Christina Aguilera

Don't laugh, but Christina Aguilera -- the bubbly Mouseketeer turned bubblegum pop star turned bitchy ubervixen -- is now a jazz chanteuse/hip-hop revivalist. But, despite what you may imagine, this album is pure gold. Famed hip-hop producer DJ Premier handles half the production duties, and his crackling yet forceful soul splits the difference between the post-everything pop of Justin Timberlake and the looser-than-a-goose meanderings of neo-soul. Aguilera, meanwhile, delivers a string of gut-wrenching vocal performances, proving that she's the most talented singer from the late-'90s bopper set.

Despite Christina Aguilera's claim in the new song "Still Dirrty" that she's "still got the nasty"
in her, it would be fair to say that the girl in the assless chaps has undergone a serious
de-skankification since her 2002 album Stripped. Perhaps it was inevitable: She married a
nice Jewish guy, overhauled her style, kept it low-pro for a couple of years and
re-emerged looking like a 2006 Lana Turner in Christian Louboutin pumps. For he... More >