Liberation

With Liberation, Aguilera is at her most artistically emancipated since Stripped (2002).

Her eighth album is a healthy mix of hit-chasing, theatrics and soon-to-be classic power ballads that emphasize her immense skills over half-baked conceptual themes.

Her extravagant vocal flourishes connect with sweeping emotion. ... The album’s seduction songs do their job. But its doleful ones leap out.

It’s a well-calculated offering from a living legend whose abilities are still very much intact.

An album that keeps pace with modern pop trends while remaining true to Aguilera’s past.

The general rule for Liberation is that the less hard Aguilera sounds like she’s trying, the more enjoyable the album is.

The greater flaw of Liberation is how its blend of R&B reflection and tense testifying doesn't seem to be an easy fit on any format in 2018. This weakness is also a strength, as it shows that Aguilera didn't take an easy route with Liberation: she instead found a hybrid between the personal and commercial, which makes the record resonate emotionally no matter what success it may or may not have.

Even at its busiest, though, the music emphasizes Aguilera’s powerful voice, which more than anything is what separates her from the younger stars whose popularity has eclipsed hers in recent years. She runs through the full gamut of moods, from flirty to depressed to joyful to furious--each a response, or so we’ve been trained to think, to some real-life situation.

While it isn’t without a few bumps along the way, Liberation really is a welcome return to form for one of this era’s greatest vocalists.