Do You Want To Be Wildly Entertained?

(Enter the Circus, Christina Aguilera)

So I want to recommend an album. Even if this doesn't seem like your type of music, you should give it a listen at least once. Actually, I guess it's only half an album. I personally have no use for the entire first CD, but the second one is definitely worth some time.

Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics. That's right. I, one of the bigger musical snobs that I know, (Actually that's not true. I am one of the least musically snobbish people I know, but I don't like pop.) am recommending that everyone listen to half of a Christina Aguilera album. I think what happened with Back to Basics is that she realized that she could do whatever she wants and people will still buy her CD, so she decided to actually do something different and interesting.

The second CD of Back to Basics starts out with a circus theme, which is just generally neat. During the whole album she samples from different styles and sort of modernizes them. She takes the styles of the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald and others. Honestly, if you don't know those styles, look them up, give a few songs a listen, and then put on Aguilera's album. It's very neat. The music samples from the 20's, 30's, 40's, and a couple of them actually sound like they are genuinely recorded in the time period. They used vintage mics for a couple of them.

So anyway... I got off on a rant about how neat it is. The long and short of it is listen to it.