On Thursday night, Britney Spears declared herself a Femme Fatale, launching her tour in Sacramento, California. Having already garnered praise from critics who attended her dress rehearsal, Spears got more rave reviews from music journalists who attended the kick-off show.
In addition to the glitzy costumes and high production value, Spears flaunted her stage chops, sashaying to songs like "Hold It Against Me" and "Big Fat Bass," as well as old-school jams like "Toxic" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know."
Describing it as "her flashiest, fastest moving, and most entertaining production yet," Rollingstone.com said that while tour-opener Nicki Minaj brought her signature sass, "The night belonged to Britney: She managed to prove that she's still progressing as a showgirl. Not only that, she's doing it better than even die-hard defenders would've predicted."
The Sacramento Bee explained that while "Spears performed like a pro throughout the show, hitting all her marks, she had shown hesitancy in her movements — natural for the first stop on a tour. But that hesitancy vanished when she put on the denim. She seemed at ease."
The best review of all may have come from Spears herself, who enthusiastically took to Twitter to thank her fans: "Can't sleep. WAY too much Adrenaline right now. Sacramento was on fire tonight. You ready San Jose? Cause I am!!!!"
Once she wraps her San José, California, tour stop on Friday night (June 17), Spears will take her show to Los Angeles on Monday. The U.S. tour dates wrap up on August 25 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Femme Fatale Tour then heads to Europe in September for two more months before closing on November 9 in Portugal.
Britney Spears is a dozen years into her career, and yet the kickoff of her Femme Fatale tour at the Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento last night managed to propel her forward. She's wisely focusing on the present – she sang nine songs from her latest album Femme Fatale and snagged Nicki Minaj as her opening act – while offering possibly her flashiest, fastest moving, and most entertaining production yet.
Taking her entrance atop a moving platform in the first of many skimpy and sparkling Barbarella-esque outfits, Spears kicked off her performance with "Hold It Against Me." Flipping her massive blonde locks/weave/wig in what the Glee kids call "hairography," Spears shook what her hairdresser gave her while dancing hunks in policeman gear suggestively wielded truncheons around her. For "Up n’ Down," she and her female dancers reappeared in several cages made of poles, and were soon to be joined by the cops executing jungle gym acrobatics atop the cages. White satin fedoras and trench coats were donned for "3," and for "Piece of Me" she flew over the stage until the cops ripped off their shirts to reveal S&M bondage harnesses.
It was that kind of show, and the largely female audience sprinkled with some enthusiastic guys liked it that way: Throughout her set, the screaming from the fans rarely relented. Just about every number offered a different a visual theme more over-the-top than the one before it. "Big Fat Bass" featured giant speaker cabinets with woofers circled by flashing, color-changing lights. Spears took her entrance during "How I Roll" in a car that resembled a pink Mini Cooper. The hood folded into steps that allowed Spears to walk over and down the car – one of many agile moves Spears executed without twisting an ankle.
Her set was half over before she sang a track older than four years; this was "Boys (Remix)," followed by the sole slowie, "Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know," which she sang on a swing. Here her mike was clearly turned on, and the results confirmed why Spears typically relies on prerecorded vocals. Her surprise cover of Madonna’s early single "Burning Up" lacked Madge’s authority, but it did feature Spears straddling a giant glittering guitar 10 or so feet high and twice as long. Her encore of "Toxic" featured a booming Dance Dance Revolution-styled remix with Japanese kimonos and dancing ninjas to match while "Till the World Ends" included Minaj rapping via video — an odd choice, since she was likely still backstage.
Britney Spears' Life in Photos: Her Rise, Fall and Comeback
Minaj’s own set lacked Spears’s budget or sharp choreography. Instead, the rapper tottered around on lime green platform shoes that threatened to tip her balance. Although she’s styled as a dance-pop diva, Minaj did little dancing — or singing, or even live rapping. Like Spears, much of her vocals were clearly prerecorded, which got a little too obvious during "Monster." Obviously she doesn’t have Kanye West with her, but throughout even her part in the song she sat nearly immobile, not bothering to hold a mike or move her lips.
Minaj clearly has stage presence, and the fact that fans cheered through abbreviated versions of her hits means that she’s doing something right by just showing up. But as a showcase for her considerable talents, her Thursday night performance lacked the commitment of her records. Surely the wild woman of "Did It On’em" can do better.
But really, the night belonged to Britney: She managed to prove that she's still progressing as a showgirl. Not only that, she's doing it better than even diehard defenders would’ve predicted. At 29, the pop star whose career seemed in danger of ending just a couple years ago has shown that she's back – hopefully this time to stay.
How do I know this? Because last night I was among just a handful of people invited to watch the pop princess' first—and very private—dress rehearsal of her upcoming Femme Fatale tour.
Before I give ya some of the highlights, just let me say that if you don't have tickets yet, run and get them now.
The show opens with a video of Spears in a sparkly leotard (one of many skimpy outfits that shows off her back-in-shape bod) being chased by cops through an industrial landscape. And yes, Britney's brandishing a gun. Think Salt meets Charlie's Angels.
The song list includes more than—ready for this?—20 songs. She starts with "Hold It Against Me," followed by, well, everything, including "…Baby One More Time," "I'm a Slave 4 U," "Toxic," "Gimme More," "(Drop Dead) Beautiful," "Big Fat Bass" and "Till The World Ends."
Spears covers Madonna's "Burning Up" while straddling a gigantic electric guitar. She sings Rihanna's "S&M" in a flamboyant motorcycle gear (denim, leather, studs, etc.).
Footage of a slightly older, grizzly faced fellow in what appears to be some sort of Cold War radio transmission bunker is shown throughout the show. He says things like, "Bring your best game because tonight you and I are dancing a vicious dance," and asks, "What man are you bringing to his knees?"
