Portrait

justin timberlake, christina aguilera and beyonce knowles seem to have come up with new albums this year that are all, in their own way, mature, sophisticated and ultimately very, very sexy.

i kind of never liked christina aguilera. undoubtedly, she has one of the greatest voices in music, ever even, but i never thought she used her talent well or wisely enough. beyonce, well, dangerously in love was kind of tacky and boring. the collaborations with sean paul and jay-z worked well, while ‘crazy in love’ became the big, no, huge one. justin timberlake has really gotten past his curly-blonde-hair-nsync days, he showed us this even with justified, but in futuresex/lovesounds, he proves it again. simply put, aguilera and knowles and their brand spanking new albums are no match whatsoever for this man and his.

a fair while has passed since these recording artists first made their breakthroughs in the industry. they’ve been there and done it all ; tried raunchy outifts, dyed their hair, grew facial hair, and after all this time, they are writing more of their own music, singing better than ever, and thankfully, a lot nicer to look at too.

futuresex/lovesounds (september 2006) - justin timberlake

for a more informed and somewhat specific description as to why this album seems to have topped the top, i suggest you ask arun, but from me, all i can say is…my my my. the great big hit that’s on everyone’s minds and playlists now, his first single off this album, ’sexy back’, isn’t even the best track on it. ’sexy ladies’, ‘my love’, ‘what goes around comes around’, the title track futuresex/lovesound and the pop ballad ‘until the end of time’ in which he sings along to the benjamin wright orchestra, are all tight, fantastic tracks. ’sexy ladies’ is the track that brings back his trademark of sounding suave (he himself says in it ‘now i might sound cocky…’), it’s gorgeous and fun and makes me want to move. he sings ‘my love’ like he sang ’senorita’, intimate and oozing with heart and heat. he sings truly well on this album, creating a smooth and confident vocal style that is both hip and addictive. if the video to ’sexy back’ is anything to go by, he’s looking fabuloso, too. futuresex/loveounds is all about sophistication, he’s grown up and he’s done it well. finally, someone is bringing is sexy back.

back to the basics (august 2006) - christina aguilera

we all waited a long time for the coming of age of this woman, and finally, she’s arrived. seeming to have, at long last, found just what she is comfortable being and singing, she is rocking and grooving and downright bringing the house down with ‘back to basics’. her musical style has changed from the urban and light rock sounds of ’stripped’ to a soulful and jazz-inspired album. she’s sounding phenomenal, (it seems her voice has found a home in this almost new genre of music), deep, strong and powerful, like any lady of soul. she’s even looking great ; she’s gone through some pretty severe fashion identities and has been seen in some pretty outlandish stuff. stuff that did not flatter her nor the image she was trying to project. after having lost her foothold in both music and image over the last couple of years, she has rediscovered, and remade, herself. in the video to ‘ain’t no other man’, which she sings (imo) better than any song she’s ever sung before, she looks beautiful and buoyant.

b’ day (september 2006) - beyonce

her first single off her hot new album, ‘de ja vu’, is burning everyone up. especially in the world of music videos ; she’s looking amazing, more amazing than you’ve ever seen her look. less synthetic, more wild, more woman. ‘de ja vu’ does justice to all her previous collaborations with jay-z, though perhaps, not better than ‘crazy in love’, this is its counterpart on this album. ‘de ja vu’ is going to become the track that girls will go wild to on the dance floor, trying to imitate the moves they’ve all seen beyonce do in the video, and sing along loudly and recklessly to. the choreography and performance in the video is over-all the best of beyonce i’ve seen so far. she’s all raw heat in ‘ring the alarm’, tempestous and strong, both in voice and body as the video displays. her vocal style hasn’t moved as far down the road of progress as it could have, but she’s definitely singing with more power and less inhibitions. to me, it seems only now that she is totally comfortable with being a solo artist.