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Let's be honest, Britney's last album Circus wasn't bad by your average artist's standards - 'Womanizer', 'Shattered Glass' and 'Unusual You' anyone? - but as a follow-up to the near-perfect Blackout, we don't mind telling you that we were left somewhat underwhelmed. Given that she's spent two-and-a-bit years working on a follow-up - one that she claims is built "for the clubs" and is her "edgiest and most mature sound yet" - we have a sneaking suspicion that the feeling was mutual. Question is, does Femme Fatale hit the mark?
The LP's two trailer singles have already raised the bar from what Circus offered us, having served up a pair of club-thumping stompers in the form of saucy 'n' seductive 'Hold It Against Me' and hi-NRG 'Till The World Ends'. Both helmed by producer-du-jour Dr Luke and longtime mixing buddy Max Martin, their dub-pop hybrid is both fresh yet undeniably 'Britney'.
Fortunately the LP's ten remaining tracks continue the trend, with the anthemic 'I Wanna Go', self-assured '(Drop Dead) Beautiful' and ballsy 'Gasoline' all tailor-made dancefloor choons; while the lyrics range from 'Inside Out's' blatantly slutty: "Baby shut your mouth and turn me inside out," to the supremely self-assured: "I wanna go down town where my posse's at/ Because I got nine lives like a kitty-cat" on 'How I Roll'.
Despite the album's well-worn producers and slightly obvious theme, the production is polished, intriguing and - best of all - fun. The dub-steppy 'Inside Out', the much-welcomed piano breakdown on the will.i.am-assisted 'Big Fat Bass' and the pagan-like flutes in closing track 'Criminal' all keep us guessing - albeit while feeling suitably pumped - for the full 65 minutes.
Future singles? She's spoilt for choice here, but if 'I Wanna Go', 'How I Roll' and 'Criminal' don't at least get a look-in, well, we'll be having strong words.
It may have taken four years to arrive, but Femme Fatale ultimately feels like the post-Blackout comeback we were waiting for, albeit with one important distinction: rather than feeling like we'd caught a worse-for-wear Britters at an underground, Red Stripe-soaked "party", this time we're joining her at an altogether classier venue, locking arms and ushering the barman for a round of raspberry Mojito's before throwing some serious shapes. Yes, she's teamed up with producers that her contemporaries are well-aquainted with, and the subject matter rarely shifts from the superficial, but what ultimately sets it apart is Spears's unrivaled ability to seduce us, which, given the album's title, is something she clearly knows all too well.
5/5 stars.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears has pushed forward the UK release date of her new single 'Hold It Against Me'.
The track, which premiered earlier this week and was immediately released in most countries, was originally due to be put out in the UK on February 20.
However, the Dr Luke and Max Martin-produced song will now be available to download on January 17 because of "overwhelming demand".
Her UK publicist tweeted: "Retweet this if you love Britney's 'hold it against me'! The UK itunes release is now monday 17th Jan due to overwhelming demand! (sic)"
The date also marks the day that the star's Glee episode is aired on E4.
'Hold It Against Me' has so far topped the download charts in 19 countries.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Rating: 5/5 starsWhen Britney released '...Baby One More Time' at the tail-end of the last century, few would have predicted that she'd still be around today. Sure, it quickly became obvious that the track - reportedly rejected by TLC - was one of the great pop singles, but the history books are littered with the remains of stars that instantly light up the charts only to burn up just as fast. Despite some filler-heavy albums, Britney has always been something else, and this compilation perfectly captures the career of one of the best singles artists of the last ten years.Where her 2004 Best Of, My Prerogative, was let down by some needless inclusions, unsatisfying sequencing and under-written new material, the 18-track Singles Collection is as lean as the star herself after a couple of months on the road. Better still, it features the best singles from the Blackout and Circus albums, which salvaged Britney's career as a pop artist in the face of a personal breakdown. The only possible quibble is having newbie '3' tacked on the start rather than the end - ruining the otherwise chronological tracklisting - but in the grand scheme of things that matters not-a-jot.Running from '...Baby One More Time' to 'Radar', you get a single-disc timeline that shows a progression in style and substance from school uniform-wearing pop ingénue to sultry motorik saucepot. There's an argument that the 65-minute run-time should have been extended to include a few more songs, but in the main it's the slowies that have been dropped, and that's no bad thing. Of course, there's little you can say about the songs themselves that hasn't already been said. Hits like 'Toxic' and 'Oops!... I Did It Again' proved their cultural cachet by featuring in Doctor Who and John & Edward's most magical moment respectively. Even the oft-forgotten 'Stronger' boasts two stone-cold classic pop moments: the lyrical inversion of her debut hit ("My loneliness ain't killing me no more") and that sound drop-out at two-and-a-half minutes that teases before the chorus slams back in.Britney's voice has long been a source of contention, but while the debate about the value of a lip-synced live concert continues to rage, this compilation underlines her worth as a distinctive pop singer, at least on record. She certainly doesn't have the pipes of contemporaries Christina or Shakira, let alone the likes of Mariah or Whitney, but as last year's X Factor finalists showed, it's not as easy as it looks to make these songs sound as good as they do here.And there's nothing that sounds out of place. The thematic muddle of wedging a coming-of-age ballad ('I'm Not A Girl...') between two slabs of sexed-up hip-pop ('Slave 4 U', 'Boys') looks dodgy on paper, but sounds perfect in the listening. Best of all is the double-header of 'Everytime' and 'Gimme More', where you get Brit's best ballad jammed up against a throbbing robopop thriller that's rightfully survived her infamous VMAs performance. The only arguable weak link is the Madonna-featuring 'Me Against The Music', but in this context what once looked like a respectful passing of the baton now seems like an unconditional surrender of pop Queendom to its rightful heir.Source: Digital SpyThanx to 'R' for the heads up.