Other video highlights include shots of completely naked men (just butts—no full-frontal, people!) and her male dancers in what can only be described as S&M leather gear and toys, including facemasks and nipple clamps.
All of her dancers—male and female—help keep the energy (a lot of it sexual!) going with gyrations, contortions, the aforementioned nakedness and lots of sweating. Special shout-out to Marco Da Silva—holy ridiculousness of tattooed muscles!
During "I Wanna Go," a bunch of us were brought on stage to dance with Britney. Yes, I can say I danced on a stage with Britney Spears! And so can my pals from Pink is the New Blog, BreatheHeavy.com, Just Jared and Ellen K. from Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM morning show, among others. Who else was there? Spears' hottie boyfriend Jason Trawick (he even got on stage during "How I Roll" to be tied up and straddled by his girlfriend), dad Jamie and Brit's two adorable sons, Sean and Jaden.
The finale is insane. I won't tell you exactly what happens, but it includes big, white angel wings.
There's so much more to see and hear. Spears sings, dances and gives you some of her best work ever. Like I said, get your tickets now!
To review a new Britney Spears record, for me, is a bit like asking a crazed pageant mother if she believes her daughter is a star.
Sure, she might have spilled apple juice (or Cheetos, more fittingly) all over her glitz costume, forgotten the steps to her baton routine halfway through the performance and fallen asleep onstage, but in the end, she’s still Miss Grand Supreme in my eyes.
This is what journalists often refer to as “full disclosure.” With all that being said…let’s do this.
Over 12 years after her debut in 1999 and just under three years since her last studio album Circus in 2008, Britney Spears is about to release her seventh studio album on March 29: Femme Fatale.
Femme Fatale is–as some reviewers have already come to call it–Britney’s weirdest, strangest offering yet: The production is unforgivably manic, and the pop star’s vocals are distorted, looped, stuttered and smashed within an inch of recognition.
Yet this is not, as some critics may be quick to jump at suggesting, because Britney doesn’t have the voice for it, but rather the ‘experimental’ intention of the album. As she (or “she,” for the more dubious fans side-eying the legitimacy of the Femme Fatale-era interviews as of late) told Rolling Stone:
I wanted to make a fresh-sounding album for the clubs or something that you play in your car when you’re going out at night that gets you excited but I wanted it to sound different from everything else out right now. I also wanted to experiment with all the different types of music I love which is why you hear a mixture of pop, hip-hop and dance throughout the album. I also really wanted to play with my voice and change up my sound here and there which was really fun.
Accordingly, much of the album takes on Britney’s quintessential bubblegum pop appeal and adds a toughened edge (or a grimier sound, as Dr. Luke described the album to Billboard during the early stages of production.)
No greater example exists than with “Hold It Against Me.”
Still as fresh as the day it premiered, the album’s lead single layers Britney’s sugary sweet vocals atop a rough, throbbing beat for a truly multi-dimensional dance-pop number, including a scorching dubstep breakdown, angelically sung choruses, purrs, growls, moans (“Ow!”) and even the first recorded moment of Accentney on tape (“If I said I want your bo-deh!”).
While underground dance enthusiasts bitched and bemoaned the loss of dubstep to a mainstream audience (not that this is the first time dubstep’s ever infiltrated pop–but it’s certainly the most visible yet), others praised Britney’s tune for being daring, bold and ultimately authentic to her legacy.
“Till The World Ends” also benefits from Brit’s latest foray into a ‘harder’ sound: As I noted in my review of the single for Britney.com, songwriter/trash-pop temptress Ke$ha has provided Britney with her first true club anthem, complete with slamming synthesizers and fist-pump ready cries capable of being spun at any party or club across the world.
Along with Dr. Luke, the record was (fittingly) co-executive produced by arguably the most legendary pop producer of our time: Max Martin, the same producer responsible for sculpting the Swede-pop perfection of Spears’ 1999 debut album.
Accordingly, the Swedish spirit is alive and well in Britney’s latest record.
“I Wanna Go,” the Martin and Shellback-produced track, is arguably the album’s most instant, replay-ready number; an utter explosion of melody and sound.
In typical Max Martin/Britney Spears collaborative form (“…Baby One More Time,” “If U Seek Amy”), the song tempts a naughtier undertone: In this case, self-exploration. “Shame on me / To need release / Uncontrollably,” Britney moans against the song’s searing Euro-pop synths and rave-happy whistles. She’s having a difficult time keeping her hands above the blankets when the lights go out, but when faced such a thick slice of surging synthesizers, who can blame her?
If “I Wanna Go” doesn’t wind up as a single from Femme Fatale, it will surely go down in the Britney storybooks as the “Toy Soldier” and “Breathe On Me” of the record.
Apart from the pop maestro’s own productions (there are six in total, plus the incredible deluxe edition track “Up ‘N’ Down,” which plays like an homage to early ’90′s Detroit techno of Inner City), there’s the Robyn-esque “How I Roll,” which continues to prove that there’s no greater winning combination than when Britney meets the men of Bloodshy & Avant (“Toxic,” “Piece Of Me”) in the recording studio.
“How I Roll” is a completely and utterly cool production–gliding across a rollicking, gasp-filled bubbly beat as Britney daintily croons about rolling downtown where her posse’s at (no doubt the perfect companion track to an early afternoon Starbucks run!) It’s a breezy, bubbly pop ditty, yet the song’s flawless production gives the song a decidedly left-of-center feel.
