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Main >> News Listing >> June 2003 >> Article ID 7044
 Christina Aguilera - Sound Recording Review | Type: Internet Article |
| | Christina Aguilera - Sound Recording Review | Jun 2003 | by Vincent Stephens
Christina Aguilera, 1999 CD, RCA 07863 67690-2
Throughout the rock era, from Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers to New Kids on the Block, teen pop acts have served as a formidable commercial boon to record companies by appealing to the ears, eyes, and hormones of young America. Given the commercial resurgence of teen pop around 1997, predictably a host of acts modeled on similar slick formulas (the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, C-Note, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore) are emerging from record labels.
The formula consists of draping young, eager showbiz pros in stylish clothes, equipping them with a host of vocal teachers, choreographers, and handlers, and shepherding them into recording studios to record catchy pop songs with kid appeal and syrupy puppy-love ballads to appeal to adult radio formats. Sustained success in popular music requires careful attention to sound and style. Given the disposable, assembly-line musical quality of most teen pop, the new crop of late '90s teen pop acts has been critically dismissed as flashes in the pan--stylish and sexy, but devoid of musical merit. Regardless of these predictions, the one talent with the clearest potential to endure is Christina Aguilera.
Aguilera is dressed up and targeted to the same audience as her peers, but in actuality her sturdy voice's ease with ballads and dance material is closer in spirit and execution to pop-soul singers like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Aguilera, who at times sounds eerily close to Houston, Carey, Celine Dion, and Toni Braxton, has soaked up and synthesized the vocal qualities of these pop divas into a persuasive, if unoriginal, sound. Her debut, with little writing or production input credited to Aguilera, predictably mixes up-tempo dance numbers and big-chorus ballads custom-tailored for big voices. Her record label has pulled out all the stops to ensure commercial success, connecting her with slick songwriters and producers like Guy Roche, Stephen Kipner, Matthew Wilder, and Diane Warren. The surprise is that even within these narrow formulas, her talent comes through convincingly, a quality shared with Houston and Carey's debut albums.
Her first single, the radio hit "Genie in a Bottle," blends a catchy hook and suggestive lyrics with crisp R&B crooning over a percolating rhythm track. Aguilera, who arranged the song's vocals, sounds perfectly innocent and flirtatious. "What a Girl Wants," with its staccato rhythm, and "So Emotional," with its insistent hook, are convincing R&B-lite that would do Lisa Stansfield or TLC proud. "Come On Over," with an opening intro similar to "Summer Nights" from Grease, is a sunny and infectious number that would sound great at a school dance or a clambake. Despite stock lyrics and predictable hooks, Aguilera soars on these songs because she understands their basic vocal and rhythmic demands and slides in comfortably, capturing their spirit while asserting her vocal prowess.
Aguilera's ballad performances showcase her raw vocal strength but are somewhat derivative and, in typical diva fashion, reveal a tendency to over-emote. The album's best song is the double-consciousness ballad from the animated film Mulan (Disney) called "Reflection," originally released in 1998. Though at times she sounds like early Whitney Houston, Aguilera navigates the melody in a smart, soulful way, uncovering the dramatic context but giving it a more personal dimension. She extends this quality to the mellow, understated "Blessed."
"I Turn to You" is a Diane Warren original that sounds awfully close to Warren's 1996 composition "Because You Loved Me," sung by Celine Dion. Not surprisingly, Aguilera sounds similar to Dion, especially in the song's ending verses. Like most Warren ballads, the song starts with a mellow keyboard and guitar intro, segues into verses filled with generic imagery, and swells to a catchy chorus that explodes during the climactic bridge, where Aguilera more than rises to the challenge. Despite the song's predictable structure, Aguilera is one of the few young singers who has the vocal equipment to pull off this type of material and actually sound like she believes it, which is what ultimately distinguishes her from her peers. She pulls off similar vocal feats in "Love for All Seasons" and the talent-show ballad "Obvious." These songs are not particularly distinctive, but Aguilera keeps them interesting.
The album has its share of filler, including indistinguishable mid-tempo numbers like "Somebody's Somebody" and "Love Will Find a Way," which recycle the sound of other album tracks and the pillow talk of "When You Put Your Hands on Me." On these songs, Aguilera also sounds so similar to Mariah Carey's girl-group, gospel-inflected harmonies and ad libs that you would think they were samples. Aguilera also limits herself to doe-eyed love and appreciation songs with limited attention to the world outside of teenage love. Outside of "Reflection," all of her songs express love in the limited senses of devotion or light eroticism.
Aguilera is clearly a developing talent whose raw talent is enough to transcend the label of "teen pop." In order to distinguish herself from the "diva" company she emulates, she must work harder at developing a more distinctive sound and look for more distinguished material. Personal songwriting and production contributions might assist in these areas. Still, among her peers she is at the head of the class |
 Source: Popular Music and Society | |
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