Frankly, Christina Aguilera's new album Stripped scares the hell out of us.

No, not because of her aggressively skanky new image - if Christina wants to pierce her lip and nose, pioneer the use of hair extensions as a halter top and include pictures of her deep-throating a sausage in her CD, well, she's 21 and it's a free country, you know?

And it's certainly not because of her music - because honestly, Stripped may be self-indulgent, but it isn't half-bad.

Thankfully, she's pretty much ditched the whole teen-pop sound along with her look. Instead of all those dance ditties, Stripped has plenty of gritty, R&B-flavoured hip-hop and some rockier adult-contemporary fare by former 4 Non Blondes leader-turned-Pink producer Linda Perry. And instead of all those treacly ballads, she offers up some honestly soulful numbers (including an Alicia Keys cut) and even some gospel-flavoured cuts.

Heck, she even hand a hand in writing nearly all these songs, so we can't complain that she's just some no-talent diva-puppet. And we sure aren't spooked by her voice. We've always maintained she was a truly gifted singer squandering her talents on inferior material, so it's heartening to see her finally tackling more grownup, distinctive and varied fare.

No, what scares us is how disgusting Britney Spears is going to get trying to top that Dirrty video. (More on Christina Aguilera)

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