Remember when Christina Aguilera was Back to Basics?

I finally bought the 2-disc Back to Basics concert DVD. I’ve become cheap because I buy other expensive stuff from Asia — I just spent $30 for a Bluray concert of Eason Chan because Exaggerate looked so freaking awesome. But I couldn’t spend more than 10$ for Back to Basics, even though I really liked the album.

I had… a like/don’t care relationship with Christina Aguilera since her debut alongside Britney — I was always a Britney fan because she had ‘something’ which we can call ‘it’ and I always felt Christina didn’t have that thing that make you want to root for her… but I was often blown away with her voice anyway. I knew the few steps to Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants and Come on Over… almost to heart. I also dug that she had spent some time singing in Spanish with some good quality ballads and that infectious Falsas Esperanzas. She was the prettiest during those days — do you remember how amazing she looked in the MV for Pero me Acuerdo de Ti [MV]?

Her skin complexion then, non-sun-tanned and platinum blond, made a perfect match with the pinks which were highlights among all those grays.

Then she went all Dirrty. I did have an issue with her Dirrty days, even though Beautiful and Fighter are a couple of her strongest songs and I appreciate the change to more grundgy or gothy looks, but her literally dirty look and the sexual nature of the concept just reminds me of Tara Reid in her Wild On days. It’s just really disgusting. In the end, I never bought that album and I sorta forgot about Aguilera (or Britney). In fact, during that transition, I was becoming a Pink fan — you can tell from this post.

I have a point, bare with me.

Alongisde my Back to Basics concert DVD, I bought the Pink: Live from Wembley Arena — which would be her I’m Not Dead tour, and I watched them back to back.

It struck me that I could get a better sense of Christina watching the concert than I did with Pink. As I sat watching the second DVD, I thought to myself “wow, Back to Basics has a more cohesive theme than Pink’s concert.” To someone that considers herself a Pink fan, I felt a renew respect for Aguilera then.

It was then that I got it.

https://youtu.be/Bcarb5Ewm-Y

[I love the new arrangements they did for Come on Over [1] and What a Girl Wants to fit the theme]

Even though Pink has the attitude, and she’s fun (as well as funny) — don’t forget pretty kick-ass all around with a nice variety of songs, Pink albums — except for Try This (which is my favorite album of hers) or her debut, which wasn’t really all that good — are filled with “best of what I wrote this past year” songs. It’s got a variety of songs that dabble into politics/war, then fun party dance, there’s the snarky ones, and your acoustic rock ballads. So in the end, her concert feels the same.

With Christina, however, the Back to Basics tour felt ‘whole.’ Even if I didn’t fully enjoy Stripped… Back to Basics feels like a concept (album and) tour. I still think Dirrty (with the current arrangement) felt out of place, but the flow of the setlist was quite smooth. I could see the thought behind it, and the dedication.

After the dud that was Bionic — not because of the Gaga thing [1] but because I really don’t dig the electro dance hip hop rap thing… I don’t even dig it that much in Kpop — I wish for Aguilera to get her act together and do what she does best: performing music.

I will root for you, Christina.