I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Christina Aguilera ever since she came on the scene. I have always put her in the same category as Mariah Carey: a manufactured pop star (sometimes pretending to be r&b by hiring a slew of rappers) with a set of vocal pipes, but absolutely nothing else to offer. That changed a little bit with “Beautiful,” one of the best songs this decade. Still, Christina continued to over sing the most simple songs and actually ruined most of them.
2006’s Back to Basics earned Christina a lot of credibility, both from me and other critics. Her attempt at recreating the early sounds of the 20th Century, while also sounding completely fresh, was a major success. The album’s first single, “Ain’t No Other Man,” rushed into the top 10 and stayed there for weeks. The follow-up single, “Hurt,” was a hit as well. Just recently, Christina Aguilera has released one of the best, most addicting singles ever to hit the planet, “Candyman.”
This song, inspired by The Andrew Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” screams “play me” to even the most formulatic radio stations. She sings: "There's nothing more dangerous than a boy with charm/ He's a one stop shop, makes the panties drop/ He's a sweet talkin' sugar coated candy man/A sweet talkin' sugar coated candy man." The lyrics are cheesy and simple, but that’s the whole point to the song! It’s one of those brainless songs that you can’t get out of your head no matter what. It will even appear in your dreams if you try to forget about it.
Unlike other pop/r&b female starlets, Christina Aguilera doesn’t need to disguise her lack of musical talent anymore by calling Rent-a-Rapper, wearing skimpy outfits that don’t fit her body, hiring internet gossip/entertainment columnists to hype her music, and deep discounting her singles to 1/5th the price of others just so they can chart. She’s a true musical talent who appears to be moving in the right direction.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Pako
This is a good review, I like that you're objective though you drift a little bit, good anyway and motivated me to hear this song
2 - zingzing
like you can escape this song.
3 - daryl d
The video to this is awesome. I tell you, Christina is becoming a true talent.
4 - zingzing
dude. i have to give the producer some credit. it's a good production. a good production of an old hook. we're talking oasis-level thievery here. maybe i am saying something nice about this horrible thief, but i thought this was a cover when i first heard it. i could have sworn i had heard it before.
it's an okay song. pretty good on some levels. her singing is good, but it's the harmonies that make it so. not that that's a bad thing.
basically, saying this song is the heralding of a major new talent is like saying puff daddy is better than the police. (it's debatable.)
and "beautiful" is an AWFUL song. wretched. makes me want to whip jesus christ just for making such a thing (in some theory) possible. i think there is a youtube video of what i am talking about.
anyway, again you go with the chart placement. please, leave the charts to the twelve-year-old girls.
oh, do what you want. *puke*
you're right on one thing--she's better than mariah carey.
5 - Christopher Rose
She's also way better than Oasis, zinger, though possibly not as unique as Alvin Lucier and his unforgettable work!
6 - WTF
Zingzing, you're an idiot for saying Beautiful is an awful song because the music video is controversial. Try being tolerant instead of ignorant.
7 - zingzing
when did i say the video was controversial? i've never seen it...
(now there does happen to be a video where someone synced "beautiful" to images from mel's "passion" of someone whipping the shit out of j.c. up on youtube. but that has little to do with anything.)
so, just how was i being intolerant? or ignorant? hmm? try reading, comprehending, all that shit before you spout your mouth off, wtf, it helps.
8 - zingzing
she's certainly no alvin, chris. although i must say alvin couldn't do what she does either. as for being better than oasis, i half stand by oasis' first two albums. out of those two, you could make one very decent 10 or 12 track album. bit gallager is a thief, and that scores no points in my book.
i love pop. don't ever think i don't. i relish the day that i figured out prince wasn't some poncy little glamour-puss. i like liking justin timberlake. new order is my favorite group of all time. pop is good, and making good pop is much, much harder than making just about any other style of music. just bring something other than a voice and warmed-over old hooks to it.
9 - Leonel
i think christina is amazing, and her voice is an incredible gift! This song deserves to go to # 1. I saw her in concert last week on the 20th of Feb, in Houston... and OMG! her show was the best show i've ever attended. ;D
10 - Christopher Rose
zing: you have mostly good taste in music so I'm just going to pretend that you didn't say anything nice about the ultimate dreck that is Oasis!
Glad to know that you do like stuff like Prince and Justin Timberlake and absolutely delighted to know you rate New Order too. Now go buy Christina's last two albums and give them a real good listen. There's real art in them there grooves!!