The Swede duo’s other offering, the Kylie-esque “Trip To Your Heart,” may well be the sequel to Blackout’s “Heaven On Earth” (in fact, both were co-written by Nicole Morier) as Spears rides twinkling, pulsating synthesizers. “Trip to your head / Trip to your chest / Trip to your breath,” Brit smoothly coos above the layered electronica beat.
Yet amongst an album of solid smashes, it is “Inside Out,” Brit Brit’s break-up sex ode, that is by far one of the album’s finest standout moments.
For one thing, the actual beat of “Inside Out” truly deserves its own accolades here (if not a small dissertation.) Produced by rising Canadian producer Billboard, the song utilizes one of the winning beats from the producer’s 2009 showcase at a beat battle in Pheonix which took place just before the young producer began skyrocketing to fame with Dr. Luke’s crew.
Almost two years later, the beat still stands light years ahead of contemporary pop production. It’s a genius mixture of 8-bit Nintendo beats and filthy, hip-grinding synthesizers, pumping in and out like a nice, juicy–well, let’s just say it’s the stuff that wet pop dreams are made of.
“SO COME ON, won’t you give me something to remember?” Britney yelps during the chorus as the beat grinds and whines on repeat. It’s a spine-tingling yelp; an engaged yelp–the kind that yelp that screams: “The bitch is back and better than ever.”
Deliciously devious lyricism (“Even though we couldn’t last forever, baby / You know what I want right now”) coupled with clever shout-outs to her past hits (“Hit me one more time, it’s so amazing…”) makes “Inside Out” a stunning new triumph for Spears. The song cannot be played loud enough, and it cannot be repeated long enough–it simply is one of Britney’s finest moments yet.
While its clear that manager Larry Rudolph‘s hyperbolic claim that Femme Fatale would be Britney’s “Ray Of Light album” never did come to fruition (this is, after all, a mostly club-friendly record), it’s in the album’s final moment, “Criminal,” that the acoustic, Kabbalah-steeped mysticism of Madonna‘s early ’00′s career makes a special cameo appearance.
Drifting along across a hypnotic guitar strum and medieval instrumentation (fife and all!), Britney sings–no, truly sings–her way through her guiltless declaration of love for a man with all the wrong intentions. “He is a hustler, he’s no good at all / He is a loser, he’s a bum,” Spears sweetly sings, not unlike Madge’s better acoustic moments from American Life, including “Love Profusion” and “Nothing Fails.”
“Criminal” is truly one of Britney’s shining moments as a vocalist in the past five years, if not for the song’s breathtakingly beautiful, earnestly sung bridge alone. Like “Inside Out,” “Criminal” is not only a stunning highlight of Femme Fatale–it’s one of the better offerings from Britney’s entire discography, and the definition of Matureney.
Though the entire album is truly a series of accomplishments for Spears and company, perhaps one of the more laudable victories of Femme Fatale is that is simply doesn’t sound like an obvious production by either one of its executive producers (aside from their mutual trademark of simply making amazing pop songs). Between all of the grinding dubstep production and strange vocal acrobatics, it’s clear that Dr. Luke and Max Martin pushed their personal boundaries as producers.
Similarly, the producers–both of whom who’ve worked with Spears for several years (Max Martin, her entire career)–have effectively captured the Spearit of a typical Spears production: One listen to “Seal It With A Kiss,” and there’s absolutely zero room for an argument to be made about copy-cat production: It doesn’t sound like Katy Perry. It doesn’t sound like Rihanna. It doesn’t sound like Lady Gaga. It sounds like a Britney Spears song. (An incredible one, at that.)
Yet while the decision to make Martin and Dr. Luke co-executive producers was generally well-received amongst the fan community, not every producer on Femme Fatale was as warmly welcomed. When it was announced back in January that Will.I.Am would be working with Britney back in February, the general response amongst the fan community was fairly universal: “DEAR GOD, NO!”
Mercifully, however–the end product, “Big Fat Bass”—is not the robotic 21st century mess most fans feared it would be—in fact, it’s actually quite catchy. While it’s yet another product of the producer’s penchant for club chatter cliché, “Big Fat Bass” is distinct enough in its oddly skeletal structure and even odder vocals (“For the kick drum, for the kick drum…”) to merit multiple listens. In fact, it’s only when the producer’s instantly recognizable rapping breaks into the speakers halfway through that we can even tell this is a Will.I.Am production.
In the end, as my friend David R. so aptly renamed it, Femme Fatale may well be considered Whiteout.
Thematically and sonically, Femme Fatale is just as dark and cold as Blackout, if not more so: She’s riding shotgun with thieving scumbags (“Criminal”), keeping secrets and telling lies (“Seal It With A Kiss”), cheating (“He About To Lose Me”), lusting for break-up sex (“Inside Out”) and causing drama on the dance floor by messing with all the wrong kind of boys (“Trouble For Me”). By the end of the record, it’s more then perfectly clear that Britney’s been a bad, bad girl.
And yet, the imagery and energy of the campaign remain notably brighter than the dark days of Blackout.
The Femme Fatale album cover, for instance, is almost literally the inverse of Blackout: Wrapped in a feathery boa, she stares out at us from a blindingly white background. But instead of the dead eyes and black locks of Blackout (and the all too plastic pin-up model quality of the Circus cover), there’s life here beneath the tousled blonde hair and gorgeous brown eyes–she’s sexy and smoldering, yet seconds away from breaking into a playful smirk. It’s Britney, bitch.
And as Britney Spears and her personal life remain inextricably linked in the eyes and ears of the listening public, it seems as though even her own private affairs are looking brighter.
Gone are the harrowing days of 2007′s paparazzi scuffles, unflattering photographs and breakdowns on the streets of L.A. in the wee hours of the morning.
