Before I start in on Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green’s live debut of her “Make the World Move” duet, a couple things:
1) People are doggin’ on Xtina for the weight gain, and have for a while. I’ve always thought she looks mega-fine, the added pounds or not. Criticisms of her appearance have frequently preceded any salient thoughts on her talent, which is ever-impressive.
2) CeeLo Green operates best with specific confines. Give him a retro sound, and he’s brilliant. Give him a costume concept and he’s all in. Give him 10 minutes aggregate of a TV talent show and he’s unstoppable. CeeLo doesn’t dance. He grooves and gets out of the way.
3) “Make the World Move” is a generally likeable song off of “Lotus.”
Now. The television performance of “Make the World Move” on last night’s “Voice” (Nov. 13) was positively batty. Clearly everyone still remembers “Moulin Rouge” and Aguilera’s “vous le vousing,” but somebody maxed out the hyper-French “crazy” knob and suddenly everyone’s in their hoop skirt bones and Aguilera’s growling at everyone at the start of every phrase. Green must’ve stood outside of his closet decrying the lack of something to wear, a predicament he’s never once faced.
Meanwhile, Aguilera’s new album “Lotus” is looking like it will move around 75,000 units when the numbers are tabulated for next week’s Billboard 200 list. That puts her starting in the middle of the top 10, behind at least the new One Direction, the “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” soundtrack and the Weeknd’s “Trilogy.” She appears to be ahead of Green Day’s “¡Dos!”, Soundgarden’s comeback album “King Animal” and Lana Del Rey’s fresh EP.