Album review: Christina Aguilera, 'Bionic'

I guess this review was flagged to her Forums given the overuse of the juvenille word "hater" Please, the record is awful and belongs in 1999.

This is a preposterous review. She deserves better than this.

as if u really know even just SOMETHING...GET A LIFE..A REAL ONE...

The only thing I agree with in this review is that the ballads feel a bit out-of-place. (Okay...and I also agree that "Elastic Love" is one of the major highlights of the album.) I love Christina's ability to sing ballads, but I think that when you go on a 2-year-long promotion of your album as a "futuristic" experience, you had better make sure that any ballads on your album have continuity with the rest of the songs. She could have done this by recording ballads stylized to sound similar to her reinterpretation of "Beautiful" on her greatest hits album, "You Are What You Are (Beautiful)." That way, the album could calm down without losing its post-modern sound. That being said, the rest of the qualities of the album are superb. Christina uses her voice in a variety of creative ways. Sometimes it is computerized (a la Goldfrapp), sometimes it is pure, quiet, and simple, and sometimes it is the most focused belting we have heard from her, yet. Vocally, it seems Christina has finally truly arrived. She has good collaborative instincts (as the songs I am least fond of on the album are the ones with Polow da Don, with whom her record label apparently forced her to collaborate), and the album largely remains playful, ferocious, and energetic.

I do hope that Christina will make a move back into the adult contemporary genre along the lines of certain songs from her Stripped album era (such as the inspirational "Cruz," "Soar," "Keep On Singin' My Song," and "Hello"), but it's hard to guess at what direction she will take after this album. Regardless, I'm sure that she will be accused of "oversinging" yet again by critics who don't know the first thing about Italian opera (if they think Christina "oversings," they clearly haven't listened to any Verdi soprano recitatives) and are most likely peeved that none of their music heroes have even half the vocal mastery/intelligence that Christina possesses. This album may be a reflexive act of retaliation to the typically-celebrated-at-radio quartet of solo female pop singers of the past 5 years (Beyonce, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna), but if so, it has been executed far better than anyone could have expected.

I actually enjoy the album, all of the songs on bionic, though I have to admit, Not Myself Tonight is a total miss for me.
And it's highly different from what is now promoted on the pop scene.
Concerning "Glam" she said before it resembles Madonna's "Vogue" but listening to it, except for the spoken lyrics sequences, I can hardly see any similarities there...

Like I'm really going to care about the opinion of someone who looks like you. lol Someone like you clearly doesn't get what Christina is all about. She tries out different sounds with each album. It's called being a versatile artist. I barely even read the article.

A shame. Among the young pop stars of her generation she was the one with the best singing voice and she was drop-dead gorgeous and certainly ended up better than Britney. Just because Lady Gaga is doing something doesn't mean there isn't a damn thing wrong with what Christina's doing.

The critic is 100% accurate here.
Christina is much more talented than an album like this allows her to be.

She has a great vocal talent and singing limited range "lady Ga-Ga-like" crap over boring repetitive drum loop samples is below her talent level.

Somebody below said "music is evolving".
I would day they are mistaken.
Music today seems to be "devolving".

Hundreds of years ago we had guys like Mozart conducting full complex orchestras in their heads , then we had the big band era, then we had rock.

Today in many cases music has simplified down to one single, irritating, monotonous beat playing over and over and over and over with a pitch shifted harmonized voice singing "I want you again and again" all over it.

If we devolve music much more, we will have people simply banging rocks together and grunting gibberish ------ uhhhmmm, yeah kind of like Rap.

Christina Aguilera is the greatest singer in the world! I just bought the album and it's great. I give this album 4 out of 4 stars.

Bad article! Totally a hater! If this is one star out of 4, then no album should get 2 and all other albums should get a .5 star! What are you a music genius? i doubt.

HEY Greg Kot, You don't know about REAL music. Maybe you just know about Gaga, or Pigney, etc

I couldn't disagree with this review more!

this is insane ! what is happening to the media.this is no joke.this album is one of the most diverse piop album ever.it is HIGH standard.im not a fan but i just hate the way people scrutinize christina .I love the direction she is taking her music, "Since her start she was doing her own thing and not caring what anybody says. This woman has been around 10-plus years and for anybody to pin her against Gaga is seriously dumb. They are their own person and do their own thing."she has no public arrests, doesn't have sex tapes out there, she didn't go crazy and shave her head, isn't sleeping around with every guy, no mugshots, do DUI arrests, etc

god bless christina she is the best among all the girls.she step it up.every album and she is just the best!

Wow. This is the worst record review I've ever read in my life. One star?!? It's not my favorite record of all time, but it is at least a fun listen and SHOULD appeal to her fanbase. Unfortunately, there are quite a few sheep out there who will read a load of bollocks like this and blindly believe the sewage which spews from your mind.