Instead, there’s a thick, sturdy wall of security and handlers now built between the public and Britney—an expensive symptom of the impossibly intense media scrutiny she’s faced for her entire career. In the small cracks through that we’re granted, however–the giggling about boyfriend Jason Trawick on On Air With Ryan Seacrest, the paparazzi photos of her smiling with Sean Preston and Jayden James while attending little league games–we get the sense that Britney has, truthfully, reached the happy medium between recording artist, celebrity and human being.
Many of Britney’s greatest critics eagerly hone in on her (assumed) lack of participation in the creative process for the record. Yet despite all the conjecture, there’s no way we’ll actually know what happens inside the studio.
Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, for instance, told the press that Britney was “very hands-on. She had a lot of ideas for me” during the recording sessions for Femme Fatale. But more importantly: Who cares? No other pop artist is so consistently grilled for their artistic integrity more than Britney Spears–from the lip-synching to the lack of co-writing credits on tracks.
The point is this: If you wipe away the pop culture snark and Pitchfork-ian musical elitism–what matters is the music, and Femme Fatale is simply an amazing pop record.
In the end, Femme Fatale is not about the comeback of Britney Spears.
2008′s Circus truly provided that safe, calculated comedown from an era of turbulence–a needed move in the eyes of the public to restore order, yet nonetheless devoid of that much-needed spark of innovation.
This is Britney’s evolution in sound: Femme Fatale is a risk-taking bout of escapist delight that plays evenly from start to finish: it’s bold, sophisticated and frivolous all at the same time–the epitome of a modern, cutting-edge pop record. And, as Britney might like to add, it’s both fun and cool.
Armed with twelve solid songs that could each easily make a case for being her next smash hit single, Femme Fatale stays true to the icon that we first fell in love with in 1999–the Holy Spearit, if you will–yet manages to smartly, perfectly update her sound and look to the logical next step in the living legend’s career.
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.
Britney Spears, the self-declared living legend, has done it again by (somehow) managing to live up to all the hype and speculation surrounding her seventh studio album Femme Fatale.
It would be too easy to say that this album is representative of today’s pop music scene (for better or worse), rather, it’s more than that. It’s not a concept album. There are no thinly veiled (read: made up) political themes as a means to drive listens. So what is it then?
Femme Fatale is a high-octane, slickly produced dance album comprised of at least 10 potential single-worthy tracks brimming with ridiculously infectious beats and gobs of sexual innuendo. It’s heavy on synthesizers, light on substance, and will straight up assault your eardrums.
By now, we’re all well versed in “Hold It Against Me,” the Dr. Luke/Max Martin production that dissolves into a jaw-dropping dubstep breakdown as well as the Ke$ha penned “Till The World Ends” that is so similar to her own single “Blow” that there are moments where we can’t tell the two songs apart. But that’s OK because the difference is while Ke$ha can write an earworm-worthy song, she doesn’t have the clout to make an impact the way Britney Spears does.
In total, Dr. Luke and Max Martin are responsible for seven of the album’s twelve tracks, but it’s the Bloodshy produced “How I Roll” that elevates Femme Fatale above the latest albums from Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, and Katy Perry, all pop divas in their own right who have cashed in on the Luke/Martin gravy train. The song is unlike anything you’ve heard in Billboard’s Top 100 full of pops, sputters, hand-claps and hollow, robotic Britney vocals. It’s irresistible to anyone with a heartbeat and it could easily have been a b-side from Body Talk, Robyn’s 2010 standout album.
Then there’s the mid-tempo break-up-turn-one-last-romp song,“Inside Out,” which at first listen might appear to be the odd man (uh…song) out on the beat-thumping Femme Fatale, but it’s not. The song is masterful in its own right thanks to Spears’ hazy delivery. Stans will even get a kick out of the little nod in the chorus to the song that started it all, “…Baby One More Time” when she purrs “You know what I want right now/Hit me one more time it’s so amazing…”
Point being – it’s time we all come to terms with the fact that Britney Spears is the real deal regardless of how present or involved she is in deciding her career’s direction (jury is still out there). We’re all guilty of dismissing her talent (yes,talent), chalking her success up to being a great marketing tool (maybe in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s), but the fact is it’s now over a decade since “…Baby One More Time” changed pop music and her latest effort, Femme Fatale, is more progressive than its nearest competitor by a longshot.
Britney Spears is pop music's stealth avant-gardist. For years, critics have dismissed her as a cipher with a wisp of a voice. But from the minute she burst on the scene — heralded by the keyboard power chords of ". . . Baby One More Time" — her music has steered bubblegum into weirder, woollier territory. "Toxic" was a mélange of Bollywood and spy-movie guitar; "Piece of Me" was an essay on 21st-century tabloid infamy crooned over 22nd-century club rhythms. Then there's this year's "Hold It Against Me," which dissolves into a furious dubstep breakdown — easily the most assaultive beat on the Hot 100 right now.
Femme Fatale may be Britney's best album; certainly it's her strangest. Conceptually it's straightforward: a party record packed with sex and sadness. Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the world's two biggest hitmakers, are responsible for seven of 12 songs: big melodies and bigger Eurodisco thumps. But other producers go nuts, tossing the kitchen sink at Britney. The Bloodshy-helmed "How I Roll" is sputtering, oddly beautiful techno. In "Big Fat Bass," Will.i.am turns Britney into a cyborg obsessed with low-end. ("The bass is getting bigger!" she exults.) On nearly every track, Britney's voice is twisted, shredded, processed, roboticized. Maybe this is because she doesn't have much of a voice; it's certainly because she, more than almost any other pop diva, is simply game. Femme fatale? Not so much. But say this for Britney: She's an adventuress.
