Lotus (Christina Aguilera album)

After the release of Aguilera's sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which failed to generate her usual sales,[2] she divorced from her husband Jordan Bratman, starred in a film called Burlesque, and recorded its accompanying soundtrack.[3] The singer then became a coach on NBC's singing contest show The Voice[3] and appeared as a guest vocalist on Maroon 5's single "Moves like Jagger" (2011), which spent four weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[4] Following these events, Aguilera announced that she wanted to record her seventh album, stating that she wanted high-quality and personal songs to record.[4] She stated that the album would be a "culmination of everything I've experienced up until this point ... I've been through a lot since the release of my last album, being on (The Voice), having had a divorce ... This is all sort of a free rebirth for me."[5] She went on to say that "I'm embracing many different things, but it's all feel-good, super-expressive [and] super-vulnerable."[5] She further expressed that the album would be about "self-expression and freedom" because of the personal struggles she had overcome during the last couple of years.[6]

On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2012, Aguilera revealed that the album was taking a while to record because "I don't like to just get songs from producers. I like them to come from a personal place ... I'm very excited. It's fun, exciting, introspective, it's going to be great".[7] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Aguilera said that the album was a "very multi-layered, very heartfelt record" reflecting different sides of her personality.[8] On Lotus, Aguilera worked with new producers, notably Alex da Kid and Max Martin.[9] Alex da Kid, who first teamed with Aguilera in the song "Castle Walls" from T.I.'s No Mercy (2010), commented about Aguilera's approach in recording Lotus, "She definitely had a strong opinion, but she'll go with the best idea in the room. That's really rare for someone that's had so much success."[10] Speaking about working with Max Martin, Aguilera said, "Max is legendary in the business. He's known about me but we haven't crossed paths. [...] It's taken us a decade in the same business and watching each other from a distance, so for us to now come together and respect each other's work ethic and how we like to be heard and making a marriage out of it, I think 'Your Body' is the best culmination of that."[10]

Aguilera announced via Twitter on September 12, 2012 that the album would be titled Lotus.[11] The album artwork was shot by fashion photographer Enrique Badulescu and was unveiled by Aguilera on October 5.[12][13] The cover shows Aguilera emerging from a lotus flower with her arms outstretched. She is completely nude with her long, blonde hair covering her breasts, while her vulva is obscured by a white light.[14] It received a generally positive response from critics; Tiffany Lee from Yahoo! Music complimented Aguilera's figure,[15][16] while Sam Lansky from Idolator drew comparisons to the cover of her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002).[17] Lotus was released on November 13, 2012 by RCA Records.[10]

Lotus incorporates pop styles with elements of dance-pop and rock in the form of up-tempo songs and piano-driven ballads. It opens with the track "Lotus Intro", which was inspired by Aguilera's passion for "chill-out" electronica.[18] The song has a "hypnotic" yet "dark, serious" tone that develops and matures as it progresses, depicting Aguilera's rebirth, similar to the life cycle of a lotus flower.[22] "Army of Me" is a dance-pop and euro-dance song about empowerment, with a pounding drum beat and rock guitars.[10][18][22] Aguilera described the song as an updated version of her single "Fighter" (2003), describing it as a "Fighter 2.0".[10] The up-tempo track "Red Hot Kinda Love" combines a variety of genres, including dance and disco, "subtle" tones of Latin, hip hop, and pop.[18][23][24][25] It contains two samples: "The Whole Wide World Ain't Nothin' But a Party" performed by Mark Radice and "54-46 That's My Number" performed by Toots & the Maytals.[9] On the song, Aguilera keeps her use of melisma to a minimum.[18] Lyrically, the song talks about Aguilera's attempts to impress the man she is flirting with.[22]

"Make the World Move", featuring CeeLo Green, is a track which incorporates dance, R&B and soul genres.[19] The next track and first single from Lotus is "Your Body". It incorporates electropop and R&B genres and has a trace of dubstep in the middle eight.[26][27] Lyrically, it discusses anonymous sex with a random man. "Let There Be Love" features dance-pop, electronic dance music and pop genres with elements from electronica and trance.[19][20][21] The power ballad "Sing for Me" tells how Aguilera was born to sing, inspired by Aguilera's love for her idols: Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Etta James.[25][28] Its instrumentation consists of soft strings, a delicate piano melody and "80s power ballad-type drums" at its close.[22] The key in which the structure was composed is changed during the course of the song.[22] The song features a "thunderous" ironic chorus which consists of the lyrics "'Cause when I open my mouth, my whole heart comes out."[18] "Blank Page" is a piano-driven ballad about apologies, regrets, closure, and making peace.[29]

