To say that the sound of Christina Aguilera’s eighth album, Liberation, is all over the map is to embody understatement. At one moment echoing tones of Lady Gaga circa “Alejandro” with “Maria,” at others being too rock-oriented for her particular pitch with “Sick of Sittin'”, very few moments of cohesion exist on her first record in six years. Maybe it has something to do with being a mirror of the lack of cohesion of our time, the only rhyme or reason being no rhyme or reason. That said, the varied number of producers–from Nicholas Britell to Anderson .Paak to Kanye West–have something of a Bedtime Stories effect on the album (Madonna famously complained of struggling to find musical momentum on that record–that is, until she worked on Rebel Heart) leaves Liberation with the feeling of sonic indecision. Which is precisely what makes it feel so decisive–Aguilera consciously declaring that she doesn’t care about “consistency” so long as it represents her expression of freedom within each track.
Commencing with the same intro, “Liberation,” we hear at the outset of the video for “Fall In Line,” this leads into an interlude describing “Maria”–or rather asking of a girl “like” Maria: “How do you solve the problem of Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?” Referring to the self she lost over the years as that cloud, Aguilera explained, “The intro vocal to the album is an homage to a side of myself I lost touch with for a number of years. ‘Searching For Maria’ is a reference to one of my favorite films Sound of Music, in which the character of Maria, an irrepressible free spirit, struggles to find herself and her freedom.” Nun-loving sensibilities aside, Aguilera has clearly found her own spirit again, after years of working in an industry that thrives on suppressing anything that is not considered their definition of “feminine.” Thus Aguilera sings, “I don’t know which way to go at this crossroads/You done taped my mouth shut/Make me feel worthless, used up.” Very similar to Lily Allen’s own take on the business in “Higher,” off her latest, No Shame, Aguilera seems to be railing against institutions that no longer seem to serve a purpose, particularly post-#MeToo.
On that note, she’s “Sick of Sittin'”–one of the most out of place songs on the album, produced by Anderson .Paak. Yet another cry for independence from the establishment that formerly hemmed her in, the notion of “sittin'” is most likely a reference to being a judge on The Voice for six seasons. Obviously, she would be sick of watching those less talented than her when she herself can belt out any and every note in the proverbial songbook. The allusions to The Voice seem most apparent in the lines, “They wanna take my shine/They wanna take my time/But I’ma take what’s mine/Don’t play with me/They try to use my name/Oh, what they wouldn’t do for the fame.”
And, speaking of those who would do anything for the fame, we also have the “Dreamers” interlude (like Janet Jackson, Aguilera knows the value of interludes), in which the voices of little girls declaring, “I wanna be screenwriter” or “I wanna be a singer” transition into “Fall In Line,” the record’s second single in the same thematic vein as “Can’t Hold Us Down” and “Beautiful.”
Aguilera’s history of creating feminist anthems undoubtedly stems from a childhood filled with the tempestuousness of having a physically and emotionally abusive father in the military (hence the appropriateness of a title like “Fall in Line”), with her mother eventually divorcing him when Aguilera was just six. The impression left by this emotional distress has invariably led to Aguilera’s most depth-laden work, “Fall In Line” being a prime example. Again a song that is entirely declarative, it is an important reminder to all women, especially those who still have no idea just how absurd it is to live in a man’s world. Maybe that ignorance can remain bliss if this song helps shatter the patriarchy just a little further.
Following is the more light-hearted, Jamaican-tinged “Right Moves” featuring Keida, Shenseea, a track more in keeping with the “saucy” side of Xtina, the one of the Stripped era, as she kisses and tells, “On a wood staircase, love me ’til I can’t think straight/One on one and one by one we come on down/So I just keep on goin’ down (just go down)/Just keep on goin’ down.” We all know what that means–because when you have a man by his “heart” (read: the pulsating dick beat) you have him by the balls.
