Your Body (Christina Aguilera song)

Background

In December 2011, it was announced that Aguilera was teaming up with Swedish hit producer Max Martin on her comeback single for her then upcoming album. On July 3, 2012, Billboard reported that the "club banger" would be officially produced by Martin. Writing for the same publication, Andrew Hampp thought that their collaboration was very "surprising" because Martin had been working with a lot of artists, including Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and Britney Spears; however, "Your Body" was their first work together. During an interview with the magazine, she commented on the Swedish producer, "Max is legendary in the business. He's known about me but we haven't crossed paths... It's taken us a decade in the same business and watching each other from a distance, so for us to now come together and respect each other's work ethic and how we like to be heard and making a marriage out of it, I think "Your Body" is the best culmination of that".

Release and artwork

Prior to its official release, an uncensored demo version of "Your Body" was leaked to the web on August 23, 2012, entitled "Fuck Your Body", where she sings "All I wanna do is fuck your body" in the chorus. On September 12, 2012, Aguilera revealed details about Lotus and "Your Body" via Twitter, including the cover artwork. RCA Records premiered the song on On Air with Ryan Seacrest on September 14, 2012. Two days later, the single was serviced to contemporary hit rhythmic radio stations in the United States. "Your Body" was available via iTunes Stores worldwide for digital download on September 17, 2012. It was also digitally release in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2012; three remixes of the track was purchased for on-line sales the same day. The CD single version for "Your Body" was released in Germany and the United States on November 9 and November 27, respectively.

The single's cover artwork sees Aguilera "nearly" naked, wrapping in a "sheer blush-colored" piece of fabric and barley covering her breasts with her long flowing hair, while her arms are outstretched over her head. It also features Aguilera's "all curves"; TJ from Neon Limelight called the cover "sizzling" and wrote that it features her "bodacious curves on full display". Rebecca Macatee of E! Online labelled the artwork "an R-rated recreation" of "Genie in a Bottle". MTV Buzzworthy's Byron Flitsch praised the cover, calling it "a stunning cover art that has rendered us totally speechless". Fuse's Nicole James and Andrew Stout from SF Weekly compared Aguilera's image on the artwork to that of Marilyn Monroe, on the photo shoot The Last Sitting.

Composition and lyrical interpretation

"Your Body" is a midtempo dance, electropop and R&B number, with dubstep and Eurodance influences. The song features heavy synthesizers, "stuttering" drums, and "hard-hitting" beats. According to Gregory Hicks from The Michigan Daily, "Your Body" is musically similar to Jessie J's 2011 song "Abracadabra". Chris Martins from Spin commented that the song "has a mellow thrust that hits muted transcendence for the chorus before dipping back down into that bummer bump". The chorus and the bridge features Aguilera's "powerful" vocals, provided by heavy synthesizers over a "booming" Eurodance beat. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Melissa Maerz noted that Aguilera's vocals are provided by too much synthesizers. Gregory Hicks of The Michigan Daily compared her "synthesized" voice on the song to those in Maroon 5's "One More Night", which was also produced by Martin.

In "Your Body", Aguilera sings of having a one-night stand with a random man. In the first verse, she "angrily" purrs, "So open the box, don't need no key, I'm unlocked". Synthesizers and "stuttering" drums are featured at the pre-chorus, "Don't even tell me your name/ All I need to know is whose place/ And let's get walking". Chris Martins of Spin commented that the lyrics actually means, "The economy is in the tank, congress can't agree on anything, war and natural disasters consume us ... so, what else can we do but make love?" At the second verse, she tells her lover, "I am a freak, I'm disturbed/ So come on and give me your worst/ We're moving faster than slow/ If you don't know where to go/ I'll finish off on my own". The four-on-the-floor refrain has Aguilera "flaunting her famous pipes" on the chorus, "All I wanna do is love your body/ Tonight's your lucky night, I know you want it". In a track-by-track review for Lotus, Billboard critic Andrew Hampp thought that the song "doesn't peak" until Aguilera "growls", "I think you already know my name" at the bridge. According to Jason Lipshutz from Billboard and Robert Cospey of Digital Spy, the lyrics of "Your Body" are similar to Aguilera's previous single "Dirrty" (2002).

Critical reception

"Your Body" garnered mixed to positive reviews from music critics. In a positive feedback, a reviewer from Billboard wrote that "it's clear the diva is going for broke". Writing for Digital Spy, Robert Cospey scored the single a four stars out of five rating and labelled it one of Aguilera's best tracks. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times picked the song as one of the stand-out songs from Lotus that highlighted Aguilera's "volcanic" vocals, naming it "sweaty and bold". Mikeal Wood from the Los Angeles Times praised "Your Body"'s musical diversity from her previous 2010 record Bionic and complimented Aguilera's "powerhouse" vocals on the track. Sarah Deen for Metro praised the single as "a funky, thumping dance number that is one for the girls to dance around their handbags to".

