Christina Aguilera - Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits

Christina Aguilera's greatest hits collection, Keeps Gettin' Better, arrived in stores this week. While I'm not a die-hard Aguilera fan, I've generally liked what she's done. Despite having put out only three albums (Britney, by comparison will soon release her sixth), she's amassed enough hit singles to make this collection well timed.

What I find irritating about this release though is the extent to which her American fans are being given the shaft. In the US, this is only available at Target, and the US release does not include three key tracks the UK version does: her #1 hit Moulin Rouge collaboration, "Lady Marmalade," her Ricky Martin duet "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely," and her Stripped ballad "The Voice Within." The "Lady Marmalade" ommission is shocking, and the "Nobody Wants to be Lonely" ommission is disappointing, considering that it didn't appear on an Aguilera album nor the original release of Ricky Martin's Sound Loaded. Their inclusion may have made this an attractive package to a fan who already has her albums, but without them, you're just paying $14 for the four new tracks.

And speaking of those four new tracks, I'm not convinced the apparent new direction they point to is a good one. "Keeps Gettin' Better" is decent, but could have been better. The Goldfrapp-ish electropop sound is welcome but undercooked. The mix throughout the song is too even, never allowing the song to really "pop" as it should. "Dynamite" has a better mix, but lacks a good hook. The other two songs are electro remakes of her two biggest hits. "Genie 2.0" features a dark synth melody, but why not give us a new song with it? "You Are What You Are" is a space-age remake of "Beautiful." It's rather flat-sounding compared to the original, and she just sounds bored. Sure, Aguilera's been criticised for excessive melisma in the past, but becoming a robot is not a good solution to that problem. If this is the direction her upcoming fourth album will take, then count me out.