Back To Basics (Christina Aguilera Album) - Composition and Influence

Composition and Influence

Aguilera took inspiration for the production of the album from Billie Holiday, 90's R&B, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald. Aguilera was exposed to soul, jazz and blues records when she was a child because her mother used to bring her to look for vintage records. The songs in the two-disc album are constructed in different style. The first disc is a throwback album with elements of '20s, '30s, and '40s blues and jazz with a modern-day twist, largely produced by beat-oriented producers, like DJ Premier. It is also more "fakeness-driven" (as Aguilera stated on the Back to Basics CD enhanced video). Most songs employ record sampling except "Without You", "F.U.S.S.", and "Still Dirrty". The second disc is kept authentic, sticking to a really raw, old-soul sound. The songs are all live records except "Candyman" which features samples the military cadence "Tarzan & Jane Swingin' on a Vine", sampled from the album Run to Cadence with the United States Marines, Volume 2 and they were mostly written by Aguilera and Perry; however, the theme remains organically vintage. "There are no samples – It's all live music, except for Candyman", Aguilera related about the second disc. The record also use elements with a 1920s circus theme.

"The first half of the album is kind of a throwback with elements of jazz, blues and soul music combined with a modern-day twist, like hard-hitting beats. And for the second disc, we creatively went into our own zone and our own world together. There are no cover songs, so we made more of a '20s, '30s vibe with an authentic and organic twist. There are no samples – it's all live music. One of the songs sounds like you entered a 1920s burlesque club, another song sounds like it was actually recorded in the 1920s, using a vintage microphone, so it's exciting stuff."—Christina Aguilera, MTV. When Aguilera was asked why she chose DJ Premier as the main producer of the first disc she responded by saying, "The thing that I try to do with each record, I don't necessarily go to the main people that are the No. 1 chart-toppers in music, to the obvious person, say, the Neptunes, Pharrell or Lil Jon. I really like to go someplace different that people haven't approached." The opening track, "Makes Me Wanna Pray", features adult-contemporary mainstay Steve Winwood.

Lyrically, when she started writing on the new disc, she incorporated her real life to the songs. She was quoted as saying that her lead single "Ain't No Other Man", "...does not speak about love. However, songs which were influenced heavily from Aguilera's husband were "Save Me From Myself." "Still Dirrty", a track in the first disc co-worked with Nas, is a sequel to her 2002 single "Dirrty", which was panned by critics for its controversial music video, taking her to the forefront showing sexual fetishes. In the track, Aguilera reminisces the plight of her career when she did the record. The beat, however, is different from its predecessor; it is jazz-sampled backed with horns. In "Oh Mother" Aguilera describes the household abuse and praises her mother's bravery and courage in the face of her father's abuse. According to Billboard it's not just a tribute to her mother, but she feels a responsibility to share the "darker" sides of her life, because people could relate to the song and might not feel as alone in the circumstance. In the track "Back in the Day" Aguilera is talking about all the soul singers that she listened to as a child and pays homage to her idols, dropping names like Otis Redding, Gladys Knight and Billie Holiday, and praises them as "ground breakers", "innovators", and "originators". On the last song "Thank You" of the first disc Aguilera combines a sample of her past hits "Genie in a Bottle" and "Can't Hold Us Down" with messages from Aguilera's fans and was produced as a thank you for the support of Aguilera's fans.