Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (D) |
"Christina's songwriting proved to be an early sign of the intense artistic involvement that the singer would have in every single endeavor she decided to embark on during her career. She was already showing, at fourteen, that she was first and foremost a talented musician and artist. Years later, after Christina had gotten her foot in the door by way of a multi-platinum selling album, those early recordings which she had only intended for use as demo's, a fact she had made clear to the producers, would come back to haunt her."
Pier Dominguez author of A Star is Made discussing the effect on her later career.The album received generally negative reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic understood why Aguilera was dissatisfied with the release of the material, calling the songs "pre-professional" and "generic early-'90s dance-pop". He noted that Just Be Free did not match the quality of her self-titled debut album due to its "bland" production. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a D-rating, citing the album's production and describing the content as "teen-jailbait" due to lyrics such as "Why don't you stay with me tonight".
Pier Dominguez, author of A Star is Made, commented that the sessions demonstrated "Christina's raw vocal agility" despite calling the content "dull", adding "Christina's hunger for success actually comes through in these songs, as she sings her heart out with strained emotion, trying to sound as if she's letting all her inhibitions run free. If she did in fact co-write the songs then they were also a demonstration of Christina's songwriting dexterity, because the album's lyrics could be called unoriginal and perhaps even cheesy, it could not be said that they were not catchy". Similarly, Stephanie McGrath from JAM! Music also saw why Aguilera would not want the album released. Although she recognized Aguilera's potential as a vocalist, she wrote "The songs themselves are terrible, dated club tracks, overwhelmed by poor effects and mundane beats." Despite the negative critical reception, the album has sold over 128,000 copies in the United States and peaked at number 71 on the Billboard 200.
Read more about this topic: Just Be Free
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