The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

MUSIC: ’Lotus’ wilts from start to finish

Aguilera’s fifth album has no clear musical angle. From sad ballads to country songs to electronic beats, it’s hard to tell what Aguilera’s style as a musical artist is anymore. Album art taken from RCA and Sony BMG Music Records.
Aguilera’s fifth album has no clear musical angle. From sad ballads to country songs to electronic beats, it’s hard to tell what Aguilera’s style as a musical artist is anymore. Album art taken from RCA and Sony BMG Music Records.

Aguilera’s fifth album a chaotic, misguided flop

Aguilera’s fifth album has no clear musical angle. From sad ballads to country songs to electronic beats, it’s hard to tell what Aguilera’s style as a musical artist is anymore. Source: RCA and Sony BMG Music Records.

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In the past year, Christina Aguilera has been best known for her stint as a judge on the TV show, The Voice.  Week after week, Aguilera works as a coach and judge for contestants on her team in hopes of pursuing the strongest singer.

Now it’s time for her to face the music.

Aguilera’s fifth full album “Lotus,” reveals that Aguilera has lost her way as an artist. The first song on the album, “Lotus Intro” is the only song truly worth commending in the entire album. The song gives hope that Aguilera’s music may be palatable to those who cherish Aguilera’s new persona as an auto-tune-addicted pop star. While the song does nothing in terms of showcasing the ballad vocals that Aguilera is known for, her interesting style of electronic synthesization separates her from the majority of other autotuned artists.

From there however, Aguilera seems more off-course as her album loses its way song after song. In the eighth song on her album, “Blank Page”, Aguilera attempts to reach back to her roots as a ballad artist. Plopped near the middle of the album, this sad ballad seems like one long apology for yet another flop of an album as she pleads, “In my own way, I regret choices I’ve made/ How do I say I’m sorry?”

Um. By not putting out this mess of an album? That would be a good place to start.

The chaos doesn’t stop there. Turns out Aguilera thinks she’s some sort of a country artist as well. In her song, “Just a Fool”, featuring Blake Shelton, Aguilera croons about a long lost lover that she apparently thinks about while she gets intoxicated at the bar. Aguilera is no country artist, her vocals clash Shelton’s dramatically, making the entire song extremely awkward to listen to. Aguilera’s “Just a Fool” for thinking she could stick a country song in the middle of an electronic pop album and get away with it.

“Lotus” is not the only thing pushing Aguilera’s career down the drain. Aguilera’s stint as a judge on “The Voice” comes to a close in the near future. Truthfully, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Aguilera wasting yet another opportunity to release a Grammy Award-worthy record as she now faces a potential end to her entire musical career. Hopefully Aguilera won’t disappear into oblivion anytime soon. She may have lost her way as an artist, but there’s no denying that she’s still an amazing vocalist that still has a lot to offer.

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