Christina Aguilera Album: “Just Be Free”

I am a big fan of Christina. She is truly a gifted vocalist and has a great future ahead of her.I bought this CD thinking it was the follow-up to her first album. then I read the inlay of the CD and learned that this was actually a compiling of demo recordings of Christina, when she was only 14 and 15 years old. I listened to the CD, and you can notice in it the great potential she had as a singer at that young age. But this isn't a recording to be commercially released in my opinion.The recordings are just a demonstration of Christina's vocal abilities, but it has not the quality, as she herself says, to be commercially released. I agree with her as she writes in the inlay: "I hope this will be just a footnote in what i expect to be a long career in music". If you buy this CD don't expect to get great songs, beautiful lyrics, and Christina's actual voice, for you'll be dissappointed. This CD is only for people who want to know just how much of Christina's voice is just pure talent, and how much of it is the product of voice training. if you're not interested in knowing this, then this CD isn't for you

This album is from the time before Christina Aguilera hit it big with 'Reflection' and 'Genie in a Bottle.' The reason this album wasn't released until now though, is that Christina herself did not feel it was up to par with her latest works. I completely and fully agree. Also, the songs 'Just Be Free,' 'Move It,' and 'Believe Me' are all on the album in two different forms, so although there are twelve songs listed, there are only nine original songs with the others as dance mixes (or in the case of 'Just Be Free,' a Spanish version). Although these songs are changed enough to not take away from the album, the quality of all of the tracks is low by any standards. As I listened to Christina's first CD, I could really appreciate the varrying pitches and originality of each track. With this one, none of the tracks really stand out, and most of them are just plain bad. If you want to hear the voice that made Christina a star, buy "Christina Aguilera." This CD will spoil the perception you have of her abilities and will disappoint fans who have heard her other work.

I dont understand why everyone thinks this album is awful. In her other albums, she has backup with atleast 3 other voices. This album is raw, the real deal, unmanufactured. I can understand why Christina sued to have this album not released. Poeple want to hear clear, crisp, edited songs so they're "just right". But this album is uniquely interesting because it takes you right into the recording studio, and you can almost picture the young, hard-working, struggling singer. Christina has amazing talent and I will not pay for this album because it supports poeple who are selling the album without her consent. The songs are more than fine, the only thing thats scum here is whoever released this.

All the reviews I have read for this CD say how awful this album is and really it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. You just have to keep in mind that this album was recorded as a demo and Christina had no voice coaching at all. This whole album is her own god-given talent. It's not a grammy winner by any means but any Christina fan should appreciate it for the fact that it's raw and unprofessional. Sure the lyrics are childish and not the best but she sings her heart out and makes them worth listening to.

Before she signed a record deal with RCA, Christina recorded this demo with a few producers when she was 14 years old and when she became famous, these people built music around it and released it to the public. Christina tried to stop them but they still released it. Most of these songs are dance and don't really show Christina's talent but it's still impressive to hear what this girl could do at 14 years old. I love this album/demo because it shows that Christina is not a fake singer, she could hit all those high notes when she was just a child, I'm glad those producers released this demo. This is the proof that Christina Aguilera is really one of a kind!