ALBUM REVIEWS
CHRISTINA AGUILERA Liberation RCA Records
Dear Christina,
It’s been some time, but I’m glad you’re back.
You lost me a bit on 2012’s Lotus and threw me for a loop in 2010 with Bionic.
Not sure if you’re in a different place in your life, but there’s something special about Liberation, easily one of the year’s best albums.
Liberation has a wide range of styles and sounds, but it’s also masterfully cohesive (apart from the Demi Lovato duet Fall In Line, which I can’t stand and deleted from my version of the album).
Everything else is epic: Twice shows your voice in top form; Pipe is a sexy Quiet Storm anthem; and Unless It’s With You closes the album and feels like an instant classic, beautiful, raw and honest.
And then there are the jams: Right Moves, featuring reggae artists Keida and Shenseea, is the perfect song to play before going out; rapper GoldLink, with lyrical references to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, shines just as bright as you do on Like I Do; and Accelerate is bouncy and fun (plus, pretty much anything co-starring Ty Dolla $ign at the moment is fire.)
In some ways, Liberation reminds me of Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi, her 2005 comeback album that reminded the world to never count out the diva.
Freedom sounds good on you, too, Christina.
MIKE SHINODA Post Traumatic Warner Bros.
Post Traumatic is the first album Mike Shinoda has released under his own name and it’s obvious this wasn’t the way he wanted to do it. It’s a raw and painful tour through sorrow, created after the death of his Linkin Park partner Chester Bennington.
Bennington’s name is never mentioned on the 16-track album but his suicide last July looms over every song as Shinoda moves through a continuum from despair to anger to depression and detachment. It’s like listening to Elisabeth KublerRoss’ five stages of grief.
The album begins with the delicate Place to Start, where Shinoda wonders “Can I put the past behind me?” and then plays tender voice mails from friends after Bennington’s death.
Over Again aches, Shinoda “tackled by the grief at times I would least expect.” Watching As I Fall is a portrait of a broken artist alienated from fans. In Nothing Makes Sense Anymore, he’s “a shadow in the dark/trying to pull it back together.”
He freezes in the spotlight in About You.
At this point, the dark, personal sadness is almost too much. But Shinoda emerges from the tears. The rest of the album increasingly finds him rapping, as if he’s recovering his voice.
Post Traumatic isn’t perfect — it sorely needs some more editing — but it’s remarkably honest.