11 - Alexandra
Christina tries way too hard and her voice is annoying as hell. She over-sings MAJORITY of the time which makes her singing not enjoyable nor appealing. We know she can sing, but how about making something listenable or enjoyable? Her music catalogue doesnt say much about her talent either. She has like 1 or 2 REALLY good songs from 3 or 4 albums - Beautiful and Hurt. She has a long way to go and ALOT more to improve. She's nothing special and tries to hard to prove something, well she aint fooling me.
12 - Patricia
And how much did Xtina pay you to hype her music? Like she said, she's still "dirrty".
13 - zingzing
chris--"very decent" is slight praise. especially when talking about oasis. blur is much, much better.
that said, there is no way i am putting any money in christina's purse. not unless she gives me a quick handjob. now, now. not THAT quick. i may go download it. (damn! she spits!)
major labels can fuck themselves.
14 - lovebub
why do these blogs always bring out the unintelligible?
15 - zingzing
what?
16 - Alex
Unfortunately for you Daryl, some radio stations refuse to play "Candyman" because they say 'Back to Basics' is DONE!
17 - Paulo Rafael de Mira Cabello
Christina Aguilera is just amazing.
And "Candyman" is PERFECT! *-*
"COCHISE"
18 - Percy
I really didnt get the point of comparing Mariah with Christina in this article. Its a personal opnion, but if you look back in Mariah's history you will cleary see that she re-invented many concepts, one of these, was about using rappers, but i really think that she did it because she wanted to mix rnb and hip-hop, and bring it all close as a multi-racial woman who believes in a multi-racial culture. Like Christina is doing nowadays with the conception of going Back to Basics to make a tribute to Old schools groups and jazz singers. Its really nice to see that some artists still believe in the roots of music and have a musical ideology ever if billboards top 10 is full of of those who only records a track to make it a hit. Christina's B2B have reasons to be celebrated just because it is trying a new musical flavor.
19 - travis
u guys are just haters plain and simple. unlike lohan britney hilton hilary and MANY others. shes still able to make hit after hit. i think its awesome shes able to reinvent herself over and over again. seriously look at the other celebs i mentioned from all of them INCLUDING aguilera who do u think has the most respect???thats exactly what i thought.. youre all just HATERS..oh and candy man is BRILLIANT.
20 - aRo
Candyman always stuck in my head...! who's better than Christina??? No one!!!
21 - Lisa
Boy, you really don't like Mariah Carey huh? You mention her in almost every review you do (lol). Isn't that a little obsessive? Anyways, Christina's Candyman is a great song, and she is a good singer. Get off Mariah's tits though. Cause it makes your reviews look pathetic sometimes. If Mariah didn't have nothing else to offer, then you wouldn't feel the need to trash her all the time cause you wouldn't give a crap.
22 - Kim
I think Christina is a good singer, but I think she oversings way too much, but you know what, it all boils down to personal tastes. I prefer singers that not only have a great set of chops, but singers who can move my soul without added volume. I agree with whoever said you got to give credit to the producer for Candyman, which by the way, is a Hip-Hop producer. Chrisitna A is defiantely one of the best singers out today. It will be interesting to see what her next album will like.
23 - arger.
Linda Perry is not a hip-hip producer. And the song is purposely and obviously playing tribute to Woogie Boogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters and music era.
It's hard to believe that some radio stations are refusing to play it when the video had been number 1 multiple times on MTV TRL and just became the number 1 video on VH1 Top 20 this week.
If radio is refusing it's because it's not the same-old, formatted predictable pop, hip-hop and rnb.
And sampling a military chant and including with a swing song -- pure genius.
24 - littleg
Oh please, just because a video hits #1 on TRL, or Vh1, doesn't mean it should be getting played on the radio. Radio will play it, if the general public want to hear it. It's that simple. TRL, Vh1, video countdowns are not reflective of the general public. Hillary Duff hits #1 on TRL all of the time, you don't see her songs getting played on the radio now do you? Candyman is a great song, but I wouldn't want to hear that song all the time on radio. I'm already tired of it.
25 - arger.
i'd agree with you, littleg that trl and vh1 are not representative of the whole market. my point, if there is demand for it on tv, there eventually may be demand for it as radio. now trl and the vh1 countdown are 2 different audiences. i think trl is younger and vh1 is older. so, if it's number 1 on both countdowns, i think that's significant. and as far as radio play candyman has been rising on the billboard charts. it's now in the 40s in it's 5th week on the hot 100. so, i think i may make it to number 1, but if not definitely, the top 10. so, that proves radio IS playing it.