Some amateur detective work for a Saturday afternoon...

Yesterday we posted some very starnge videos that had popped up on youtube. We didn't write much, because we didn't know much and we thought they were fairly self-explanatory, but now we are bored, ultra-curious and a bit more clued up so we're going to do a little delving and tell you what we find out.

First of all, we're going to make arguments for whether or not these anonymous 'viral' videos have anything to do with Xtina Aguilera. Oddly, out of all the suggestions that have been made about who the artist behind these could be, Xtina has come out as the most likely. Here's why:

• That picture above seems to provide pretty conclusive 'evidence' that the girl licking the inside of the tree in the second video is Christina. The faces look almost identical.
• As almost everyone who has donated their two-cents-worth has pointed out, the whole thing feels very Goldfrapp without actually being Goldfrapp (if these videos are from the 'Frapp we will be very surprised - they go against everything we've seen from their new campaign thus far). As you all should know, Aguilera worked with Goldfrapp on her new album.
• There is an owl featured prominently in the video and there is evidence to suggest that there may be a song on Xtina's new album called 'Birds of Prey'.
• Internet 'people' have suggested that Xtina would be too much of a diva to spend an afternoon licking bark in a field, but the shots of the girl in the video weren't necessarily shot in a field and in fact, considering how messy and art-directed they look, they were probably done in a studio.
• No one from 'camp Aguilera' has officially denied her involvement thus far.
  
• This.

Reasons why this probably ISN'T anything to do with Xtina.

• In the Marie Claire interview we mentioned recently, Xtina claimed that a prominent track was called "Glam" and was a poppy hip-hop throwback to Madonna's "Vogue" (!). Quite how that would meld with the terrifying and nature-inspired videos we're all in a tizz about we have no idea.
• Can you really see THIS woman (as glamorous and lovely as she is) releasing hype videos reminiscent of a Lars von Trier film?
• The video is tagged as 'foetus lap nourish cortex sap disciple wood'. We have trouble imagining anyone involved with the Xtina project typing these words ever. Let alone giving the go on something that featured footage of a goat giving birth!!!!!!!!1111111!!!!
• The only indication we've had so far that this is even for a solo female artist is a fake twitter account that posted the words "SHEISCOMING". Other than that, we have no indication that the artist is a woman or a solo artist (although we can be fairly sure it's for a music artist - it is tagged under 'Music' on youtube and was sent out solely to music blogs).

As we posted previously, our number one guess is Röyksopp. They supposedly have a new album, Senior, coming out this year and the music in the videos sounds more like them than any other artist. The vocal 'ahs' on the second video also sound incredibly like Lykke Li who featured vocally on their last album as well as Karin Dreijer Andersson (a.k.a. Fever Ray) responsible for this collection of horrifying and aesthetically fascinating videos. So there you go: sounds like Röyksopp possibly featuring Lykke Li, but looks like a Fever Ray video.

Despite all this, though, we're still not convinced. Why would Röyksopp, or their people, feel the need to indulge in this viral hype stuff? It doesn't seem very them, even if the material sort of does. And what if this is Xtina? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR THEM?

We are well aware, as everyone has pointed out, that this may all be a silly hoax, or some art student trying to drum up interest in their work by letting people think it's for Xtina Aguilera. We're also aware that no matter who this is it's succeeded in creating hype for Aguilera's new album, where previously there was none.

Anyway, no matter what they outcome we're excited to find out.