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Aguilera's collaborator on "Can't Hold Us Down," among several other tracks, has close ties to Slim Shady: Dr. Dre beatminer Scott Storch, a fellow Pennsylvanian. "I originally wanted to work with Dre," she says, "and then I started to work with Scott regularly, and I just fell in love with his style."
She also clicked with Linda Perry, the 4 Non Blondes frontwoman who helped give Aguilera's fellow corseted Marmalady Pink a musical makeover. "I heard some of [Pink's new songs], 'My Vietnam' and things like that, that I thought were so personal and so real on a level where my record was going," Aguilera recalls. "[I thought] Linda would be a really cool person to collaborate with. ... When I met her, she showed me how to sing from a different place. It's an incredible release to scream like that."
The sonic therapy resulted in several tracks "that were a little difficult" for Aguilera. "One track in particular that I wrote with Linda, it sounds like a twisted lullaby," she continues. "It's about my childhood and past. Not to get too specific, but I've spoken openly about trying to get the word out about domestic violence and child abuse, so one of the songs is really personal. I'm not afraid to do that, because I feel like so many other young people in certain situations like this [can see that] someone coming from that background could grow up and do something so great and use a bad experience and turn it into a good one. I turned to music originally because of my past and needing a release or an outlet to get out anger or frustration or hurt."
Another of her therapeutic collaborations with Perry is the aforementioned "Beautiful," an achingly rich ballad which finds Aguilera stepping into the territory of operatic '70s rock-soul sister Minnie Riperton and icy '60s icon Julie Driscoll — a blue-eyed soul star who, like Aguilera, turned her back on being a pop mannequin to make more experimental pursuits. She, too, had a taste for memorable hair and outlandish eye makeup.
"It's all about being proud of who you are, no matter what people say ... you still know you're beautiful," Aguilera says of the track. "It's an amazing thing to say, 'I'm beautiful,' without feeling like you're cocky. It's a really cool feeling to be able to sing that so raw."
Equally unexpected are the guests Aguilera hopes to have on her album, including Dave Navarro, Eve, Timbaland and Petey Pablo ("He's so cute," she says). She's planning to include a cover of a track by her heroine, Etta James, as well as a sensual take on Terence Trent D'Arby's "Sign Your Name," from 1987.
"Sexuality is a beautiful thing. ... It's something that's just a part of me," she says of her approach to the song. "It's one of the better parts of being a woman. We're sexier than guys."
The calmness and poise Aguilera displays in the interview room all but vanishes when she gets in gear to track a few verses for "Infatuation." While the guys in the booth get ready, she fidgets in her chair and yanks at her bracelets. The headphones come off, go on, and come off again as she jumps up and grabs a bottle of water, then asks for coffee, anxious to get on the mic. When all is finally in place, she lays down some lines, making it clear that she's traded in the wholesome hunks from her "Genie in a Bottle" house party for a sweaty entanglement with a tattooed Boriqua. When it's over, she sits back and glows with pride.
"I'm completely excited and I'm not really scared, because this is me," she says. "I can't hide. I'm not a puppet. I can't just sit up there and keep doing the same kind of music. It's time for me to explore."
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Photo: MCA
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