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Music

Christina Aguilera Returns with New Kanye West-Produced Single, "Accelerate"

The new single features 2 Chainz and Ty Dolla $ign. It sets up an apparently hip-hop-influenced eighth studio album, 'Liberation.'

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Kanye,” Christina Aguilera says in her new profile at Billboard. “Outside of, you know, his controversial aspects…" The interview was conducted two weeks before West let loose and professed his love for Donald Trump. Thus, Christina Aguilera is the only person I know of who made an off-hand comment about pop culture five weeks ago and saw it age well.

Aguilera, the multi-million-album selling pop star and erstwhile judge on The Voice, was saying all this because she's back with new music. "Accelerate" is produced by Kanye West, and it features Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz. It's the first single from Liberation, her eighth studio album and first since 2012's Lotus. The song is fine. It's bogged down by cliché—"boss ladies" rhymes with "Mercedes"—and Aguilera's immediately recognizable voice doesn't really find its purpose over West's distinctive production.

Still, here's a Kanye West-produced Christina Aguilera song that features 2 Chainz and Ty Dolla $ign. That's something. Watch the "Accelerate" video at the top of the page. Liberation is out June 15 on RCA.

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