"Cease Fire" is a rock-tinged track that features electronic and dubstep infusion.[10][21][22][23] Lyrically, it is a plea to her partner to stop the fighting for the greater good of their relationship.[23] "Around the World" has a ragga influence and refers to Aguilera's 2001 hit "Lady Marmalade" as she whispers "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?".[23][30] The pop track "Circles" is an anti-haters song and is influenced by the alternative rock genre.[18][19] "Best of Me" is a power ballad about a failed relationship and how to not let others knock you down.[18][22] "Just a Fool", the last track of Lotus and its second single, is a duet with Blake Shelton. The song is a country pop ballad about the pain of a break-up.[22][23]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	56/100[46]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
The A.V. Club	C[19]
Entertainment Weekly	C–[47]
Exclaim!	7/10[48]
The Independent	[49]
The Observer	[50]
Q	[51]
Rolling Stone	[52]
The Scotsman	[30]
Slant Magazine	[25]

Lotus received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 56, based on 12 reviews.[46] Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe called it "a good start in the effort to refocus attention on Aguilera's skills", but observed "several tracks that sound mindlessly repetitive as sedentary listening experiences".[53] Q called it "generic" and felt that "nothing really stands out".[51] Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club felt that the album "often plays it safe" and accused Aguilera of "dumbing down her voice or lyrics for the sake of lightweight tunes or prevailing trends."[19] Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly found the album's "self-empowerment anthems ... as contradictory as they are unoriginal" and criticized its production for "digitally smother[ing]" Aguilera's vocals and "draining all the emotion".[47] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani asserted that because it is "Aguilera's shortest album since her debut, it boasts less filler, but also fewer obvious standouts."[25] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times felt that the album's conventional direction is "its biggest crime, more than its musical unadventurousness or its emphasis on bland self-help lyrics or its reluctance to lean on [...] Aguilera's voice, the thing that makes her special".[54] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone dismissed it as a "vitriol-tsunami of a record".[52]

In a positive review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Aguilera "feels comfortable in this familiar, slightly freshened territory".[1] Simon Price of The Independent felt that the album's "best moments are its electro-pop numbers".[49] Kitty Empire of The Observer characterized its subject matter as "wiffle of the highest order", but wrote that "one of the pleasures of Aguilera is that she can use polysyllables, even when talking the rot that fills women's mags".[50] Although she criticized the album's "upbeat pop anthems", Melody Lau of Exclaim! found Aguilera to be "reinvigorated" and felt that she "shines most when she's direct, honest and vulnerable".[48] Celina Murphy of Hot Press felt that Lotus's "safer" direction and Aguilera's "default mode" makes the album an improvement from Bionic.[55] At the end of 2012, Lotus was ranked at number 17 on the list "20 Best Pop Albums of 2012" by Spin.[56] In contrast, Entertainment Weekly named it the worst album of 2012.[57]

In the United States, Lotus debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 73,408 units.[58][59] This was slightly lower than Aguilera's previous album, Bionic (2010), which opened at number three with sales of 110,000 units, thereby becoming Aguilera's English-language studio album with the lowest first week sales. The following week it fell to number seventeen with sales of 52,558 copies.[59] In Canada, Lotus peaked at number 7 on the Canadian Albums Chart[60] and was certified gold by Music Canada for shipments of 40,000 copies there on January 10.[61] The album debuted and peaked at 28 on the UK Albums Chart with sales of 9,422, becoming her lowest-charting album there.[2][62][63] Internationally, Lotus underperformed, only reaching the top 20 and top 30 in most countries.[64] As of August 2019, the album had sold over 303,000 copies in the United States, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan,[65] and has been certified gold for 500,000 album-equivalent units.[66]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lotus.[9]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a vocal producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies a co-producer

Sampling credits

• "Red Hot Kinda Love" contains samples from "The Whole World Ain't Nothing But a Party", as performed by Mark Radice and "54-46 Was My Number", as performed by Toots and the Maytals.
• "Make the World Move" contains a portion of the composition "Let's Find Out", written by Armando Trovajoli.

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lotus.[9]

• Official website