The following italicized article is from www.popjustice.com:
So the recent history of Britney is a bit like this: recorded by a detached superstar at the height of some rather desperate lows, 'Blackout' quickly established itself as Britney's surprise masterpiece. Britney's next studio album was 'Circus'. Despite an amazing lead single 'Circus' sounded like the work of a popstar who was involved too much and too little at the same time, the victim of the sort of absent-minded hands-on approach that does more damage than good. 'Circus' was not the sort of album Britney Spears should have been making. It was, quite simply, not very good.
Well we had a listen to 'Femme Fatale' earlier. And here's the good news: 'Circus' feels like the work of a different artist. Here's the even better news: 'Femme Fatale' is another 'Blackout'. It's bursting with all that album's best bits - the slightly deranged production, the hard and dark spirit, the massive beats and the big tunes. And while it might be less of a surprise, as Britney is obviously pretty much back on top of things now, on first listen it might just be as much of a masterpiece. It's also a relief, because if 'Femme Fatale' had been a bit of a dog's dinner Britney-as-a-recording-artist would have been over.
To listen to 'Femme Fatale' we went over to Britney's label earlier tonight. The tracks only arrived in the UK at about 6pm, having been whizzed across the Atlantic via a spooky download link thing for internal use by Sony.
For anyone amused by the apparently tokenistic dubstep breakdown in 'Hold It Against Me' - and the genre's trademark gloomwobble did rather seem to appear from nowhere then disappear back there just as abruptly - the big news from 'Femme Fatale' is that the foray into dubstep was more than just flirtation. There's dubstep in the DNA of this album. It's rarely as blunt as in 'Hold It Against Me' - there's no "ooh look at me I'm dubstep" showboating - and 'Till The World Ends' is a far better indication of the album's sound. With some exceptions, this is a heavy, dark and dangerous-sounding Britney album. It's a sound you'll hear in 'Inside Out', one of various songs leaked so far in clip form.
Even the will.i.am track 'Big Fat Bass', which sounded unbearable on first listen and seemed likely to reinforce will.i.am's reputation for turning in the worst tracks on otherwise amazing female-fronted pop albums - sounds great. We made notes on the songs one by one and had prepared the title 'Big Fat Pile Of Shit' in anticipation of this song starting but, halfway through, we'd crossed that out. It was surprisingly bearable partly because the second clip that emerged is a far better reflection of the track and partly because the rest of the album makes sense of it.
Lyrically - well, on the surface it's about what happens when you go out and what happens when you get back home, and beneath the surface it may well turn out to be that too. Pop right now doesn't really feel like it needs another set of songs about how great it is to a) go clubbing and/or b) have sex, and 'Femme Fatale' is preoccupied by both those topics, but it feels like Britney manages to sidestep the clublolz trap in the usually awful David Guetta sense or that sometimes awful Ke$ha sense. 'Femme Fatale' is an album with a perfectly defined sound and a clearly established personality. It's a club record in the same sense 'Blackout' was. It hangs together, it makes you feel like having a bit of a dance. It's playful. Gone are the slightly laboured, joyless moments of 'Circus'.
Some tracks are fast and some are slow but the nearest 'Femme Fatale'-era Britney gets to a ballad is closing track 'Criminal' (clip here) which has the flavour of 'American Life'-era Madonna - the 'Intervention' and 'Love Profusion' sort of sound. Flute (FLUTE) and guitar are high in the mix here but with hefty, whalloping beats. To these ears it's a darkly comic song about a guy who's basically awful ("he's a killer just for fun fun fun") and whose various character flaws are described all the way through the verses until the chorus arrives with "but... Mama I'm in love with a criminal, and this type of love isn't rational, it's physical; Mama please don't cry i will be alrgiht, all reason aside I just can't deny, I love that guy". Typing those lyrics out it looks a bit bad. But it sounds great. Really great. And when the middle eight swings around we're in classic - and by classic we mean the 'Oops!' album - Britney territory. Coming moments before the album's end it's a brilliantly timed glimpse of the traditional tuneage that put Britney at the top of pop over a decade ago. It doesn't sound much like anything else on 'Femme Fatale', but what's interesting is that it doesn't jar either. Her new album may be stuffed with fantastically aggressive robopop but, at the end of the day, Britney's still Britney.
We'll be able to discuss the album in more detail in coming days via a track by track sort of review but the key points from this overview are:
1. No crap songs.
And that, really, is all you need to know.
Usual disclaimers apply: we heard it all the way through once, it might sound less amazing on repeated listens but, equally, it might end up getting even better.
This hasn't been a very well written review so apols for that but finally, if you're still reading, we would like to say a thing. From what we've heard from this album (which is the whole thing, bar deluxe edition bonus tracks) and from what we've heard of the Lady Gaga album, they are entirely different bodies of work with entirely different influences and objectives from two entirely different artists at entirely different stages in their respective careers. Between them they offer a fantastic account of pop music in 2011 and should be viewed as complementary, not contradictory. There is room for both. Let's all just try to get along.
The following italicized article is from www.popjustice.com:
We went over to Britney's label earlier this morning. Our mission: listen to the very final no-messing-around version of Britney Spears' new single 'Hold It Against Me'. Here is the massive RCA logo you see when you go into the label. It is a new logo. It is better than the new Britney Spears logo, but wouldn't really work as a Britney Spears logo as it says 'RCA' not 'Britney Spears'.
Sometimes labels talk about keeping music 'under lock and key'. What that usually means is that there are CDs sitting around on desks all over the building for cleaners to nick if they feel like it, and unwatermarked audio streams have only been sent to about fifty people in radio. With Britney it seems like there is Proper Security around the whole thing. There is, allegedly, only one CD in the UK and this is it. As a 'cunning bluff' it doesn't actually say THIS IS THE NEW BRITNEY SPEARS SINGLE 'HOLD IT AGAINST' ME on it, and has been kept in a Willow Smith CD sleeve. Note the subtle 'BS' at the leftmost extremity of Willow's whipped hair.
