Album Review: Britney Spears – Britney Jean
Britney Spears’ eighth studio record has been touted about how it is her “most personal album ever”. Its title, Britney Jean, gives an element of intimacy, with Spears claiming that her family calls her Britney Jean as a term of endearment.
Whether Britney Jean delivers on this sentiment is quite difficult to discern. Of the 10 tracks, half of them are familiar EDM fodder, which comes as no surprise given that Will.i.am is at the helm as executive producer (and a co-producer on seven tracks).
Lead single, ‘Work Bitch’, is a lolz-a-thon of thumping beats, synths and weird accents. Britney calls the ‘guv-a-nah’, all the while barking orders at her audience. While there’s hardly singing, it’s a slice of post-EDM that just works (bitch).
On ‘It Should Be Easy’ featuring Will.i.am, Britney’s vocals are so auto-tuned and tampered with it takes the term Brit-bot to new levels. A few years ago, the song would have been acceptable but now the production sounds dated and the vocal tricks tired. Likewise, ‘Body Ache’ is a rave piano, four-to-the-floor sequel to ‘Scream & Shout’ that nobody needed.
However, it would be unfair to call all the club bangers terrible. ‘Tik Tik Boom’ brings us something more urban and features some proper vintage Britney vocal groans. Meanwhile, the song ‘Til It’s Gone’, is lyrically quite emotional, with Spears proclaiming “you’ll never know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” over broken synths and pounding bass.
The slightly more mellow moments are where Britney Jean works. Album opener, ‘Alien’, produced by the king of the confessional, William Orbit, is a mid-tempo that is one of Britney’s stranger songs. Ethereal and otherworldly, the song’s masterful “not alone” hook niggles into your subconscious. The production is first class (despite the vocal glitch at 2:14) and Britney’s vocals are processed and, well, alien.
On the Sia-penned ‘Perfume’, Britney sounds the best she has in years. It’s a far cry from the thumping, hyper-sexualised image we are used to. While quite wordy, the song is a triumph, delivering an emotional and vivid recounting of a troubled relationship. The song’s hybridity between haunting piano and arpeggiated synths elevates it, marking it one of the best ballads Britney’s ever released.
Another surprise comes in the form of ‘Passenger’, co-written by Katy Perry and produced by Diplo. The squelchy 8-bit synths at the beginning of the song transform into a pop/rock affair with pounding drums and a very strong chorus. Album closer, ‘Don’t Cry’ has Britney sounding organic over sparse drums and odd synths.
There are moments when listening to Britney Jean that a glimpse of the personal shines through. However, it seems to all get a bit convoluted and confusing. One moment we’re with Britney and questioning the motives of her boyfriend, the next we’re on the dance floor fist pumping with poppers up our nose.
It just seems that this album doesn’t know what it is, and Britney’s input seems very hard to ascertain. Whereas before top producers bolstered her apparent distance, Britney Jean’s vapid and dated EDM is tired, generic, and could have been recorded by anyone.
The problem is that Britney Spears used to set a precedent that others would follow. It’s a shame, given who we were told was working on the album, that Britney Jean has ended up as it is: bland, vacant and forgettable.
– Alim Kheraj
Britney Jean is out now on RCA.
