Lotus (Christina Aguilera Album)
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''Lotus'' is the seventh
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by American singer-songwriter
Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...
.
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
released the album on November 9, 2012. The album is Aguilera's first effort following her divorce from Jordan Bratman. Its music incorporates pop styles with elements of
dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...
and rock in the form of upbeat songs and piano-driven ballads. Aguilera described the album as a "rebirth", drawing inspiration from events in her life, her appearance on '' The Voice'', and her divorce. The album was recorded at Aguilera's home studio. As
executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...
, she collaborated with a wide range of producers, including new partners Alex da Kid, Max Martin, Lucas Secon and Tracklacers. Upon its release, ''Lotus'' received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who were ambivalent towards its lyrics and found its music conventional. It debuted at number seven on the US ''Billboard'' 200, with first-week sales of 73,408 units. Internationally, the album charted moderately, but obtained higher positions in Canada, Russia, Switzerland, and Venezuela, where it reached the top 10. Two singles were released from the album in North America. The first single " Your Body" charted within the top 40 of most countries. The second one, " Just a Fool", was a duet with fellow ''The Voice'' coach
Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin (Blake Shelton song), Austin" from his Blake Shelton (album), self ...
and peaked at number 71 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. " Let There Be Love" was released as a promotional single along with a music video and a letter to her fans in August 2013. It topped the US Dance Club Songs chart.


Background

After the release of Aguilera's sixth studio album, '' Bionic'' (2010), which failed to generate her usual sales, she divorced from her husband Jordan Bratman, starred in a film called ''
Burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
'', and recorded its accompanying soundtrack. The singer then became a coach on NBC's singing contest show '' The Voice'' and appeared as a guest vocalist on
Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, d ...
's single " Moves like Jagger" (2011), which spent four weeks atop the US ''
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'' Hot 100 chart. Following these events, Aguilera announced that she wanted to record her seventh album, stating that she wanted high-quality and personal songs to record. She stated that the album would be a "culmination of everything I've experienced up until this point ... I've been through a lot since the release of my last album, being on (''The Voice''), having had a divorce ... This is all sort of a free rebirth for me." She went on to say that "I'm embracing many different things, but it's all feel-good, super-expressive ndsuper-vulnerable." She further expressed that the album would be about "self-expression and freedom" because of the personal struggles she had overcome during the last couple of years. On '' The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' in 2012, Aguilera revealed that the album was taking a while to record because "I don't like to just get songs from producers. I like them to come from a personal place ... I'm very excited. It's fun, exciting, introspective, it's going to be great". In an interview with ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'', Aguilera said that the album was a "very multi-layered, very heartfelt record" reflecting different sides of her personality. On ''Lotus'', Aguilera worked with new producers, notably Alex da Kid and Max Martin. Alex da Kid, who first teamed with Aguilera in the song " Castle Walls" from T.I.'s '' No Mercy'' (2010), commented about Aguilera's approach in recording ''Lotus'', "She definitely had a strong opinion, but she'll go with the best idea in the room. That's really rare for someone that's had so much success." Speaking about working with Max Martin, Aguilera said, "Max is legendary in the business. He's known about me but we haven't crossed paths. ..It's taken us a decade in the same business and watching each other from a distance, so for us to now come together and respect each other's work ethic and how we like to be heard and making a marriage out of it, I think 'Your Body' is the best culmination of that." Aguilera announced via
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on September 12, 2012, that the album would be titled ''Lotus''. The album artwork was shot by fashion photographer Enrique Badulescu and was unveiled by Aguilera on October 5. The cover shows Aguilera emerging from a lotus flower with her arms outstretched. She is completely nude with her long, blonde hair covering her breasts, while her
vulva In mammals, the vulva (: vulvas or vulvae) comprises mostly external, visible structures of the female sex organ, genitalia leading into the interior of the female reproductive tract. For humans, it includes the mons pubis, labia majora, lab ...
is obscured by a white light. It received a generally positive response from critics; Tiffany Lee from Yahoo! Music complimented Aguilera's figure, while Sam Lansky from '' Idolator'' drew comparisons to the cover of her fourth studio album, '' Stripped'' (2002). ''Lotus'' was released on November 13, 2012, by RCA Records.


