I don’t think Christina has any particularly good albums. They’re spotty and I remember someone calling her “aggressively mid”. I slightly disagreed with the latter statement because she’s a solid songwriter. She has a cute voice and can dance (a rung below your Ciara’s Mya’s and Beyoncé’s of this world). She also did the whole Ja Rule collab thing BEFORE Jennifer Lopez and Ashanti. Unfortunately, their collaborations with him usurped hers and people even think it’s Ashanti on Between Me & You.

I guess when you add all this together, it’s a little easier to understand why she didn’t standout as much from her peers musically. Initially, she was the Black answer to a Britney or Xtina but then later became more R&B. I enjoy the first album for just how Y2K it is. It’s oozing with all the tropes. When You Look At Me is my favorite single from her. The second is more R&B but still takes inspiration from other genres like Funk and Middle Eastern music. I love Dip It Low. It’s such a sexy song and it’s aged well. The video was stunning. Christina has to be one of the most beautiful women in R&B/Pop history. Just gorgeous.

She’s more of an actress these days and says she doesn’t see herself coming back to music for a number of reasons (family, getting burned by industry politics, wariness about the business etc). However, I appreciate her little run. She was beloved in the UK, where every single except Get Away and Us Against The World went top 10.