Album review: Christina Aguilera - Lotus

I should have known that Christina wasn't taking her shit seriously. Leaking gravy whilst performing at a funeral. Announcing she'd love to do a world tour when she knows damn well it won't be happening any time soon. Letting her stylist clown her on The Voice and then unveiling her Brooke Hogan looking-ass album art for Lotus. "Your body" at least signalled that Christina finally saw sense and delivered a very on trend lead single. But for all of the Euro club and trend leading shown in "Your body", Lotus shows that Christina has not learnt enough lessons following the mauling and chart failure of Bionic. Because she has somehow managed to make a far worse album.

Whilst Christina is known amongst her fans for being the ultimate risk taker and being able to tame every genre, the one thing she never seems to be able to settle on is consistency. What is seen by many to be artistic and virtuous, comes through to me as an artist who isn't sure of her sound. Stripped was a great album. I played that shit non-stop when it first dropped. But as much as I liked it, it was all over the place. Back to basics was consistent across both discs, but her lack of ability to settle on one style / sound or mesh two discs worth of material cohesively into a one disc album is why it was two discs. Bionic was just a complete mess. And her fifth offering Lotus is another album which seems unsure of what it wants to be, from an artist who seems to believe she's sure of her sound, but couldn't be any less sure of it. Whilst Christina's peers and contemporaries have managed to find their sound and target audiences, Christina continues to be on a voyage with hers. Lotus sees Christina's compass needle spinning all over the place and rarely pointing in the direction of a solid song.

Album opener and album highlight "Lotus intro" is one of the best tracks on the album, but also one of the most misleading. Not just because it is in fact a full length track and not a minute and a half intro as the name would have you imply. But because it signals a new direction from Christina, only to be followed up on with a bunch of songs which sound forgettable, outdated and which other artists have done better.

The one genre which Christina ran from like a ho from a pimp whose payment is due, is the one in which Christina's shines brightest on this album. Pop. "Red hot kinda love" is fun, bubbly and catchy, with Christina running complete circles around it vocally. Album highlight "Let there be love" sounds like everything else on the radio, but what sets it apart are the VOCALS. A completely unrestrained vocal turn from Christina make this a diva club anthem of proportions we've not heard in a minute. "Circles" is just about a decent song. The verses are easy breezy and follow a similar tone to Cheryl Cole's "Under the sun" (both of which share the same producer). It's really catchy and sing-a-longy, but then the chorus hits and sinks the song into what I can only describe as The Joker and Harley Quinn having a renegade sex party at a fairground carousel. Christina's stank attitude has always reportedly been a problem and this song is chock full of it, with Christina calling out her haters and dropping f-bombs. But despite its shortcomings, "Circles" still about falls on the side of decent. I'm rather baffled as to how the f-bombs were left in this song, whilst "Your body" had it's f-bombs on the hook replaced with the word 'love'.

Elsewhere on this album however, Christina falters. "Army of me" is dubbed by Christina herself as being "Fighter 2.0", but the gay karaoke mess of a song doesn't come close to its Stripped predecessor. Christina's collaboration with Cee-Lo feels like a weaker version of "Red hot kinda love", and frankly that song was so good and tapped into all the 70s funk this album needed, that "Make the world" feels redundant. The album's big ballad "Blank page" is about as bland as...a blank page. "Light up the sky" has a song tucked away within it somewhere, but muddy production which bleeds everything into a muffled drone makes it difficult to find. And "Cease fire" and "Best of me" follow suit, making it a hat trick of songs of Christina singing to the beat of the same drums struck at different tempos, courtesy of the albums' main contributor Alex da Kid. Muffled military drum lines with screaming over them. It's a mess.

