Key tracks: “Bionic,” “Lift Me Up,” “You Lost Me,” “My Girls”

It’s been four years since Christina Aguilera released her third studio album, Back to Basics, and now she’s back with something a bit less basic.

Bionic, Aguilera’s latest effort, features a number of well-known, highly respected collaborators. With the likes of Sia, Santigold, M.I.A., Kathleen Hanna, Ladytron and Peaches lending their incredible talents, how could the songstress’ album falter?

The lead track, aptly titled “Bionic,” opens with glitching vocals and crazy auto-tune. Despite the Santigold-esque quick lyrics, reverb and echoes, Santi is not a contributor to this track.

“Not Myself Tonight,” the first single from the album, has been getting a lot of flack. The fact is it’s the quintessential dance song with Aguilera’s typical “up with women” message. She even proclaims, “I feel brand new / And if you don’t like it, fuck you!”

Aguilera is known for her undeniably amazing vocal range, but a number of the tracks on Bionic are just awkward. Tracks like “Desnudate” and “Vanity” may lead some to wonder if little Miss X-tina was going through a mid-life crisis during the recording of the album.

The second half of the album is where, for the most part, Aguilera hits her stride. It’s not difficult to feel what Aguilera was feeling while recording this ballad-focused group of songs reminiscent of her album Stripped. “Lift Me Up,” written by Linda Perry who also wrote Aguilera’s immensely popular song “Beautiful,” is the most powerful one on the album.

Tracks written by Sia are slow, meandering songs that might as well—perhaps should have been—sung by Sia herself.

“My Girls” has the potential to induce eye rolling. It’s the track that features Peaches and was written by Le Tigre front woman / Bikini Kill alum Kathleen Hanna. The girl anthem is a staple of Aguilera’s and this might be her best one to date. Let’s just say it’s definitely better than Stripped’s “Can’t Hold Us Down.”

This album could have been pretty solid were it not for tracks like “Glam” and “Sex for Breakfast.” “Glam” might work best as a song on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” as Aguilera commands “Let’s get glam, don’t let the clothes wear you / Let’s get glam, it’s all an attitude / Now snap!” And if people thought that 2002’s “Dirrty” was a bit of an over share, “Sex for Breakfast” will have people saying “too much information.”

Bionic definitely isn’t the best Christina Aguilera album there is, but it has some redeeming tracks that might receive a fair number of plays from pop music fans.