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Rating: 4/5Is it more shocking that Britney's latest single is about having a threesome, or that it's taken Britney a full decade to tackle such fruity/fruitful subject matter? Either way, '3' makes for a fitting addition to her upcoming 'Best Of' comp - pure pop with a soupçon of controversy, it's pretty much elemental Spears.
The chorus is a naggingly catchy playground chant, Max Martin's production is as sweet and shiny as a glacé cherry, and the surprisingly inventive lyrics even manage to sneak in a WTF?! reference to '60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Oh, and right at the end Britters admits that ménage a trois might be insufficient to sate her appetite, proposing a "four on the floor" jobby instead. Well, at least finding willing participants shouldn't be a problem - don't all of the boys and all of the girls want to...?Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:You've just finished supporting Britney on tour. How did that go?
"Great! Before one of the very last shows, I got to chat with Britney and say thank you for having me on the tour. She told me she really liked my show, which was cool to hear. I didn't have chance to hang out with her too much because she's Britney and she's always doing something, but I bumped into her a few times and she was always really sweet. And of course she killed it onstage! Her production's just crazy with all the dancers and contortionists and aerialists. It's an amazing spectacle to watch."Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney's got a 'Singles Collection' coming out at the end of November and, in customary fashion, it contains a new track that's going to be released as a single. Two of your trusty DS reporters got to listen to it at the end of last week - 18 times, if we recall correctly - so here's what we thought. 1. It's called '3' and it's a Max Martin production. 2. We won't beat around the bush - it's about having a threesome. 3. The chorus, which has more than a hint of the playground chant about it, goes like this: "1-2-3 not only you and me / Got 180 degrees / And I'm caught in between / Counting 1-2-3 feed upon that three / Getting down with repeat / Everybody loves ohhhhh". The "ohhhhh", in case you were wondering, is a classic Britney lusty sigh. 4. Britney makes her intentions very clear elsewhere, telling us "living in sin is the new thing" on the bridge and offering this coaxing couplet on the second verse: "Three is a charm, two's not the same / "I don't see the harm, so are you game?" 5. Enough already with the lyrics! What does '3' sound like? Well, it's uptempo, quite electropoppy on the verses and a little bit ravey on the choruses. 6. '3' would fit better on Circus than Blackout - it's got that slightly cartoony quality that the more recent album sometimes has. The Britney track to which it's most closely related is probably 'If U Seek Amy', though they're more like second cousins who only see each other at family funerals and weddings than brother and sister. 7. The best bit of the song is the middle 8, on which Max Martin cools things down with some synthetic strings, a load of bassy beats kick in and Britters offers her boyfriend a get-out clause: "If you don't like the company / Let's do it just you and me..." 8. ...Before promptly changing her mind by suggesting "or three... or four on the floor". That last bit's pretty clever, because the beats she's singing over at the time could legitimately be classified as "four-on-the-floor". 9. It took us a few plays to fall for '3' - and truth be told it's no 'Gimme More' or 'Womanizer' - but as a fun, fruity newbie to round off a potentially brilliant Singles Collection, it does its job very well indeed. 10. It's premiering on US radio today, so expect to be hearing it very soon. The first UK play, in case you were wondering, will be on Radio 1 this Wednesday afternoon.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Strange one this. Having first appeared on 2007's Blackout, 'Radar' was supposed to become its final single the following summer, but the release was scrapped when Britney returned to the recording studio sooner than expected. However, someone at Team Spears is clearly a fan of the track, because it managed to find its way onto last year's Circus album too.