Vocally Christina sounds strong. But she doesn't offer up as much versatility as she did on previous albums. Christina doesn't flutter as she did on Back to basics' "Without you". Give you the soul she gave on "Understand". Vocally seduce you as she did on Bionic's "Desnudate". Or coolly croon as she did on "Glam". She tends to stay within the space vocally on most of the albums songs, which is safe and incredibly boring to listen to when you know she can do so much more. Lotus showcases that Christina can sing for those who hadn't heard her scream on numerous occasions over the past decade. But do not exhibit all of the other things she can do with her voice other than belt. And given that the whole world knows she can sing, it's not all that impressive any more. It's like hearing Mariah do the whistle register. It was amazing on "Vision of love" when we heard it for the first time. It was BOWSS like on "Emotion". But by "Butterfly" it was just a novelty. I feel the same about Christina's voice. Yes she can belt, hold notes and jump around an octave scale better than most. But on Lotus is feels so regressive. It's like Christina in her earlier years, before she realised how much more there is to singing than just hitting everything big.

Whilst Britney doesn't have Christina's pipes and some may question how much of Britney's artistry is down to her or being surrounded by a team who are able to steer it for her, the two things she continues to have over Christina Aguilera is consistency and an A&R who always seems to pick the right producers and the right songs. Alex Da Kid takes the lion's share of this album, but his sound is so forgettable and out of step with the other songs helmed by other producers. It feels as though everybody else was on the same page with the album, but then Alex decided to go off on a tangent. It would have been nice to have brought Tricky Stewart back into the mix as what he served up for Bionic was solid and I feel his productions would have complimented Max Martin's works nicely. Rodney Jerkins would have been a nice fit too and is a producer I've long wanted Christina to work with, as he always pulls it out of the bag for bitches who can sang. And as much of a mess as his sound is right now, he is versatile, his productions are well crafted and he tailors his work to those he works with. Christina has always said she likes to avoid working with the usual suspects, but given she booked studio time with Max Martin, she may as well have just called up Dr. Luke, Stargate, Rodney Jerkins and Bangladesh any way. Britney's Femme fatale was no masterpiece, but the songs flowed well, its sound was consistent and it had its fare share of potential singles.

As shitty an album as Bionic was, it did feature a couple of great stand out songs. The problem was that it was bogged down by a track listing which was too over long and badly put together with no clear focus. Lotus unfortunately also lacks a true focus, but it worse off because it has fewer stand out songs. There's nothing that will make asses shake in the clubs like "Woohoo". Nothing has trippy as "Elastic love". Nothing as camp as "Glam". Nothing as sexy and as funky as "Desnudate". Nothing as stunning as "You lost me". The album as a whole feels forgettable and lacks the defining factor that Christina's albums have had in the past. Stripped was overlong and featured every genre under the sun and the moons of Pluto. But the tenacity of Christina attempting such a thing for a sophomore album and going against the grain of what many expected from her at that point was admirable. As much as I couldn't stand Bionic, I kinda got what Christina was trying to do with it. But with Lotus I don't what Christina was trying to achieve with it.

The only wholly positive noteworthy aspect of this album is her teaming up with Max Martin. The one man she avoided like the plague whilst her Mouseketeer buddies were herded into a studio with him during Jive's golden era of pop in the early noughties. For Christina to work with him an entire decade later is somewhat momentous, as it's a union that many expected to happen years ago. Which ponders the question 'I wonder how things would have gone had they worked together back then?'. Max Martin's contributions are the best of the bunch by a mile. "Your body" is a slow burner. But "Let there be love" is like on a first listen. It would have made for a more immediate hit than "Your body", yet it's understandable why RCA didn't go with it - as it is essentially of the same thread of what every female in pop has done and is doing. But given "Your body"'s chart performance and Lotus' first week sales, I'd imagine it is being considered for a single now to salvage the wreckage. It's the only song on the album which could be a potential hit, because f**k all else on the album could do much of anything.

Lotus by all accounts should have just been a solid pop record. But in a bid to show she's different, she littered it with one too many genres, a bunch of songs where the sincerity of her lyrics and vocals come off as insincere, because Christina never sounds genuine enough on them. Lotus isn't a comeback. It's a come down. The whole thing manages to feel simultaneously overthought and not thought of enough.

Album highlights:

■ Lotus
■ Red hot kinda love
■ Your body
■ Let there be love ★ J's fave
■ Circles