ALBUM OF THE WEEK
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
Liberation
Sony
The old rule that pop stars must not take a break from music lest their fans forget them no longer applies. Stay in the public eye — a yoghurt ad here, a Vegas run there, perhaps a perfume — and a comeback is always within reach. Aguilera’s first album since 2012 follows five years as a judge on The Voice in the US, enough to convince Kanye West and a roll call of other rappers and hipster producers to jump on board.
Liberation starts out as a curiosity — two minutes of strings and an a cappella steal from The Sound of Music — but blossoms into Aguilera’s most entertaining, risk-taking album since the 2002 monster Stripped.