This is what the CD looks like when it is inserted into a CD player. As you can see, the song is three minutes and fifty two seconds long. That makes it twenty two seconds longer than the optimum pop length (established by '...Baby One More Time') of three minutes and thirty seconds, but complaining about a new Britney song going on a bit is a bit like moaning your lunch is a bit too nice.
So what's it like? Well, if you've heard the demo (which frankly isn't very good and made us worry a bit about this whole Britney comeback business) you will probably be expecting something that sounds like a halfarsed Ke$ha tribute. Fortunately, while the song's lyrics and melody aren't that different, the finished Britney version of 'Hold It Against Me' is approximately 1000 times better than the demo. It's a harder, more urgent, extremely epic statement track that sounds like the work of a superstar.
Allow us to illustrate our point piscatorially. The big difference from the early demo that leaked last week is the presence - heralded by a classic Britney spoken word "if I said 'I want your body', would you hold it against me?" - of a fantastically ridiculous dubstep breakdown after the second chorus. After the whole song drops out it's dubstep gloomwobble-a-go-go for a full thirty seconds, with Britney throwing around some "yeah", "ow", "uh-huh" ad-libs and a new "gimme something good, don't wanna wait I want it now, drop it like a hood and show me how you work it out" line. After that there's a second middle eight (don't be surprised if certain radio programmers whip out the first one entirely) which is a hands-in-the-air smoke machine moment more in keeping with the rest of the track, and that's followed by the full chorus slamming in and taking you to the end of the track. Sudden end, no fade. Amazing.
This is neither the time or the place to fully explore the concept of delayed gratification but the effect of teasing the listener by dropping the beat out of the song's first two choruses, then plunging us into half a minute of abstract dubstep, and then only finally revealing the full-on raveochorus in the song's final moments is something very special indeed. Warning: YOU MAY SHED A TEAR OR OTHER FLUIDS.
Other bits:
1. There is lots of whooshing.
2. There's no "babaay", but there is a "hazaay".
3. The vocals are a bit treated - it's a Britney single - but it's not Auto-Tuned to fuck like we (and lots of you) feared. It's obviously Britney and it's obviously brilliant.
4. We love it and it makes us very excited - more excited than we thought we would be - for the album.
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:
Rating: 5/5 stars
When 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.
The following italicized article is from www.underworld.com.au:
Lets start by getting one thing straight. Rebekah Devlin, who started what quickly developed into Britney-gate this week in Australia, clearly got it very, very wrong. At the Britney Spears show tonight at Rod Laver Arena, there were no mass walk-outs, there were no disgruntled fans and the audience was genuinely entertained.
Just for the record, I am not a Britney fan but ‘Circus’ is a very good show. Forget the “but she mimes” argument. It is irrelevant for Britney. She is a popstar. She has never pretended to be a serious musical act like Radiohead. She is what she is and has never denied it.
Keep in mind at parts of their shows, Cher has lip-synched, Madonna lip-synchs, even Roger Waters did it. So lets just eliminate that from the scorecard and score the Britney show for what it is … a very entertaining show aimed at her core fans.
If you are a Britney fan, you are going to love ‘Circus’. It is over two hours of escapism and yes it is a real circus. Actually, if Ms. Devlin focused on the freak show featuring the midget or an amputee on a trampoline she might have been able to beat-up a better story. Did she even notice that? Not that it mattered. It was visually compelling.
Yes, a Circus it truly is, with magicians, acrobats, a tightrope and … was that Perez Hilton dressed up as The Queen?
The costume changes are covered up with musical segways. One featured Marilyn Manson ‘Sweet Dreams’ and another Michael Jackson ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’.
Lets give a special shout-out to the two kids in the front row. Britney’s children Sean and Jayden watched what Mom did for a living with Mom’s new beau Jason Trawick . For the record Ms Devlin, Jayden left earlier so your headline tomorrow should read “Even Britney’s Kid Can’t Stand Her”. Sean left before the encore, so you can beat that up into a headline as well.
In Vegas, this show would be up for “show of the year”. In Perth, based on a one-woman jury, it doesn’t rate at all. Melbourne, the home of Australian theatre, accepted another good show.
Britney is more than 90 shows into a world tour with Circus. How funny that Ms Devlin wasted her 15 minutes of fame on something that has never pretended to be anything more than a pop show.
The following italicized article is from www.allmusic.com:
Like 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, 2009's The Singles runs 17 tracks but the selected songs result in a very different listening experience. To begin with, the five years separating the two compilations were tumultuous ones for Britney Spears, but they resulted in a clutch of hits that kept her on the charts despite all the drama, hits that firmly entrenched Britney as a dance club diva. This stretch of six singles — "Gimme More," "Piece of Me," "Womanizer," "Circus," "If You Seek Amy," "Radar" — along with the excellent new Max Martin-written and produced single "3" (much better than any of the three new cuts on My Prerogative), help push The Singles away from teen pop and toward pure dance-pop bliss, a shift in tone underscored by the virtual absence of ballads (the only one included is "Everytime," which in this context plays a bit as a chill-out number). In some regards, giving her early sticky bubblegum and fluffy ballads a bit of a short shrift does downplay Britney's era of dominance, but it does result in a stronger overall listen, since there are no slow patches here, just a parade of relentless hooks and rhythms that wound up defining the sound of a decade.
The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:
Rating: 4/5
Is 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...?
