Aguilera, Christina : Stripped

It looks like a Mariah Carey album, it sounds like a Mariah Carey album. Bloody hell, it is a Mariah Carey album. More specifically Christina Aguilera's premature mature album sounds like the hip-hop infused 'Rainbow' which famously bought Mariah clubland credibility at the expense of her sanity. Ambulance chasers will have a field day picking through 'Stripped' as the lyrical focus shifts from shockingly inept girls-together tat to ickle girl vulnerability with dizzying irregularity, but - thrift-store Britney that she may be - the girl can sing. The manic 'Make Over' and Redman-fuelled smut-fest 'Dirrty' are probably the pick of an inconsistent crop. More ghoulishly fascinating than brilliant, the genie is out of this bottle and no amount of rubbing will bring it back.

Jim  Wirth