Alexis L. Loinaz from E! Online also provided a positive review, stating that the song "promises to be a major dance-floor stomper, laying on the synths atop a thumping bass line as the power belter's potent vocals pile on the decibels". In a mixed review, Melissa Maerz from Entertainment Weekly praised Aguilera's vocals, which "reaches high enough to dust the angels with bronzer". However, Maerz criticized the overused synthesizers in the track, commenting that "she could be anyone". Rolling Stone critic Jody Rosen called it as a "sluggish" and "nearly hookless". Gregory Hicks for The Michigan Daily criticized that the song's lyrics "aren't even worth a discussion"; he also criticized the synthesizers used in the song and commented that "even Aguilera's flop Bionic had more musical complexity". Writing for The Guardian, Issy Sampson also criticized its "cheesy" lyrical theme.

Commercial performance

"Your Body" debuted and peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart issue dated October 6, 2012 with 103,000 digital copies sold. The song debuted at number ten on the Hot Digital Songs, becoming Aguilera's first top-ten song on the chart as the lead artist since "Keeps Gettin' Better" peaked at number 5 in 2008. On the US Pop Songs chart, the track debuted at number 33 on September 29, 2012, and later reached its peak at number 20. "Your Body" was commercially success on the Dance Club Songs, reaching atop the chart on December 8, 2012. The single also peaked at number ten on the Canadian Hot 100 on November 24, 2012. For the issue chart dated November 17, 2012, the single debuted and peaked at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and only remained in the top 75 of the chart for two weeks.

"Your Body" only managed to reach the top forty charts of most European countries where it charted. It and peaked at number 16 in Scotland, number 17 in Sweden, number 21 in Finland, number 22 in Switzerland and Spain, number 23 in Hungary, number 29 in Germany, and number 35 in Denmark. On The Official Lebanese Top 20 chart, the single was more successful, peaking at number six. It achieved similar success in South Korea, where it charted at number six on the Gaon International Download Chart.

Background and concept

The music video for the song directed by Melina Matsoukas was filmed between August 20 and August 21, 2012 in Los Angeles. A cut from the video premiered on NBC's The Voice on September 17. A video teaser was released on Aguilera's YouTube channel on September 17, 2012. The official music video premiered on Vevo on September 28, 2012. Aguilera commented about the collaboration with Matsoukas, "Once we started talking with each other and she heard 'Your Body,' she spun it in a way that you wouldn't expect at all. And I get to play this character that, yeah, she may be a little bit of a badass, she's very confident, self-assured, but she's super playful and super tongue-in-cheek. She laughs the whole way through the video. She's watching cartoons, and you know she doesn't take herself too seriously."

The video starts with a warning saying "no men were harmed in the making of this video". In the opening, it shows Aguilera playing 1980's computer games on her computer when she gets an incoming message from an occult fortune teller. Opening the message, she asks "Hey Oranum, what's my week look like?" to which the occult fortune teller responds "You're gonna have a killer week!". Aguilera coyly smiles to the camera and images are shown of Aguilera writhing around seductively on a bed and eating cereal whilst on the couch watching cartoons. In the clip, Aguilera plays a killer who kills men after seducing them. She goes on a ride with the first man and seduces him leading to a make-out session between the two, then after he falls asleep, she blows up his car in electric-pink flames. Next, she goes to a bar and seduces the second man in a bathroom stall, where she bludgeons him to death, leaving spatters of blue paint dripping from the walls. Finally, she seduces a third unlucky suitor (who was foretold by the same occult fortune teller that it was his unlucky day) by inviting him to a motel and then uses a baseball bat to kill him, "showering the room in a mist of red confetti". The video ends with Aguilera washing off the red confetti splattered all over herself while looking in the mirror at her reflection and as the confetti goes down the drain, shows Aguilera in her trailer eating cereal while changing channels on her television set, settling on "The Lucy Show" before smiling and turning off her television. The video features several cultural influences, including the old NES Advantage, the psychic site Oranum.com, and short films of "The Lucy Show" featuring American actress Lucille Ball.

Reception

The video received positive reviews from media outlets. James Montgomery from MTV News commented that the video is "grisly and garish, but also incredibly clever and visually arresting". T. Kyle writing for MTV Buzzworthy gave the video a positive feedback, writing "Christina manages to be fun and provocative, the styling is beautiful and even aspirational, and Legendtina's body looks amazing". Sam Lansky from Idolator website complimented Aguilera's "charming sense of humor" and deemed "Your Body" as one of Aguilera's best music videos. Writing for Billboard, Jason Lipshut noted the video seemed to be inspired by the unending stream of violence on TV, but felt that Aguilera's clothing style in the video was the standout part. In a review of the video for Yahoo! Music, Lyndsey Park complimented the cultural references in the video, writing that "it's enough to make even Seth MacFarlane or Dennis Miller's heads spin. And yet, somehow, it's all so very, very Xtina". Marc Hogan of Spin wrote that "It might take us a few more viewings to get the joke, but at least there's enough amazing absurdity going on to make that prospect sound entertaining". On December 4, 2012, Fuse announced that "Your Body" was the number one video of 2012, based on online voting.

Live performance

On November 2, 2012, Aguilera performed "Your Body" on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, using office supplies as instruments including an iPhone and a stapler.

Track listings

1. "Your Body" – 4:00

1. "Your Body" – 4:00
2. "Your Body" (Ken Loi Remix) – 5:26
3. "Your Body" (Audien Remix) – 6:16
4. "Your Body" (Oxford Hustlers Radio Mix) – 3:42

1. "Fuck Your Body [Explicit]" – 4:00