Product Summary | Technical Info | Professional Reviews | | Artist Bio | |
Song Listing | ![]() |
Disc 1
| | Song Title |  |  | Time | Price | Download | | 1. Intro (Back To Basics) |  | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 2. Makes Me Wanna Pray | | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 3. Back In The Day | | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 4. Ain't No Other Man | | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 5. Understand | | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 6. Slow Down Baby | | | ------ | $0.99 | Download | | 7. Oh Mother | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 8. F.U.S.S. | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 9. On Our Way | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 10. Without You | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 11. Still Dirrty | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 12. Here To Stay | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? | | 13. Thank You | | | ------ | Song not available. Why? |
| How long does it take to download a song? |  | Broadband: under 1 minute | | 56 kbps modem: 15-20 minutes |
| One of the most accomplished performers of the last decade, Christina Aguilera has sold well over 25 million albums worldwide and cultivated a fan base that crosses generational, racial and gender lines. Now, segueing from the audacious sexuality of her second studio album, Stripped, the chameleon-like performer pays tribute to the music that has inspired her with the August 15th release of Back To Basics (RCA Records). A modern take on vintage jazz, soul and blues from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and beyond, her third studio album is wildly inventive, whose throwback style creates a sound that's gritty and raw. The album reunites her with producer Linda Perry and offers new collaborations with producers such as DJ Premier. The upbeat first single, "Ain't No Other Man," will be world-premiered on the MTV Movie Awards on June 8 prior to its debut on June 12. "This is a concept album that follows a bold vision," explains Aguilera. "The touchstones are Billie Holiday, Otis Redding, Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald - what I used to call my 'fun music' when I was a little girl." The double album, Back To Basics utilizes an orchestra, choir, string quartet and jazz horns, as well as techniques that, according to GQ, "blends a vintage-soul sound with state-of-the-art beatsmanship to form a throwback/hip-hop showcase for her outsize voice." "I Got Trouble" incorporates a scratchy blues feel, while "Candy Man" recalls the tight harmonies of all-girl groups from the '30s and '40s "Save Me From Myself" is an emotionally naked, raw-sounding song dedicated to her husband. "Thank You," dedicated to her fans, features DJ Premier splicing bits of "Genie In A Bottle" with fan voicemail messages. Also sure to appeal to Aguilera fans is the risque song "Nasty Naughty Boy" (which has a '20s burlesque feel) and the sassy club track "Still Dirrty."
"No doubt the album of her career." Dot Music
"Good taste in collaborators and a voice that has the capability to head heaven-bound..." PopMatters
"A truly soulful pop album...one of 2006's best..." Stylus Magazine
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info | | This CD includes "Back To Basics" bonus video. | | Christina Aguilera seemed intent on constantly reinventing herself over the course of her first several albums, and it's hard not to be impressed by her leaps from teen-pop sensation (1999 self-titled debut) to raunchy, sexually precocious R&B singer (2002's STRIPPED) to blues and jazz-steeped diva on 2006's BACK TO BASICS. With its smoky torch songs, occasional big-band arrangements, and allusions to seminal divas like Billie Holiday and Etta James, the ambitious double disc casts Aguilera in the soft, romantic light of vintage soul crooners. | | Yet BACK TO BASICS is undeniably modern. In fact, the first disc, assisted by the hand of the always-stellar trackmaster DJ Premiere, thumps alongside any club bangers of the early 2000s. Aguilera's dirty-girl persona is still present here, but she's dressed up and fitted into better songs and productions. The nostalgia-hued vibe of the second disc--with the singer playing the breathy chanteuse--provides a perfect complement to the first, so that the album as a whole reveals an artist of increasing range, skill, and creative maturity. |
Producer: Christian Aguilera; Chris "DJ Premier" Martin; Ben H Allen; Big Tank; The Blitzburg Group; L Boogie; Andrew Chavez; Coodie & Chike |
Musical Guests | | Steve Winwood | | |
| | Artist Overview | | Britney Spears proved that the same goldmine that Madonna and Cyndi Lauper mined in the 1980s was again ripe for the picking, and she was immediately followed up the charts by another female teenybop sensation, Christina Aguilera. Closely aligned with Spears's style early on, Aguilera hit the charts in a major way in the late '90s. However, by the dawn of the new millennium, Aguilera had transformed herself from a bubblegum sensation to a raw and raunchy vamp (STRIPPED), and then to a mature, platinum blonde pseudo-traditionalist (BACK TO BASICS), positioning herself as a risk-taker with little connection to her Mousketeer past. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
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Rolling Stone (p.96)
- "The spirit of old-school jazz, blues and soul inhabits the set....Aguilera succeeds in balancing references to jazzbos and soul singers...with over-the-top kitsch."Entertainment Weekly (p.136)
- "[The] rugged dance tracks, mixing electronic beats with honking brass and other '70s soul samples, are perfectly suited to Aguilera's powerhouse belting." -- Grade: B Q (p.120)
- Ranked #48 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "[P]roducers DJ Premier and Mark Ronson helped Aguilera realise the mix of saucy soul and roaring gospel she envisaged." Uncut (p.99)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he second disc is the more interesting....It's psychedelically strange and outrageously entertaining." Entertainment Weekly 9 of 10
Aguilera doesn't have the gravitas of her heroes, and her forays into bluesy torch singing and '40s-style swing are stiff and mannered. But she needn't genuflect before the past - she can make her own glorious kind of 21st-century noise. CD 1 is helmed by DJ Premier (of '90s rap duo Gang Starr) and a host of other hip-hop producers, and their rugged dance tracks, mixing electronic beats with honking brass and other '70s soul samples, are perfectly suited to Aguilera's powerhouse belting...The second disc - a collaboration with Linda Perry, the writer-producer behind Aguilera's 2002 schlock-pop masterpiece ''Beautiful'' - ratchets up the bombast. - Jody Rosen
Now Magazine 8 of 10
If you take Aguilera's idea of the 2-CD set at face value, Back To Basics is the singer's tribute to pre-WWII-era jazz...Primo indulges Xtina's retro fetish with Jazzmatazz-y scratchy samples and raunchy 60s R&B loops, but it's wholly a contemporary soul-pop assault, with one killer track (lead single Ain't No Other Man), some standout floor-fillers, decent ballads and one gross misstep in fan-fellating (Thank You). And ultimately, Aguilera's the only one of her peers with the vocal prowess to pull it off. - Sarah Liss
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| Buy.com Total Price: $18.86 |
| | | In Stock: Usually Ships in 1 to 2 business days. |
| Christina Aguilera Christina Aguilera?s backstory is well-known. A native of Staten Island, the pre-teen began performing in local talent shows while growing up in Pennsylvania. In 1992, after appearing on ?Star Search,? She joined the cast of the Disney Channel?s ?The New Mickey Mouse Club.? In 1998 Aguilera?s song ?Reflection? for Disney?s Mulan led to a record deal with RCA and the release of her self-titled debut album in Summer, 1999. The album quickly hit #1 on the strength of its first dance/pop single, ?Genie In A Bottle? (which dominated the charts for five weeks) and other chart toppers including ?What A Girl Wants.? It was a feat she would repeat the following year with Mi Reflejo, the smash Spanish-language version of her debut, followed by her hit holiday release, My Kind Of Christmas. In 2001, Aguilera joined forces with Pink, Mya and Lil? Kim on the smash ?Lady Marmalade? single and video. That eye-popping slice of ear candy kept her front and center in the international spotlight even as she began, slowly and steadily, to lay the groundwork for her second album, Stripped. Released in October 2002, it sealed her status as an international superstar while transforming her previous squeaky-clean image into a fully sexualized woman with lots on her mind. Along with the superheated funk of the album?s provocative debut single, ?Dirrty,? came such standou |
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