The 21st Century Diva is back with an incredible album, “Back To Basics”. Christina Aguilera has been out of the music scene for a while and was enjoying her new life as a married woman, but thankfully her break didn’t last too long, and finally her third album is here! Dare I say that this is the best Christina Aguilera album yet?

The album begins with a haunting “Carnival” tune, with Linda Perry (the album’s producer and singer in 4 non blondes) promising “The greatest show on Earth!”. The orchestra takes it’s queue and slides into a chord progression Abbey Road would be proud of.

Christina claimed to be ‘stripped’ on her last album, yet this record sees Christina at her most raw. The scratchy blues were taken a step further with a bass-drum microphone with fabric muffling. For some songs Christina recorded the vocals with a cold, and even resorted to drinking whiskey and sang as close to the mic as she could. If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is!

These techniques were new to Christina who said, “That’s so not like me, no effects, no reverb and I’m a reverb queen! Every scratch, every little imperfection is there.” Don’t think the diva’s gone soft though!

Tracks like “Still Dirrty” and “Naughty Naughty Boy” are reminiscent of the scantily glad babe dancing around with her piercings on show. It’s just now that part of Christina only comes out when she gets the urge… which makes her even more sexy!

Back to Basics sees Christina’s vocals at her absolute best, the album could be more varied (it does favour the 1920’s theme over anything else) but nevertheless it’s one of the best albums of the year and is not to be missed!