First Listen: Christina Aguilera - "Not Myself Tonight"

Apparently Christina Aguilera is supposed to be revealing a new sound on her upcoming album Bionic. With her new single, "Not Myself Tonight," that sound is apparently cacophonous electronic pop. Make no mistake, I have no problem with electronica or even most bad pop music. That what this blog's about, having questionable taste but enjoying it anyway.

That said, this track is not good.

It starts with a spoken intro and gives way to what seems to be the music behind Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack." And then the vocals. Oh the vocals. I literally could not understand the melody of the verses. Half-spoken, half-sung and at the end, scream-censored: I was very confused. I'd just like to say that I was reading the lyrics along with the song the whole time. It wasn't that I wasn't getting the words through all the quickly varying sounds, but as a whole, I'm not sure it made any sense.

Maybe I'm getting too deep with it, expecting to find meaning in a Christina Aguilera song. As a club track, it won't be terrible. When she's not singing, I actually don't hate it. But there are so many layers, bleep bloops and voices coming from every direction that even her own voice is lost in there. That's a problem. - Lanie

Look, I used to like Christina Aguilera a lot. That said, I haven't been into anything she's done since Stripped. Yeah. So I knew this wasn't going to be good for me. And then it started with spoken word and I cringed. Then I started singing Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" along with it, which, okay, if that was what you were going for, Xtina, then good job? I know people are doing that lately. (See example: being able to sing Britney Spears's "Womanizer" to Cobra Starship's "Nice Guys Finish Last" or being able to sing Blondie's "Call Me" to Muse's "Uprising.") But being able to sing "SexyBack" along with it was genuinely the best part of the song for me, and ... I don't like Justin Timberlake. The verses were a disaster, the entire concept of having a "pre-chorus" longer than the actual verse is something that grates on my nerves, and the chorus was nearly non-existent. And for this to be a pop song, the lack of a chorus is kind of going to be a huge flaw - pop music should have a catchy hook, and this track doesn't.

And let's not even discuss the faux-orgasm scream censorship and the idiotic spoken word at the end. - Julieann