While off work today I decided I needed some good tunes to accompany my surfing and free-wheeling across the world-wide-web. I chose “Back To Basics”, the new Christina Aguilera album.
It’s one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. The style of the album cover is no accident - this album could have come out at the height of the Motown era, when Aretha ruled the world. It would have given her a run for her money too.
I can’t help feeling that this album came about as an unexpected bonus when the money men realised how great Christina Aguilera sounded in the title track from the movie “Shark Tale”. In many ways it was a shame the movie bombed so spectacularly - perhaps it will serve as a warning to the studios that copying a successful movie (in this case Nemo) is not a recipe for success.
What am I saying? This is the same world where “Rocky 6” is about to be released, and where “Eragon” was made because “Narnia” did well - and “Narnia” was made because “Lord of the Rings” did well. I wonder just how fickle we are? The Harry Potter books have single handedly put books back into the hands of an entire generation of children. Eragon would not exist if “Harry Potter” and “His Dark Materials” had not done well. (side note - they are making “His Dark Materials” into movies too).
I’ve drifted off the title subject of this post, haven’t I. “Back To Basics” is a rare thing of beauty - an album that the studio let somebody make, rather than an album that was targeted by the legions of marketeers.
If you would like to have a sneaky listen to it, head on over to Amazon UK.