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
After a series of sneak peeks and teases on her Web site and Twitter, Britney Spears officially debuted the music video for her hit single "3" on Friday (October 30). The sexy, fast-paced clip for the song, which will be included on The Singles Collection when it's released next month, made its big debut on her site.
The video, shot by director Diane Martel earlier this month, is a series of glamour shots and dance breaks. The video opens with Britney in a sparkly little black dress, spritzing herself with perfume and putting on mascara. Then it cuts to a shot of her holding her hair up provocatively and singing the song's sexy opening lines: "1,2,3/ Not only you and me/ Got 180 degrees/ And I'm caught in between."
The video quickly becomes a montage of Britney doing what she does best: being sexy. Shots of the singer in black and white, wearing a halter-cut leotard in a steam-filled room, are cut with images of just her legs in lacy tights walking across the screen.
Britney also does a lot of dancing in close-up shots, where you can't fully see her whole body. In some of the dance sequences she's flanked by male dancers or standing in a lineup of sexy women who do acrobatics on a raised ballerina bar as she sashays around. There are a few moments in the video where Britney's personality shines. She smiles at the song's tongue-in-cheek lyrics, particularly when she finishes the song's bridge about loving multiple people at once.
The video ends with Britney looking directly into the camera before it fades to black. Late Thursday, before the video premiered, she tweeted, "Can't wait for ya'll to see my new video tomorrow morning. I think you're really going to like it!"
The following italicized article is from www.rollingstone.com:
After teasing fans with 15-second clips on her Twitter yesterday, Britney Spears finally revealed the video for her Hot 100-topping single “3,” the new track that will feature on her upcoming The Singles Collection. You’d expect the video for a song about threesomes to be Rated-X, but Spears keeps things borderline tasteful with the “3″ vid, busting out some suggestive dance moves that are nowhere near as racy as the lyrics to “If U Seek Amy.” Instead, Spears and her cadre of dancers go the “Single Ladies” route by scaling back on sets and simply dancing in front of white and gray backgrounds. It’s not Britney’s best (it’s nowhere near her “Slave 4 U” clip), but we haven’t seen her dancing with this much conviction since the In the Zone era.
Considering that today marks the two-year anniversary of Blackout, as Spears’ official Website points out, it’s clear Britney’s dance skills are getting back on track.
As Rolling Stone previously reported, Spears’ The Singles Collection will be released on November 24th, joining a release week that also features Adam Lambert’s For Your Entertainment, Rihanna’s Rated R, Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster and 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct.
She’s been teasin’ us all week long but, at last, it’s out!!! The music video for Britney Spears’s new single 3 has just been released to the Internets … check it out now:
So … what do y’all think? It’s hot, right? I LOVE the white, low-cut body suit … she looks effing fantastic! The choreography is dope … but it is kinda lame that they censored the word “sin” … I mean, seriously? I do like Britney’s facial expressions during the “break down” of the song … her expressions make the song even more cheeky ;) 3 is the new single taken from her upcoming release Britney Spears: The Singles Collection. LOOOOOOOVE this video … our dear Britney has done it again!! Thoughts, comments, raves?
The following italicized article is from www.theprophetblog.net:
It’s now been over ten years since Britney Spears released her debut album …Baby One More Time, which went 14x platinum in the United States and sold over 25 million worldwide, and what better way to celebrate Britney’s success than a brand new single produced by the man who helped launch her career?
“3″ is the official lead from Britney’s upcoming best of compilation The Singles Collection, and is produced by the singers most well-known collaborator Max Martin. The Swedish hitmaker also helmed a number of Spears biggest tunes from “…Baby One More Time” to “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “Stronger”.
Wow, if there was ever a song to mark Britney’s 10 years of ruling the pop scene than this is it. The club-heavy ode to group sex that is “3″ contains everything that makes Britney, Britney. It’s a perfect pure pop record!
The beat is a certified dancefloor filler, it’s a relentless and doesn’t stop, becoming more intense as the song picks up steam until it finally climaxes like a musical orgasm. The way it picks-up and stops, then changes tempo is amazing. The hook is insanely infectious, and actually rivals the catchiness of “Oh baby baby” and “Gimme gimme more, gimme gimme”
The lyrics are classic Britney; they’re flirty, sexy, provocative, tongue-in-cheek, and full of the cheeky faux-innocence we’ve come to expect from the girl who once tried to convince us that she was a ‘virgin’. This point is further driven home as Britney chants the hook like it’s a sexed-up nursery rhyme.
Vocally Spears comes across quite similar to “Mannequin” from her Circus album, with her voice being fed through autotune to the point where she sounds like a singing fembot crossed with a blow up a doll. What Britney does brilliantly though (and has done her whole career) is her ability to add her unique personality to the song.
Despite being heavily produced Britney never lets the song swallow her and she lets us know that she’s the one in charge. She also shows us why she’s one of the most successful female artists of all time by delivering yet another flawless anthem, maintaining a consistency and quality in her music that’s rarely seen in the genre.
Some people may argue that they wanted a more urban Britney this time around, but I think it was important that this record be completely pop. It’s how she started so it only makes sense that it should be how she celebrates her 10 year anniversary and new greatest hits compilation. Brilliant!
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.
The following italicized article is from www.turnupthepop.com:
Is everybody ready for the legendary Britney Spears to return? After the disappointing If U Seek Amy and Radar releases it’s time for Britney to remind everyone why she is the ringleader in charge. 3 is the lead single from her upcoming Singles Collection and what a stomper it is! The track is produced by Max Martin and also written by him, Shellback (So What, If U Seek Amy) and new girl Tiffany Amber.
They seem to have listened to all the best new Britney songs like Gimme More, Circus, Womanizer and If U Seek Amy and put them all into a blender to come out with 3, not that we’re complaining! We unfortunately are not allowed to say anything about lyrics or more specifics about the song so you will just have to wait for the premiere this week.