Music and lyrics

''Lotus'' incorporates pop styles with elements of
dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...
and rock in the form of up-tempo songs and piano-driven ballads. It opens with the track "Lotus Intro", which was inspired by Aguilera's passion for " chill-out" electronica. The song has a "hypnotic" yet "dark, serious" tone that develops and matures as it progresses, depicting Aguilera's rebirth, similar to the life cycle of a lotus flower. Originally, the song was meant to include a sample from M83's single " Midnight City" but the interpolation is not heard in the final track. " Army of Me" is a dance-pop and euro-dance song about empowerment, with a pounding drum beat and rock guitars. Aguilera described the song as an updated version of her single " Fighter" (2003), describing it as a "Fighter 2.0". The up-tempo track "Red Hot Kinda Love" combines a variety of genres, including
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
and
disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
, "subtle" tones of
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
, and pop. It contains two samples: "The Whole Wide World Ain't Nothin' But a Party" performed by Mark Radice and " 54-46 That's My Number" performed by Toots & the Maytals. On the song, Aguilera keeps her use of melisma to a minimum. Lyrically, the song talks about Aguilera's attempts to impress the man she is flirting with. " Make the World Move", featuring CeeLo Green, is a track which incorporates dance, R&B and
soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
genres. The next track and first single from ''Lotus'' is " Your Body". It incorporates electropop and R&B genres and has a trace of
dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
in the middle eight. Lyrically, it discusses anonymous sex with a random man. " Let There Be Love" features dance-pop,
electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
and pop genres with elements from electronica and trance. The
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...
"Sing for Me" tells how Aguilera was born to sing, inspired by Aguilera's love for her idols:
Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...
,
Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...
and
Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...
. Its
instrumentation Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...
consists of soft strings, a delicate piano melody and " 80s power ballad-type drums" at its close. The key in which the structure was composed is changed during the course of the song. The song features a "thunderous" ironic chorus which consists of the lyrics Cause when I open my mouth, my whole heart comes out." " Blank Page" is a piano-driven ballad about apologies, regrets, closure, and making peace. "Cease Fire" is a rock-tinged track that features electronic and dubstep infusion. Lyrically, it is a plea to her partner to stop the fighting for the greater good of their relationship. "Around the World" has a ragga influence and refers to Aguilera's 2001 hit " Lady Marmalade" as she whispers " Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?". The pop track "Circles" is an anti-haters song and is influenced by the
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
genre. "Best of Me" is a power ballad about a failed relationship and how to not let others knock you down. " Just a Fool", the last track of ''Lotus'' and its second single, is a duet with
Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin (Blake Shelton song), Austin" from his Blake Shelton (album), self ...
. The song is a country pop ballad about the pain of a break-up.


Promotion


Singles

To promote ''Lotus'', two singles were released from the album. "Your Body" was released on September 17, 2012, as ''Lotuss lead single. The song received mostly positive reviews from
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
, who praised Aguilera's vocals and the collaboration with Max Martin. It debuted and peaked at number 34 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on September 27, 2012, becoming the highest-debut single during that week. Internationally, "Your Body" was a moderate success, peaking within the top 40 of most countries. The song's accompanying music video was directed by Melina Matsoukas; it portrays Aguilera as a killer dressed in pink, one who delights in wooing physically fit men to their demise. Sam Lansky from Idolator provided a favorable review of the clip and described it as one of Aguilera's best videos. The second and final single from ''Lotus'', the duet "Just a Fool" with Blake Shelton, was released on December 4, 2012. It debuted at number 92 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on November 17, 2012 and peaked at number 71 in its second week charting. As of September 2014, the single has sold over 746,000 copies in United States.


Live performances

Besides releasing singles to promote the album, Aguilera also performed several tracks from ''Lotus'' on a number of shows. On November 2, 2012, she performed "Your Body" on '' Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'', alongside Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. Aguilera and Cee Lo Green performed "Make the World Move" together on the third season of '' The Voice'' on November 13, 2012. The singer performed a medley of three songs, "Lotus Intro", "Army of Me" and "Let There Be Love" at the 40th American Music Awards on November 18, 2012, held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. On November 19, 2012, Aguilera performed "Just a Fool" with Blake Shelton on ''The Voice''. The following day, she performed "Let There Be Love" on ''The Voice'' with her team contestants, Sylvia Yacoub and Dez Duron. On '' The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', the singer performed "Just a Fool" again with Shelton on December 7, 2012. Aguilera also performed "Blank Page" at the 39th People's Choice Awards on January 9, 2013.


