Last week I bought my first ever Britney Spears album. Her new one's called Femme Fatale, you may have heard of it. I figured, hey, I'm 26-years-old, and I'm not getting any younger. It's time to jump on the Britney Spears bandwagon, a mere 13 years after everyone else.
Femme Fatale is a highly processed, completely danceable album of tracks, devoid of much emotion. And that's what we've come to expect from Ms. Britney, correct? A series of catchy tunes without much substance lyrically. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The album leads with Till The World Ends, by far my favourite track off the album, and Brit Brit's latest single. It is impossible not to dance in your chair when this song amps up. With lyrics that proclaim "See the sunlight, we ain't stopping, keep on dancing till the world ends" this could easily be the anthem of my life.
From there we're launched into a series of beat-pumping, voice-altering tracks that err more on the techno side than I'm used to from Britney. They're engaging, and there's a certain sexy edginess to them. They also make it hard for me to listen to the album straight through at one time. I'm usually sitting at a desk and not dancing at a club when I'm listening to music, y'know?
Favourite songs for me include Inside Out, How I Roll, Trouble For Me and He About To Lose Me, a list I just composed by scanning through the album and gauging my immediate reaction to the tracks. Do they include differentiating elements from the other techno-induced songs? Do they make me feel good or bad things when the sound hits my ears?
Big Fat Bass, a song featuring Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas is an immediate skip every time. I'm not sure if this reflects an aversion to Will.I.Am or an aversion to Will.I.Am chanting "BIG. FAT. BASS. BIG. FAT. BASS." But I don't get five seconds into this song before moving on to the next, unless I'm distracted.
Trip To Your Heart is a song of lyrical genius (SarcMark), while I swear I've heard the music from songs like Gasoline and Criminal somewhere else before.
Britney slows it down a bit for He About To Lose Me, a song in which her voice has been processed in such a way that it does not sound at all like her voice during the chorus. One of the thoughts I constantly have while listening to Femme Fatale is "There's no way Britney will even try to sing any of these songs live on tour."
Lest this sound like a list of gripes, I emphasize this is indeed what I signed up for, and I'm happy with my decision to join the millions out there who own Britney Spears albums. These songs are catchy, and a lot more musically complex than some of her past efforts.
Yes, I do believe there is some musical evolution in this album. It's still a completely manufactured Britney, but it's a different, edgier, harder-hitting manufactured Britney.