“Ain’t No Other Man” — Christina Aguilera

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

In the mid-2000s Christina Aguilera started channelling old-time Hollywood icons. The result was the delicious “Ain’t No Other Man”.

Of course, I get it. I’m sure for all the glamour and adulation, life as a teen pop sensation must tire after a while.

Christina Aguilera burst onto the music scene in 1999 with her platinum-selling UK and US Number One, “Genie In a Bottle”. But within a few years, she grew tired of having to play a perfect pop princess. Her 2002 single “Dirrty” was a pretty comprehensive attempt to dispel the pop princess image for good (and is a tremendous song it its own right).

Having got that out her system, Christina Aguilera went in a different, altogether more sophisticated, direction with the “Back To Basics” album a couple of years later.

Now she’d got the suppressed anger out her system and broken decisively with the past, “Back To Basics” took her career firmly in the direction of classic jazz, soul and funk.

This area of music always brings me great joy. So I was halfway sold before I even heard a single track from the album…although I’ll admit to being slightly concerned in case “Back To Basics” had turned into something dreadful if it had been placed in the hands of a “paint by numbers” songwriting and production team.