Critical reception

''Lotus'' received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 56, based on 12 reviews. Sarah Rodman of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' called it "a good start in the effort to refocus attention on Aguilera's skills", but observed "several tracks that sound mindlessly repetitive as sedentary listening experiences". '' Q'' called it "generic" and felt that "nothing really stands out". Annie Zaleski of '' The A.V. Club'' felt that the album "often plays it safe" and accused Aguilera of "dumbing down her voice or lyrics for the sake of lightweight tunes or prevailing trends." Melissa Maerz of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' found the album's "self-empowerment anthems ... as contradictory as they are unoriginal" and criticized its production for "digitally smother ng Aguilera's vocals and "draining all the emotion". ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
''s Sal Cinquemani asserted that because it is "Aguilera's shortest album since her debut, it boasts less filler, but also fewer obvious standouts." Jon Caramanica of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' felt that the album's conventional direction is "its biggest crime, more than its musical unadventurousness or its emphasis on bland self-help lyrics or its reluctance to lean on ..Aguilera's voice, the thing that makes her special". Jon Dolan of ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' dismissed it as a "vitriol-tsunami of a record". In a positive review,
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editor
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
wrote that Aguilera "feels comfortable in this familiar, slightly freshened territory". Simon Price of ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' felt that the album's "best moments are its electro-pop numbers". Kitty Empire of ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' characterized its subject matter as "wiffle of the highest order", but wrote that "one of the pleasures of Aguilera is that she can use polysyllables, even when talking the rot that fills women's mags". Although she criticized the album's "upbeat pop anthems", Melody Lau of ''
Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
'' found Aguilera to be "reinvigorated" and felt that she "shines most when she's direct, honest and vulnerable". Celina Murphy of ''
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'' felt that ''Lotuss "safer" direction and Aguilera's "default mode" makes the album an improvement from ''Bionic''. At the end of 2012, ''Lotus'' was ranked at number 17 on the list "20 Best Pop Albums of 2012" by '' Spin''. In contrast, ''Entertainment Weekly'' named it the worst album of 2012. '' Fuse'' voted ''Lotus'' as one of the best albums of 2012. At the 2014 World Music Awards, ''Lotus'' was nominated for the Best Album award; it was also nominated for Album of the Year at the 2013 Spetteguless Awards. In a retrospective review ''That Grape Juice'' called the album "criminally underrated", and noted that it was a "wholly enjoyable jukebox of jams" doomed by a "questionable marketing".


Commercial performance

In the United States, ''Lotus'' debuted at number seven on the ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 73,408 units. It became Aguilera's lowest first week sales in her career, surpassing '' Bionic'' (2010), which opened at number three with sales of 110,000 units, thereby becoming Aguilera's English-language studio album with the lowest first week sales. In Canada, ''Lotus'' peaked at number 7 on the
Canadian Albums Chart The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...
and was certified gold by
Music Canada Music Canada is a non-profit Industry trade group, trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to s ...
for shipments of 40,000 copies there on January 10. The album debuted and peaked at 28 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
with sales of 9,422, becoming her lowest-charting album there. Internationally, ''Lotus'' underperformed, only reaching the top 20 and top 30 in most countries. However, it debuted higher in Russia, Switzerland, and Venezuela, where it reached top ten of the albums chart. As of August 2019, the album had sold over 303,000 copies in the United States, as reported by
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, and has been certified gold for 500,000
album-equivalent units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...
.


Track listing

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Lotus''. Notes * signifies a vocal producer * signifies a co- producer ;Sampling credits *"Red Hot Kinda Love" contains samples from "The Whole World Ain't Nothing But a Party", as performed by Mark Radice and "54–46 Was My Number", as performed by Toots and the Maytals. *"Make the World Move" contains a portion of the composition "Let's Find Out", written by Armando Trovajoli.


Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Lotus''. *
Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...
– vocals, backing vocals, executive production *Candice Pillay – backing vocals * Max Martin – backing vocals, keyboards, production *Aimée Proal – backing vocals * Shellback – backing vocals, keyboards, production, programming, engineering * Alex da Kid – production * Chris Braide – production * Busbee – production *Mike Del Rio – production *Jayson DeZuzio – production *Dem Jointz – production * Jason Gilbert – production *Jamie Hartman – production, string arrangements * Aeon "Step" Manahan – production, programming *
Steve Robson Steve Robson (born 1969) is an English songwriter and record producer who has sold in excess of 138 million records around the world. He has written and produced 12 No. 1 UK/US singles, 38 No. 1 UK/US albums and a further 41 top 5 UK/US albums ...
– keyboards, production, string arrangements, programming * Lucas Secon – production * Supa Dups – production * Tracklacers – production * Claude Kelly – vocal production *Candice Pillay – vocal production *Chris Braide – keyboards, string arrangements, programming *Steve Daly – keyboards, bass, synthesizers *Jon Keep – keyboards, synthesizers *Alisha Bauer – strings *Marisa Kuney – strings *Songa Lee – strings *Rodney Wirtz – strings *Pete Whitfield – string arrangements *Steve Daly – bass *John Garrison – bass *Lucas Secon – programming *John Hanes – engineering *Pete Hofmann – engineering *Sam Holland – engineering, vocal engineering *Josh Mosser – engineering *Sam Miller – engineering *Oscar Ramirez – engineering, vocal engineering *Lucas Secon – engineering *Justin Stanley – engineering *Scott Hendricks – vocal engineering * Graham Marsh – vocal engineering *Phil Seaford – engineering assistance *Christina Aguilera – A&R *Keith Naftaly – A&R *Enrique Badulescu – photography


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


References


External links


Official website
{{Authority control 2012 albums Albums produced by Alex da Kid Albums produced by busbee Albums produced by Max Martin Albums produced by Steve Robson Albums produced by Supa Dups Albums produced by Shellback (record producer) Christina Aguilera albums RCA Records albums