Talking about... "Bionic"

I guess that everyone that knows me knows that I am a SUCKER for Miss Christina Aguilera. IMHO she is one of the greatest vocalists of ALL TIME and she made a couple of songs that are extremely important for me and that represent a lot of the things I went through in my life. 
As it is always taking a lot of time for her to release a new album, I had to wait four years for Bionic, which for me was the most antecipating album she ever made. When I heard, that she was working with Sia, Goldfrapp, Ladytron and other artists that I love, I was almost freaking out, because after listening to the new version of Beautiful ("You Are What You Are") and "Falling In Love Again", I really wanted to get more of that electronical stuff from her. 
A couple of months ago someone started to upload videos on YouTube in the name of "iamamiwhoami" and I really thought that this was Aguilera, but UNFORTUNATELY that is someone else. [People still are trying to find out who that woman is -.-] I'm using the word "unfortunately", because I totally LOVED those videos and the music that was played in it, but yeah... somehow I thought that those videos were too great and too "hard-to-get" to be from Xtina. Nevertheless, she came out with this – Bionic and since I am doing this „each post – a song“ thing, I’m going to use the category nº 10 „A song of my favourite band“ to talk about it. I got to say that it’s once again a very good pop album. But it seems as if she is trying too hard to record a „Stripped 2.0“ ["Stripped" = her 2002 album]. As she was saying that she worked with some many different artists on the record, I am very sad, that there are very few collaborations on the record and that the biggest part of the record is written by mostly „non-famous-people“. 
What I like is that she really, as she said, is using her voice in a different way on some of the songs of this album. We can also listen to some autotune, but sometimes we still get the classical-Christina-power-tubes. 
All in all it’s a good album and I am looking forward to got to the tour next year. 

The electronical beginning 

1 - Bionic (7/10) 
This album starts in a different way than the other ones. Normally Christina likes to put intros on her albums, but on this one she uses a whole song. It’s a very danceable and catchy track with some great bridges. What I noticed, is that the Stripped-references start already on the first song, because she talks about herself as being X-T-I-N-A. 
What makes me a little sad is that in my opinion this song doesn’t represent what comes to MY mind when I hear the word „bionic“. I was waiting for something different… something like „iamamiwhoami“. 

2 – Not Myself Tonight (7,5/10) 
Everyone knows her first single to this record and everyone was shocked by the sm-ish controversial videoclip. You know what? [I bet you do know that] I LOVED IT. And I loved the song. It’s catchy, it has a Justin Timberlake „Sexy Back“ beat and I love her voice. In my opinion it is the best club track on the album and she is giving us the follow up to „Dirrty“. 
Still it is nothing special… that’s why I only gave 7,5 points. But for what it is… it is great and it makes me want to dance a lot. 

3 – Woohoo (7/10) 
Starting with the intro of this song, I need to say that I love it. It’s spacy. It’s BIONIC. 
The song itself doesn’t seem very „bionic“ to me, but I don’t mind, because it’s another great dancetrack with some great beats.,
The lyrics are totally hilarious [All the boys think it’s cake when they taste my woohoo / 
You don’t even need a plate / Just your face ah!], but clubbing and singing along to this make you really want to dance and it provides a great funny night. 
I love the feature of Nicki Minaj on this track. She gives us the special flavour, that Lil’Kim had on „Can’t Hold Us Down“. 
[I have to say that I think, that she should have picked this song as the second single, instead of „You Lost Me“, because this one sounds more summer-ish.]

4 – Elastic Love (8,5/10) 
I love the way how her voice sounds on this track. Once she wore a t-shirt saying that „Autotune is for pussies“, but listening to this song now, I am so effing happy that she turned into a pussy that uses autotune on her voice! It’s a great electronic song [totally one of the best tracks on the record] with an amazing instrumental, a catchy bridge and even catchier chorus. I really need to say that I would never figured out, that she worked with M.I.A. on this track, if I wouldn’t know, because I still think that this sound more like other artists she worked with. 

5 – Desnudate (7/10) 
This song would deserve a 7,5, but I don’t like the lyrics that much to be serious. It’s a great dancetrack, but I think she could have done a better work on the lyrics. Imo this song should have been in spanish on its whole and not only in parts. Shame for this. But it is still a nice track. 

The laid back glam part 

6 – Love & Glamour (Intro) (no rating) 
I’m not rating this one, because it is very bad if you judge this as a single song. But it really is a great intro for Glam and it really completes it. 