One final question ; When do ballads mixed in with dance tracks NOT sound "tacked on"? I mean, did you expect her to put out a seperate E.P. filled with ballads in a blatant attempt to sell more record without putting in the time to record a "proper" record? Oh wait Gaga did that already...

this is so obnoxiously bombastic and disrespectful. I don't know who the hell u think that u r

It's pathetic that you took such a one-sided view to this album. I don't know what it is about Christina, but the media love to slap her down. This album is completely different from anything she's ever put out. She reinvents herself for every album, which is a good thing! Would you have preferred she put out another Back to Basics or Stripped album instead? (both of which were great albums by the way...). It's progression, of her as a person and as an artist and where she is creatively at this time in her life. As a music reviewer, one would think you'd be the first to spot it but alas, no. You took the low road, slamming damn near every track.

The sound is a lot different than anything I've ever heard from her, but the more you listen the more you see the different sides of the songs and their meaning. You come off sounding like a super-biased hater in this article; not the least bit objective. A 1 star rating is a joke, and it's clear from the majority of the comments on this article that you and your narrow-minded Aguilera hating review of this album are in the minority on this one...

I would be ashamed of being an Xtina fan at this point due to the sheer lack of intelligence on these posters' part. Just because a critic didn't like the album doesn't mean he's being mean.He's doing his job and reviewing an album. If you all don't like contrasting opinions, keep your heads buried in the sand.

I have no idea what you heard when you listened to this album. Bionic is an amazing album. It opens with the title track, Bionic. Just listening to that song I knew I was in for a great ride the rest of the album.

I will agree with a lot of critics that Not Myself Tonight is not the best song to release. I would have rather seen Whoohoo released as the first single. Nicki Minaj is a new face that is guesting on a lot of tracks so only makes sense to release that first.

The song Elastic Love is one of the best songs on the album. It does not best show her vocal talents but what it does show is her versatility as an artist.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE ELECTRO/HOUSE MUSIC OR KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE REAL DEAL CLUB STUFF, THEN YOU WON'T LIKE THIS ALBUM.

THIS ALBUM REMINDS ME OF MY OLD NEW YORK CITY CLUBHEAD DAYS.

I DON'T SEE GIMMICK IN THIS ALBUM. I SEE HER USING THE TYPE OF BEATS I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO SINCE 1991.

The person who reviewed this album did not come in with an open mind. You insulted "Stripped"?

Stripped was an album where Christina sung about child/spousal abuse from the hands of her father, following your dreams, moving on from negativity, beating to your own drum, female empowerment, the hardships of growing up, low self esteem, being strong, etc and you call it a "stripper pole come-on"? That was the album that diversified Christina from all of these other pop tarts and showed that she has meaning and depth in her music. You have an obvious dislike for Christina and did not give it the true chance and come in with an open mind especially for the TYPE of music it is.

It never ceases to amaze me when fans think their favorite artists can do no wrong. Judging by the responses that are critical to the reviewer, I believe that most of these responders listen to music that ALWAYS sounds the same, and/or only listen to a few certain artists. They will never make an attempt at listening to anything other than the usual lame, tame, paint-by-the-numbers "music" their favorite artists sell. As a result, whenever a critic writes anything the fan views as derogatory towards their favorite "artists", the fans react in an over the top way because they take the criticism of the recording output personally.

Heck, I don't care to listen to her album, or anything else that is remotely similar. Most of the pop, r&b, and hippety hop music isn't even played by these artists because they have extremely little actual musical ability. But, since they can rhyme or hit the high notes or can wear the clothing, they then become "artists" in the eyes of the ever increasingly, dare I say, dumb public that will eat this stuff up. This is why I NEVER listen to the radio. All radio does is tell you and your friends what to listen to.

And we all know how important it is for these music consumers to mirror the tastes of their friends.

Come on let's give credit where credit is due! She's the best vocalist of this generation. Her vocals alone already earn 3 stars automatically!!

While I wouldn't give the album 1 star, it's by far nothing special. It's not horrible, in fact it's perfectly average and no better or worse than most of what's on the radio or in clubs right now. But that's the problem.

Everything on the album could easily be a Rhianna song, a Beyonce song, a Ke$ha song or a song by any other current pop star. It takes absolutely no chances and sticks to the current tried-and-true pop formula. Sure, a song like "Prima Donna" is catchy and would be fun on the dancefloor but there is nothing that sets it apart from any of the other catchy, fun dance songs. If you were to take out Xtina's voice there would be absolutely nothing original or signature about the song. It could be a song by anybody.

Bionic's biggest fault is that it's completely on par with all the other dance-pop albums coming out lately. It's happy enough to just settle for being as good as all the other Top 40 hits out there without making any effort to stand out among those Top 40 hits.
Bionic could have tried to take pop in a different direction but, instead of experimenting a bit with what the concept of what a "futuristic" album could be, it just goes with the flow of what everyone else in pop is already doing.

is this a review? or just another hater posting hate comments? why am i on this page in the first place?can i get your job please? i think you're living a horrible life,, lol

"Nonsence" blogger"?

He must be one of many. Most reviews on this album have been largely unfavorable and mediocre at best.

This album comes across as pathetically try-hand and is the flop of the lot for Christina.

Suck it up Christina fans.