And the story doesn't end there! Now, a whopping 21 months after it first caressed our ears, 'Radar' is being released as the final single from Circus. It still sounds pretty ace, one of the best examples of the robopop sound Blackout essentially invented, but its fresh-out-the-box sheen has long since faded. If there had to be another single from Circus, couldn't they have gone with 'Unusual You' or 'Kill The Lights' instead?Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Ciara has spoken out about supporting Britney Spears on her current world tour, insisting that the singer was a "sweetheart" to work with.The 'Work' star opened for Spears on her British dates and recently confirmed that she would join the 'Womanizer' singer on the road again for her second tour of the US which kicks off in August.Speaking to Rap-Up, she said: "I did a few days with her in the UK and that turned into us doing all these dates coming up, so I'm excited about it. The first time she came by, she was like, 'Hey Ciara! I just want you to know your show is great'."Backstage, it was really quiet, serene. It was just a cool vibe for women. We need to support each other and have good, positive energy around each other. That's what it was."Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:The photographer who snapped topless pictures of Britney Spears on the set of a music video has defended the images. The photos, which show Spears pole dancing to 'Gimme More' with just body art covering her breasts, were leaked yesterday, fuelling speculation that she had been unaware of their existence. However, a lawyer for the unidentified photographer has told the New York Post that Spears herself had hired his client and had been the brains behind the raunchy routine. "She was going to use this in the promotion of the video, but obviously, after [she] saw the content, decided not to," he explained. "These weren't sneak pictures."Representatives for Spears, who is halfway through her residency at London's O2 arena, have declined to comment.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears has said that she hopes to prove her critics wrong with the success of her ongoing Circus tour.The singer told Hello! that her children are always her number one priority and everything else in her life falls in place around them.Spears said: "A lot of people thought maybe I wouldn't make it. People thought I was finished, didn't they? I guess for a while last year it looked that way."Nothing I can do about the past, I guess. But I'm hoping to prove them wrong now. And I have really put everything I have into this new show."She added: "I'm happy. Truly, I feel like the girl who has it all. I have my family, my boys, my friends, my fans... this show."But more importantly, I'm not sad anymore. I was just so sad for so long, but not anymore. And you know what? That feels really, really good."Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears is reportedly planning to change the setlist for her upcoming European live dates.The star, who kicks off her mini-residency at London's O2 arena on June 3, is expected to alter parts of 'The Circus: Starring Britney Spears' with new mixes and dance routines.Writing on Twitter, her manager confirmed: "Should be getting some dope remixes for the show today. Brits going to rework and choreograph a few numbers for Europe."Spears is rumoured to be considering performing her 2007 single 'Gimme More', which was not included in her North American shows.The tour, which has so far amassed a gross revenue of $50 million (£33 million), was recently extended to include dates in Ireland and continental Europe.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears has reportedly demanded that she be flown to Manchester in a private jet when she performs in Britain next month.The 'Womanizer' singer, who plays a mini-residency at London's O2 arena before doing a single night in Manchester, has refused to stay overnight in the northern city and will leave directly after the show."She has decided she will travel by private plane to Manchester - then fly straight back to London," a source told the Daily Star.Spears has reportedly detailed an extensive rider for her short stay in the country."Britney may only be staying in the city for two weeks but she knows exactly what she wants," the source added.Among the singer's demands are a room that has never been smoked in, fresh flowers that she will arrange herself, a variety of the latest magazines, DVDs featuring Marilyn Monroe and a selection of topical, chick-lit books.She has also requested horse riding and running sessions in Hyde Park and a different route to her venue each night to deter paparazzi from following her.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.com:Britney Spears is reportedly unable to commit to a relationship because she is still struggling to overcome her failed marriage with Kevin Federline.The singer, who is currently on her 'Circus' world tour, has allegedly laughed off constant speculation that she is looking for a serious boyfriend."[Britney] says it's going to take many, many more years to completely detox from being married to Kevin," a source told Heat."She still says being Mrs Federline was the biggest mistake she's ever made."Speculation that Spears plans on marrying John Sundahl, who she has been linked with in the past, has been labelled "ridiculous"."Britney doesn't want to do anything until the tour is over," the source added."She wants press for her tour and not for an engagment. The idea that she'd actually want to marry someone is ridiculous."Spears releases her new single 'If U Seek Amy' on May 4.Source: Digital SpyFor once I believe a tabloid lol..must be the weed from yesterday...
