Like fellow former Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera has kept her career moving forward with regular shifts of direction and savvy choices of collaborator. So far we have had the R&B lite of her debut, a nod to her Latin roots with the Spanish language Mi Reflejo and a premeditated descent into depravity with Stripped.

Having successfully shed her teen roots and elevated herself into a premier league diva, Aguilera clearly feels that she is now in a position to expand her repertoire and take the fans with her.

Back to Basics finds her transformed into a platinum blonde forces sweetheart, and the music is often as bold and brassy as the image. Split over two CDs, it seeks to have her pop out of a cake, and then eat it. The first disc finds her occupying familiar ground with a combination of precisely tooled hip-hop soul and a smattering of ballads.

She is assisted by Rich Harrison (who has never topped Amerie’s One Thing but comes close here with the Labelle-style Makes Me Wanna Pray) and DJ Premier (Gangstarr). The latter provides the beats for the kinetic lead single Ain’t No Other Man and the crisp old-skool mover Back in the Day. His paws are also all over Still Dirrty, in which Aguilera reminds us that she hasn’t turned into a nun overnight.

The second disc reunites her with Linda Perry to toy with 1930s and 1940s music, though she seems unsure whether it would stretch to a whole CD so there are more straight ballads, too. Candyman is a saucy pastiche of the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, (“He’s a one stop shop/ Makes my panties drop”), while Nasty Naughty Boy is rasping, speakeasy jazz.

It sounds messy but what holds Back to Basics together is Aguilera’s sheer vocal presence. Her range is terrific, her phrasing impressive and her grasp of dynamics means that she can shift from a purr to a growl at the snap of a suspender. She’s one classy dame, after all.

(BMG)

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