Pop princess shows fatigue on ‘Britney Jean,’ but can still pack a punch
After her less-than-dramatic I Am Britney on E!, the more we knew about Britney Spears was probably all she didn’t want us to know. In the documentary previewing her two-year stint in Las Vegas and highlighting her latest CD, Britney Jean, we don’t see the confident superstar she should be. And she was the next Madonna?
But perhaps it’s all part of her game. Do we underestimate her blatant apathy for her work as laziness or has she simply put her fans under a spell? Why not both?
On her eighth album, Britney Jean, Spears leaves a lot of questions — and strangely, some not about her album, but about what’s next, period. She fulfills her recording contract with this album, and she’s showing signs of tiring; her live shows aren’t as intense as they used to be; and her music choices are borderline lazy.
That’s especially true on track 2 of Britney Jean: Her collaboration with T.I. in “Tik Tik Boom,” which fires off bad-ass production value but is about as effective as virgin cocktail; and “Chillin’ With You,” her pseudo-ballad with little sis Jamie Lynn — a pedestrian effort that belonged on big sis’ first album. But it also highlights the trouble with Britney. With adolescent ambience, she still wants to be a girl and a woman and this translates to a simpler template of music.
Once these two songs are out of the way, however, Spears goes and kicks our ass with a healthy tracklist of strong beats and power ballads. Like Brit herself, the album comes back.
Her first single, “Work Bitch,” works on all the right levels: Killer beat, irreverent tone, modern and fresh. Spears has learned her voice excels at club levels. And what queen hasn’t already worked the runway in their own house to this song?
will.i.am is all over Britney Jean as a producer and contributor, and their collab with the high energy “It Should Be Easy” is as effective as “Work.” Sometimes the lyrics don’t fit into the beat, but the merge of pop, techno and dub here is a spot on and ready for many New Year’s resolution get-fit playlists. That tone continues with the DJ’s wet dream of “Til It’s Gone.”
While I’ve picked on Brit’s thin voice over the years, she displays some lovely maturity in her ballads, which vie for the album’s strongest suit against the club tracks — most notably “Perfume” which is Spears at her most vulnerable since “Everytime.” Here, she embraces her womanhood as she battles for her cheating boyfriend.
And when she not-so-subtly delivers I’m gonna mark my territory, it’s crazy-ass girlfriend and “you-go-girl” at the same time. But when we rule her out for having a complex approach, she delivers in spades the album’s most shining moment.
She equals that with album opener (and potential single) “Alien” and the harmonious “Brightest Morning.” Sometimes the poetry is out of a high school class, but she gives these ballads a heavy dose of honesty which buoys the album into a stronger release than probably expected.
But what’s left to expect? I doubt this is the last we’ll hear of the mother of two. She’s lucked out with her last few releases to select good enough material to keep her relevant, but at times, her lack of interest is apparent. Britney Jean is a testament to both of that.