Her confidence level continues to escalate with “Like I Do” featuring GoldLink. Sassily remarking to the latter, “Let me make this simple for ya/Lay it out on the table for ya/In case you need a little reminder/I’ve been doing this way before you/Boy you already know my story/You were raised in all my glory,” Aguilera comes across as a woman who thoroughly basks in the weight of her accomplishments, while also willing to impart her wisdom to others (even if it comes across as a bit “bitchy” in these lines). Hence, she softens up (at least vocally) on “Deserve.” Talking the way a verbally abusive male might, Aguilera explains her hurtful words as follows: “Sometimes I don’t think I deserve ya/So I say some fucked up shit just to hurt ya/But you know I do it all ’cause I love ya.” Says a man after backhanding a woman. But hey, one respects Aguilera for unwittingly flipping the script. Maybe this song can serve as part of the soundtrack for a remake of Sleeping With the Enemy with the female in the part of scary husband beater. The song, written by Julia Michaels, has her stamp all over it–in addition to production by MNEK.
Keeping with the dramatic tone is “Twice,” a questioning and existential track that ponders if she would make the same mistakes twice in love. Ruminating, “Sometimes I wonder what is the meaning of my life/I found the price of love and lost my mind,” Aguilera decides in the end that she would go through it all again if it means maintaining her present strength and sagacity. Giving us pause to reflect on that ourselves, we’re met with the “I Don’t Need It Anymore” interlude, which further expounds upon the concept of self-liberation with, “Eyes wide open/I’m alive again/Senses sharpened/Wash away my sin/Can you feel it?/Change’s in the air/Take back the power/Breathe it in your skin.” So she does, leading us into the prime example of auditory disconnectedness, “Accelerate,” produced by Kanye. Before engaging in his biggest controversy to date and then “sort of” apologizing for it by confessing to being bipolar on ye, Aguilera said of him, “I’ve always been a huge fan of Kanye. Outside of, you know, his controversial aspects, I just think he’s a great artist and musicmaker and beatmaker. The artists that he chooses to pluck from different walks of life are so interesting.” So it is that the respect she has for his cracked out vision shines through on “Accelerate.”
While Cardi B and Childish Gambino were both planned guests on the album, it’s evident that Aguilera maintained her beloved “hip hop flavor” above all other motifs on Liberation, as evidenced on “Pipe” featuring XDNA. Packed with as many beats as allusions to dick, Aguilera croons, “I get loud when you put that pipe down, pipe down, pipe down/I wanna celebrate you right now, right now, right now,” in addition to, “All the shit that you said you gon’ be doin’ to me last week, oh I need some receipts.” Clearly, a liberated woman, indeed–despite still having a slight dependence on “pipe.”
That being said, “Masochist” feels like the perfect track to follow it up, for what woman isn’t a masochist for attempting to remain straight? Aguilera evinces this much in the lines, “I get all my pleasure in your bedroom/In your arms/You get all your pleasure from my torture from my harm.” Ergo, she accurately concludes, “I must be some kind of masochist to hurt myself in this way, ’cause loving you is so bad for me, but I just can’t walk away.” To be sure, this–masochist–is what it means, now more than ever, to be a feministic heterosexual woman.
But Aguilera isn’t so quick to leave us on a sour note, wrapping things up with “Unless It’s You,” a love song, it would appear, to her current boyfriend/fiancé Matthew Rutler, as she unearths her struggle to believe in the realness of fairy tales and “white picket fences” while still being a truly free woman. Even so, she realizes, “I don’t wanna get married unless it’s with you.” Even if “the most beautiful beginnings can go down in flames,” she’s still willing to risk it all on the belief in love. Such is the perpetual naïveté of woman.
In essence a refreshed take on the concept of Stripped, Liberation, for Aguilera, has meant “freeing [her]self from anything that wasn’t [her] truth. That’s a constant.. in everyone’s life: every time you feel stifled in a current situation where you feel you’re not quite yourself or being bogged down by other people’s opinions. Or when you feel like you’re stuck in a stagnant place.”
She concluded, “I’m at the place, even musically, where it’s a liberating feeling to be able to strip it all back and appreciate who you are and your raw beauty.” And even in that rawness and rough around the edges aura (especially musically in this instance), there is convention: a woman coming to grips with the idea that she still loves men in the face of all evidence telling her to feel to the contrary.