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Lady GaGa has spoken of her respect and mutual admiration for fellow pop musician Britney Spears.The 'Just Dance' singer told Fab that she enjoyed her recent collaboration with Spears and claimed that the Blackout star had never gone away.Lady GaGa said: "It was awesome seeing the song change when she put her touches on it. I'm just really grateful that she loves the music and she's so supportive of me."She's a fan of my stuff and to write a song that she loves and to know she loves me as an artist, you can't ask for anything better than that."She added: "Britney's a real class act in terms of the way she handles herself in the media and embraces new artists. She's always really kind, I've always admired that about her."She's gonna kick everybody's ass. She's awesome, as far as I'm concerned Britney never left."Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.com:Britney Spears has reportedly been asked to headline Radio 1's Big Weekend in May.Station bosses have approached the star's manager to join the bill for the two-day event at Lydiard Park in Swindon on May 9 and 10."Everyone’s got their fingers crossed that Britney will come on board," a source told The Sun.Spears is expected to arrive in the UK a week before the live music event to begin rehearsals for her mini-residency at London's O2 arena, which starts on June 3.Snow Patrol and N-Dubz have already been confirmed for the event, which last year saw a headline performance from Madonna.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.com.uk:Pink has reportedly vowed to speak out against Britney Spears after hearing that the star has hired elephants for her forthcoming Circus tour.The 'So What' singer is waiting to hear whether the rumours are true before going public with her disapproval, according to the Daily Star.A source told the newspaper: "Pink is really angry at the idea of elephants being carted around on tour, especially with the loud music, lights and craziness that generally ensues on a tour of any kind."But she's waiting to see if the rumour about using animals is true and what Britney will be doing with the animals before judging."Pink, who campaigns for the animal rights organisation PETA, used an elephant in one of her early music videos, but it is believed that she now regrets the decision.The insider explained: "The elephant's trainer was making the elephant kneel on concrete and get up again and Pink went crazy. The trainer told her she enjoyed it but Pink said: 'Oh, so you actually speak to elephants then?'"The star recently dressed in an alligator costume for a PETA advertisement.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears is reportedly 'close to breaking point' as she prepares for her first tour since her public breakdown.The star is becoming increasingly stressed and anxious as pressure grows in the final weeks of rehearsals, according to reports."Britney's like a wound-up spring waiting to go off," a source told Now."She's still taking medication to get through each day."She's so stressed about the kids and so nervous about the tour that it's making her physically ill. The only way she can release that tension is to scream at whoever is closest."She locks herself in her room or the bathroom and frequently breaks down in tears."The 'Circus' singer has allegedly been prescribed Valium and anti-anxiety pill Ativan to supplement her regular bipolar medication.Spears's live show kicks off in New Orleans on March 3, before playing a "mini-residency" at London's O2 arena from June 3. She recently added a further date in Manchester on June 17.Source: Digital SpyDon't ya just love how they've been saying that she's thisclose to her breaking point since May 2008?
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:US radio stations have been ignoring calls for a boycott of Britney Spears's new single 'If U Seek Amy'.The song has been met with widespread criticism because its chorus sounds like Spears is singing "all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to F.*.*.K me"The US Parents Television Council has said that it violates the broadcast indecency law if aired between 6 am and 10 pm.The single has entered the Billboard Pop 100 chart after six radio stations playlisted the track and has already recorded digital sales of 107,000."We're confident the version of the song we air is not crossing any lines," WFLX's Tommy Chuck told Billboard.com. The DJ added that record label Jive has provided them with an edited version that changes "seek" to "see". A joke version has also been produced that sees the jockey shout his name over the offending parts.Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:Britney Spears is reportedly close to signing a deal worth £10 million to pen an official autobiography. According to The Mirror, the 'Circus' singer has already teamed up with a literary agent and is expected to begin writing the book following her world tour. "There have been numerous unofficial biographies printed about Britney, but she's never agreed to pen her own tome - until now," said an insider. "And some of the stories she's got are absolute dynamite. She's kept diaries so there's nothing she'll leave out unless she wants to."The source added that Spears could eventually write "between three and five books throughout the next decade", adding that it was "one of the most lucrative deals in showbiz history".The 27-year-old's mother Lynne released her own autobiography last month, entitled Through The Storm: A Real Story Of Fame And Family In A Tabloid World. Source: Digital Spy
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.com:Britney Spears has reportedly asked Kevin Federline to move back in with her.The singer has decided that she wants to get back together with her ex-husband, according to Look magazine."Kevin has been staying over a lot but I don’t think it will be long until they are living together full-time again. They have slipped back into their old relationship really easily," a source told the publication.'Kevin is excited about living with Britney again because he finds it tough being a single dad. She is thrilled because she can have her kids back and a relationship with someone she trusts."Federline currently has full custody of the couple's two children, Sean Preston, three, and two-year-old Jayden James."Britney and Kevin have come to realise they still love each other. They have been seeing a counsellor and have drawn up a list of rules so they can improve their relationship," said the source.Spears recently added a further six dates to the UK leg of her 'Circus' tour. She will hold a 'mini residency' at Londons 02 arena from June 3 until June 14.
Source: Digital Spy
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