Christina Aguilera - Liberation

The Guardian 80

(RCA)

The last decade hasn’t been kind to Christina Aguilera. Her most recent albums, Bionic (2010) and Lotus (2012), were commercial failures, either too experimental or too on the nose. Her stint on the US version of The Voice kept her profile alive but creatively suffocated her. Despite her tenacity, her position as one of pop’s peak divas was crumbling.

But with Liberation, Aguilera is at her most artistically emancipated since Stripped (2002). The Jackson 5-sampling Maria, produced by Kanye West, blasts her near decade-long identity crisis, while Sick of Sittin’ is as thrillingly acerbic as 2002’s Fighter. Fall in Line, a screech-off with fellow vocal acrobat Demi Lovato, is loud but surprisingly rousing, as is the typically Aguileran ballad Twice – although multiple interludes begin to feel tedious.

Pitchfork 67

The pop survivor shows off her powerhouse voice, dabbles in try-hard slang, and takes tentative steps toward creative rebirth on her first album since 2012.

The Guardian 60

Aguilera’s eighth album includes some great collaborations with Kanye West, Demi Lovato and Anderson.Paak

The most striking track on Christina Aguilera’s eighth album is called Fall in Line. On the surface, the collaboration with the similarly leather-lunged Demi Lovato looks like one of her trademark anthems of self-empowerment rebooted for the age of woke pop: Beautiful or The Voice Within given a #MeToo makeover, complete with an introduction that features a collage of little girls’ voices and a climax with Aguilera doing her nut in time-honoured, lung-busting, ad-lib-heavy style. But it’s more interesting than that. For one thing, the music is more engaging than the standard soaring piano ballad to which she’s previously set this sort of thing. The rhythm proceeds at a funereal pace, the Feeling Good-esque orchestration is underpinned by a gloomy electronic bass pulse, the parody of hip-hop misogyny – in slowed-down, screwed style – is so accurate that you could easily miss its satirical intent. For another, the lyrics avoid cliche and carry the authentic tang of hard-won experience. Aguilera and Lovato alike sing them like they mean them: “All the youth in the world,” warns one line, “will not save you from growing older.”

Related: Sign up for the Sleeve Notes email: music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras

Related: Dirrty or Disney: which Christina Aguilera are you?