As for the video, if it’s going to be taking the song lyrics literally it’ll be the sexiest thing she has ever filmed and that includes the Sweet Dreams clip from the Circus tour!
The following italicized article is from www.elpasotimes.com:
One doesn't go to a Britney Spears concert for the music. Or the singing. You go for the spectacle.
You should have gone Monday night.
Talk about sensory overload.
Her "The Circus Starring Britney Spears," which packed the Don Haskins Center with nearly 12,000 people, is by far the recovering pop star's most lavish extravaganza yet, trotting out acrobats, gymnasts, circus clowns, musicians and a cadre of well-chiseled dancers on an ingenious stage set that simulates a freakish three-ring throwdown, complete with one big and two smaller, adjoining stages that filled the arena floor and looked like giant bullseyes.
The image is appropriate. Spears either sees herself as a victim of prowling paparazzi and a media infatuated with her every destructive move, seemingly unaware or unwilling to admit that those addicted to the spotlight often bring a lot of that bad voodoo on themselves.
"Circus" is Spears' reclamation tour, her stab at not only making a lot of money and resurrecting her once-sagging career, but a chance to dazzle her fans and reshape her battered image. Let's face it, before dad Jamie Spears took over her career last year, the former teen pop princess was on the road to nowhere.
He's got her back on track, supporting "Circus," a decent album of club-infused techno pop, with a lavish, over-the-top show that packs more costume changes, choreography and edgy beats-per-minute dance thump into 100 minutes than you're likely to see anywhere, much less El Paso, a sizable city that rarely hosts a top-grossing tour of the year like this one.
The fans couldn't have appeared happier. The largely young, largely female crowd seemed to eat it all up, saving its most enthusiastic applause for the final "Electro Circ" third of the show, when Spears, her invisible band (including former El Pasoan Johnny Najera on guitar) and cadre of dancers worked up some drastically reworked, clubbier versions of "I'm a Slave 4 U," "Toxic," one of her best hits, and "... Baby One More Time," her first hit.
The stage, created in part by El Paso's Steve Dixon (her tour director), is just the right vehicle for an over-the-big-top artist. Its three surfaces give Spears, who deserves a medal for dancing so well on high heels throughout the show, plenty of area with which to work the room while showcasing what she does best - dance.
The show's got a lot of eye-popping razzle dazzle and high-speed, high-flexibility dance moves, including a fun, lightly Bollywood version of "Me Against the Music."
Spears was largely muted through the show, rarely addressing the crowd. But she takes some serious chances, focusing mostly on material from her last two albums, not the lot of them, and serving up drastically reworked versions of her most familiar songs. She also stopped the proceedings long enough to thank the cheering crowd and offer up a rare live vocal on "Everytime," a ballad she butchered four years ago on her last tour, but nailed Monday night.
The show started on time and worked like clockwork Monday. Kristiana DeBarge got the crowd going with a very brief, two song set that included her club hit "Goodbye," followed by 2007 "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, a big-voiced singer who's still growing into the performer's role, but is a much more confident and powerful singer than she used to be.
Spears may not sing live much in the show, a blessing for those of us who appreciate a good voice like Sparks', but it's obvious that she's growing comfortable in her 27-year-old skin. Like I said before, you don't go to one of her shows for the singing. You go for the spectacle, and on Monday night she delivered big time.
Break the Ice is a blog dedicated to the one and only, Miss Britney Spears. So original, right? I decided to create this blog because I was getting sick of going to fans sites that didn't update as frequently as I wanted. Our goal here at Break the Ice is to bring you ALL Britney news ALL the time. Tom and Cool are the administrators and Beautiful Sinner, Joel, Tekkie, Johnny, Juicy UK, Marcus and Jenna Pixie are updaters. Together, we form the Break the Ice team!
Any questions/comments/concerns? Please e-mail us at breaktheiceblog@aol.com. Enjoy!
On Thursday night, Britney Spears declared herself a Femme Fatale, launching her tour in Sacramento, California. Having already garnered praise from critics who attended her dress rehearsal, Spears got more rave reviews from music journalists who attended the kick-off show. 
Here is the massive RCA logo you see when you go into the label. It is a new logo. It is better than the new Britney Spears logo, but wouldn't really work as a Britney Spears logo as it says 'RCA' not 'Britney Spears'.
As a 'cunning bluff' it doesn't actually say THIS IS THE NEW BRITNEY SPEARS SINGLE 'HOLD IT AGAINST' ME on it, and has been kept in a Willow Smith CD sleeve. Note the subtle 'BS' at the leftmost extremity of Willow's whipped hair.
As you can see, the song is three minutes and fifty two seconds long. That makes it twenty two seconds longer than the optimum pop length (established by '...Baby One More Time') of three minutes and thirty seconds, but complaining about a new Britney song going on a bit is a bit like moaning your lunch is a bit too nice.
The big difference from the early demo that leaked last week is the presence - heralded by a classic Britney spoken word "if I said 'I want your body', would you hold it against me?" - of a fantastically ridiculous dubstep breakdown after the second chorus. After the whole song drops out it's dubstep gloomwobble-a-go-go for a full thirty seconds, with Britney throwing around some "yeah", "ow", "uh-huh" ad-libs and a new "gimme something good, don't wanna wait I want it now, drop it like a hood and show me how you work it out" line. After that there's a second middle eight (don't be surprised if certain radio programmers whip out the first one entirely) which is a hands-in-the-air smoke machine moment more in keeping with the rest of the track, and that's followed by the full chorus slamming in and taking you to the end of the track. Sudden end, no fade. Amazing.
