Christina Aguilera [Import]

The CD kicks off with Genie in a Bottle, one of my favorites off of the CD and the first single that came from this CD. A blend of computerized background music, Christina's amazing vocals, and an eyebrow-raising message, this song was definitely the best one to kick off the CD. Following come a few more of my favorites. What A Girl Wants, my favorite song when I first got this CD, I Turn To You, which is very different from the dancing music of the first two songs, and So Emotional, another more soft song with a sexual twist to it. Come On Over follows and although I enjoyed it, I like the single version of the song better. Reflection follows, the famous ballad from Mulan, which pretty much gave Christina her career. A memorable song with a twist of Chinese music in the background, which was different from the music of the other songs, the song is then followed by the more unknown songs of the CD. But don't ignore them, for they equally show off Christina's talent if not moreso than the opening songs of the CD. Blessed, Obvious, and Love For All Seasons are among my favorites of those songs.

An enjoyable CD and an excellent debut, I recommend this CD, however, if you want the real Christina and not the fake Christina, check out Stripped, which I HIGHLY recommend. Also, check out My Kind of Christmas and Mi Reflejo (which includes a few of the songs on this CD in Spanish).

This problem perhaps could be remedied if the songs were strong enough to make you overlook this, but no such luck there. Take a look at a song like "Come On Over Baby" , with such profound lyrics as "I got something going on / All my friends are gonna come / Gonna party all night long" - and that's not even mentioning the title phrase being repeated ad nauseum. Then you have "Genie In A Bottle" with the thought provoking "My body's saying let's go / But my heart is saying no", also employing a double entendre in the chorus a la Britney Spears - the fact that someone would want to sound like that talentless marionette makes her look even less appealing. The songs on the album are completely meaningless - they're all about falling in love, and Aguilera must have been 16 at the time she recorded it; absolutely no one falls in love that young. Also like the aforementioned Spears, expect plenty of maudlin, melodramatic balladry and precious little in the way of organic instrumentation - it's just about all sequencers and drum machines.

In summary: Irrelevant bubblegum that sounds even more out of date in 2004 than it did in 1999, if that's possible. Definitely not the fantastic album that some people were making it out to be.