Christina Aguilera couldn’t make up her mind Saturday at the sold-out Allstate Arena. Is she a serious artist, or an artist seriously concerned that her audience won’t pay attention unless she shouts at them?
At 26, the singer wants to distance herself from her teen-pop hitmaker past.
She performed only a few songs from her first two albums, in radical new arrangements. Instead, her focus was on her third and latest disc, the retro-inspired “Back to Basics.” She affected a platinum-blond look borrowed from 1930s movie star Jean Harlow, and she invoked the names of Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and Ella Fitzgerald.
Grainy black and white video of these and other legends played behind her. She isn’t in their class, though she does have an undeniably impressive and occasionally thrilling voice, a gutsy alto that would rather growl than trill.
Her credibility grab was undermined by a 90-minute performance about as subtle as the whip she cracked during the S M homage “Nasty Naughty Boy.
” The sound mix –-- a steamroller blend of 10-piece band, three backup singers and backing tracks --- smashed all in its path; I’ve been to Slayer shows that were more nuanced. Aguilera wasn’t allowed to sing so much as slug her way through the noise. Melodies were flattened and she resorted to tired acrobatics such as packing seven notes into a phrase when one would’ve sufficed.
Had she bothered to listen to any of those Holiday and Fitzgerald records she references? If she had, she might’ve discovered that the best singing is often defined by what vocalists leave out as much as what they put in.
It was an opportunity missed, because the outlines of a provocative show could be glimpsed.
Speakeasy hedonism, 1920s pornography, New Orleans drag queens, zoot-suited seductions --- Aguilera’s retro fixation might’ve suited a sly, sexy cabaret. But the super-sized show valued only over-stimulation, with dancers, circus performers and nearly a dozen costume changes.
Even one of the quieter moments couldn’t find a place for Aguilera’s voice.
The wrenching “Oh Mother” was sabotaged by a violent video that hammered home the spousal-abuse message with sickening explicitness. Left alone with her talent, Aguilera did just fine on the neo-soul ballad “Hurt,” and “Beautiful” seemed almost intimate as the singer swapped lines with the audience.
Next time through, an entire show built along those lines might turn the singer into the class act she aspires to become.
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