There’s a saying we like here at auspOp. If Britney can survive 2007, she can survive anything.
Well the same may not be true for Britney in 2013. The level of indifference to this, Britney’s eighth album, is sad but not surprising given that ‘Britney Jean’ sounds somewhere in between ‘this will do’ and ‘I give up’.
First of all, ‘Work Bitch’ is not good enough to sit in your iTunes collection amongst Britney’s other lead singles. Yes it’s a very ‘now’ song, but there’s little substance behind it and it will probably age very badly.
Second single ‘Perfume’ is also issue-prone. It sounds very personal but it is let down by its ordinary production.
Elsewhere on the record things don’t get much better. ‘It Should Be Easy’, in comparison with other Britney/Will.I.Am duets, is better than ‘Femme Fatale’s ‘Big Fat Bass’ but not as interesting as ‘Scream & Shout’. ‘Tik Tik Boom’, ‘Passenger’ and ‘Don’t Cry’ all mesh together whilst ‘Alien’ is reminiscent of her great ‘Blackout’ era but, again, not as good.
Highlights? ‘Til Its Gone’ and ‘Now That I Found You’ for sure, but both are only good because they sound like other songs. ‘Til Its Gone’ is essentially an EDM version of J Lo’s ‘On The Floor’ and ‘Now That I Found You’ rips off Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up’ (for the second time on the album after ‘Body Ache’).
Britney hits new levels of ridiculousness on ‘Chilling With You’ though. The track is actually quite sweet until it gets to the chorus. Then it just gets…awkward. Get drunk on red wine with your sister another time Britney! Why is she even releasing an album when she’s too busy preparing for her Vegas shows to promote it?
Don’t get us wrong, we’re happy she’s got her personal life sorted out and continues to perform but it does feel like her days of being relevant are at an end. Then again, she’s proven us wrong before….
Australia's first stop for pop!