7 – Glam (8,5/10) 
The first time I heard about this song, someone said that it’s like “the new "Vogue"”. When I listened to it the first time I didn’t get the Vogue-reference, but after listening to it a couple of times and really thinking about “Vogue” you totally see parallels and I’m extremely happy about it. It’s a great mid-tempo electronical song, that would have been an interesting first single (as people thought it would be). The lyrics are just GLAM and I could imagine a great videoclip to this song, so I hope she is making this a single. “Ready / Set / Now go, bitches!”

8 – Prima Donna (8/10) 
This is the MOST URBAN track Christina has ever made. Forget “Dirrty”, forget “Can’t Hold Us Down” and the Stripped-attempts-to-R&B. THIS IS R&B and I EFFING LOVE IT! 
Lyrics are nothing special, neither is her vocal performance, but this song is what no one was waiting for and now everyone loves it. I already do imagine people dancing to this song in the clubs. Did I say dancing? Oh I meant kissing, touching and even “f-wording”. 

The sexy time part 

9 – Morning Dessert (Intro) (4/10) 
Ok… this is one of the things that’s just not necessary. No one was in need for this. Not even “Sex For Breakfast” needed an intro. It would be fine if it would have come after Prima Donna, but ok… I am happy for this, because now I got a new alarm-bell tune. That is the only thing this song works for. 

10 – Sex For Breakfast (6,5/10) 
I’m not saying that I don’t like this song, because I kinda like it. I just think, that we wouldn’t need it. It sounds like a second „Loving Me For Me“. Christina also gave us the WORST lyrics she has ever sung on this track - „My strawberry cream is like a dream / My fantasy is reality“ – come on… „cream“ and „dream“? You could have done better. Seriously. 
Still it is a nice smooth song… but yet, nothing special. Nothing anyone needed. [But in fact it fits well to the album, that’s why it’s ok that she put it on it.] 

The vulnerable song 

11 – Lift Me Up (9/10) 
The first time we got to listen to this track was at the Haiti Relief concert in a stripped-down acoustic version. I fell in love when I heard it back in that time. I love her voice, I love the melody and most of all, I love the lyrics. I mean… those are one of THE BEST LYRICS she ever made. Btw, thanks to Linda Perry for being such a great songwriter. 
It is very interesting how different the song sounds on the album, because now, with all the synthesizer and drummings, it doesn’t sound at all as if she is lonely asking someone to lift her up. Actually it sounds as if she is in the middle of a lot of people… maybe that’s why she wants to be lift up. To escape out of the multitude…
I guess that's my favourite part on this song is the bridge when she is only singing the melody without using words in falsetto. Magical. Beautiful. One of the best songs she ever made. 

The acoustic heart of the record 

12 – My Heart (Intro) (no rating) 
Cute. It’s very cute, that we got to listen to her husband Jordan and to her son Max before it gets into “the heart of the record” (as she said by herself), but still I think that we could have lived without this. I mean… take out all the intros and give us a whole song. Wouldn’t that be better? 

13 – All I Need (8/10) 
We can really hear that Christina was very inspired and that she loved to work with Sia, because this could have been a song that would have fit perfectly on Sia’s “Some People Have Real Problems” from 2007. I love her the soft side she shows with her voice and that it really sounds like a lullaby that she made for her son Max. What I love the most is the chorus. It’s just really full of love and passion [“You bring me hope when I can’t breathe / 
You give me love / You’re all I need / Slowly I’m holding you closely / You’re wrapped in my arms / And you’re inside me”]. The melody and the acoustic instruments are very nice, because they turn this “heart of the record”-work with Sia turns the whole album into something very wonderful and shows that Christina is still able to do different things. I love the electronical stuff, but I’m very thankful that she shows this soft side, too. 

14 – I Am (8/10) 
Once again another song that just make you want to cuddle around with a person that you love. [For me it’s something terrible, since I am destinated to lifetime-singledom XD] I love the lyrics… for me it's the best part on this song and her voice is amazing again. I am one of the people that love it when Christina stars to get crazy, doing all those vocal-acrobatics, but I also love to hear her singing in this “soft-mode”. Totally beautiful. 

