Christina Aguilera has taken many career punches over the years, the last and most brutal ones being for her previous two albums, 2010’s Bionic and 2012’s Lotus. And then there was all that unwarranted maligning of the trash masterpiece that is Burlesque, which will be vindicated on the same level as Crossroads at some point. Not to mention the unspoken shame and stigma of agreeing to be a judge on a music competition reality TV show. Even so, Aguilera is proving the lyrics to “Fighter” by coming back six years later with a new album called Liberation. And while, clearly, she hasn’t given up on those trite one word album titles, she is trying her best to modernize. Even if that modernization is trapped somewhere in 2012 with the then prominent glitter-laden Kesha aesthetic (likely enforced by Dr. Luke for Warrior).
2012 was also a year when Kanye West wasn’t a nutter in the malicious sense, releasing music like “Clique” and “Mercy” that still had people worshipping his “genius.” With this in mind, Aguilera enlisted West to produce the song and–perhaps as a further sign of his insanity–he agreed. Other mid-10s staples Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz appear on the track to help Aguilera re-imagine the then experimental nature of “Dirrty,” of which the song possesses certain elements in terms of being a club banger and dripping with sexual desire (e.g. “Come on, fill me up/That’s what I need”).
With the accompanying Zoey Grossman-directed video to the more than somewhat sonically and lyrically cracked out single, scenes of Aguilera alternating between black and white and oversaturated color serve as the divide between the two standard feminine personas: the pure and the tart. Lapping up milk “Express Yourself” style and putting tape over her nipples à la Lady Gaga, Aguilera culls many aesthetics for her re-ingratiation into pop culture–but mainly that of Kesha’s in the video for “We R Who We R.” Glitter smeared across her lips and face, Aguilera also lets what looks like honey get poured all over her for a large portion of the video. Because you can be sexy at any age now thanks to Madonna’s 2016 Met Ball outfit. And there are times when, even in her naturalistic state, Aguilera channels the Kesha of now–the one gone ethereal (as evidenced by “Praying“). As though allowing Kanye to possess her at times, she sings, “Fuck all your drugs, what’s wrong with me?” In fact, this seems to be the point of the entire song: exploration of inexplicable moodiness (cat on a hot tin roof vibes, if you will) through spastic moaning and ooohing. “Ooooh” is Aguilera’s preferred form of expression, it seems, as the video cuts become further disjointed toward the end, having difficulty deciding which form of Aguilera to present as VHS effects take hold of the non-narrative. Licking her glitter-coated lips, the final shot of Aguilera is in black and white, lying complacently. It’s as though Grossman wants us to intuit that all that acceleration has left her empty inside. And with song as “busy” as “Accelerate,” that’s understandable. Here’s hoping that a remixed version in time for summer can transform it into the dance hit it deserves to be.
