studio album Stripped which scored a 55/100 on MetaCritic. Entertainment Weekly published in their June issue a list of the 100 best albums of the last 25 years and Back to Basics is listed at number 80. As of November 2008, RCA Records announced Back to Basics has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.The album won Best International Album at the 2007 Brit Awards.

I Got Trouble: