{"id":1217,"date":"2012-11-17T12:36:55","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T12:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/up\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/17\/aguilera-s-lotus-is-good-but-not-great\/"},"modified":"2022-10-29T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T14:04:30","slug":"aguilera-s-lotus-is-good-but-not-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/aguilera-s-lotus-is-good-but-not-great\/","title":{"rendered":"Aguilera\u2019s \u2018Lotus\u2019 is good, but not great"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christina Aguilera is easily one of contemporary music\u2019s best voices. She\u2019s got pipes that music lovers need to hear at a time when Top 40 radio features studio-enhanced vocals and award shows are full of lip syncing. That\u2019s why her fifth album, \u2018Lotus,\u2019 is somewhat disappointing \u2014 not because it isn\u2019t good, but because it isn\u2019t great.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sure, it\u2019s an improvement from 2010\u2019s \u2018Bionic,\u2019 a chaotic album that is Aguilera\u2019s only one not to reach platinum status. \u2018Lotus\u2019 is more focused, thankfully, but not as satisfying as her first three releases.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The new 13-track album is the singer\u2019s first music offering since she filed for divorce two years ago. And when she\u2019s emotional, she sounds best.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The title track kicks off the album nicely as Aguilera sings about starting over. On \u2018Best of Me,\u2019 she sings: \u201cWords cut through my skin, tears roll down my chin, my walls crumble within.\u201d And later in the song she sings in a beautiful belt: \u201cI will rise undefeated, I will not let you bring me down.\u201d You just want to cheer her on. Sing it, girl.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Another standout is the piano tune \u2018Blank Page,\u2019 co-written by Sia, whose work with Aguilera on \u2018Bionic\u2019 is that album\u2019s highlight. \u2018Sing for Me,\u2019 too, is great and sounds like a personal anthem for Aguilera, who has got a boost recently as a coach on NBC\u2019s \u2018The Voice.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Where the singer falls short is on what are supposed to be the \u2018fun\u2019 songs, like \u2018Red Hot Kinda Love,\u2019 \u2018Around the World\u2019 and \u2018Make the World Move,\u2019 which features a barely heard CeeLo Green. The first single, the Max Martin-produced \u2018Your Body,\u2019 is also a miss. Martin is a little better on his other contribution, the dance-heavy \u2018Let There Be Love,\u2019 which sounds typical of what\u2019s out there, but still feels like a radio hit.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s almost like Aguilera isn\u2019t getting the best material from the songwriters and producers on \u2018Lotus,\u2019 which includes Alex da Kid (Eminem\u2019s \u2018Love the Way You Lie,\u2019 B.o.B\u2019s \u2018Airplanes\u2019), Lucas Secon, Supa Dups, Claude Kelly, Bonnie McKee, Tracklacers, Steve Robson and others. Her excellent voice deserves excellent songs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christina Aguilera is easily one of contemporary music\u2019s best voices. She\u2019s got pipes that music…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,56],"tags":[1412,1411,726,215,682,306,307],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity","category-news","tag-lotus","tag-aguileras","tag-but","tag-good","tag-great","tag-is","tag-not"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3071,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/3071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}