15 – You Lost Me (8,5/10) 
This song could have been perfection. But somehow it’s not, because after the first chorus it just starts to get a standard pop-track. The first verse and the first chorus are so magical. She is singing in this vulnerable way that makes me get goosebumps everytime I listen to it and somehow I just want to cry. I just think that the beat and the violins turn this song into something that remembers me Amy Winehouse and Duffy, which is not what I was expecting from a collaboration with Sia. This could have been Christina’s “Breathe Me”. Nevertheless, I love this song. The lyrics are amazing. The melody and the vocals are amazing, too. I just think that she could have done it better. [Btw: I HATE the radio mix she did for this.] 

The fun part (ending of the standard edition)

16 – I Hate Boys (6/10) 
I.H.B. is a nice catchy fun track, that really shows how Christina wanted this album to be a fun record. But I’d like to know something: Does it take four years to make a record with a song like this? I mean… the lyrics are terrible. The song is nothing special. It’s just something I’d be expecting from Britney Spears (that btw got songs with a lot better lyrics) or from Ke$ha, but not from someone that wrote an album like Stripped with amazing tracks. This song just seems to me as a song that she recorded to have fun… but to be serious I don’t think that it is necessary to put this on the standard edition of the album. This could have been a b-side, but not a song of the album. Disappointing. 

17 – My Girls (7/10) 
This song is a very catchy “Girls rule the world-anthem”,that I love to drive my car to. It’s just very poppy and I love the Le Tigre touch on it. It’s also nice to hear the voice of Peaches on this song. “My Girls” is nothing special, but it’s something different… we never heard Christina being that “indie” and she prooved that she knows how to be that way. Good job. 

18 – Vanity (7/10) 
This song is the most vain thing I EVER heard! But I love it. It’s sexy, it’s catchy and it’s danceable. The lyrics are very funny and everyone that is vain knows what Christina is singing about [“I found somebody better / I make myself so much wetter”]. Still I think that this song sounds a little confusing, because there after the classical Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus we get a couple of different parts that do not fit that well into the pop-song-concept. Still… great song! This should be a most-play-song at EVERY GAY PARTY! Because I already can imagine all the gay boys standing in front of the mirrors and dancing to this. [XD] 
Btw: I still think, that this is a terrible closer for the album, this is why I think that she shouldn’t have made the two editions, because the Deluxe Edition is the only version, that sounds like a whole album. I think that something is missing, when the record ends with a song like this…] 

The bonus track part (Deluxe Edition only) 

19 – Monday Morning (7/10) 
This song is a total “Popsicle-licking-track” that makes me want to walk around the streets with a couple of friends and to have a fun time. It sound very indie, but still pop-ish and it reminds me of Le Tigre and something less-“Not Myself Tonight”. Great track. 

20 – Bobblehead (8/10) 
This song is amazing! It reminds me of Ke$ha, Santigold and M.I.A. and it’s a total freak out and bitch around track, refering to people that do not use their brains. Her voice sounds so bitchy in the spoken parts, but it really is funny how she uses her voice in this song. Somehow it just sounds as if she was ten years younger. Great fun track! 

21 – Birds Of Prey (8,5/10)
THIS was what I was expecting from this album. When I heard she was working with Goldfrapp and Ladytron, I wanted to get exactly THIS type of music on this album. Now I just don’t understand why this is a bonus track and I do not understand why it is the ONLY track in this style. She really should try to make more of this. We know that she can. She prooved it with this one, "Genie 2.0" and "You Are What You Are". So why is she doing stuff like “I hate boys” and “Desnudate”, if she can do a “Birds Of Prey”. I mean, this is musical perfection. Great lyrics, great music and her vocals are amazing. I would love to get a whole album that sounds like this. I hope that she tries to do that… I guess that the reason she didn’t made more of this tracks, was because she was afraid to have a flop with Bionic. Since it didn’t sell well anyways, I hope that she loses that fear know and that she tries to be more risk-taking, because THIS SONG is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! 

22 – Stronger Than Ever (9/10) 
This is the fourth song of the Sia/Christina-collaboration and I am so happy that she made this track. The lyrics and the song is what we are used to get from Christina. A power ballad about being a fighter and getting stronger by the experiences you make in life. Her voice is yet again showing what is typical for her – THE VOICE. It’s just an amazing track and I think that she has made an amazing work on this song. 

23 – I Am (Stripped) (8/10) 
As I already talked about this song, I’m only going to say that I prefer this stripped-down version, because it fits better to the words. It’s a very lovely song and in my opinion it is a perfect closer for the album. With this song she is able to close the album, but NOT with Vanity. [Really would like to know what made her do that -.-]