By shelz.
A few years ago, Britney Spears was speeding down the road to perdition with no rearview mirrors, wearing a gasoline soaked bustier. Drugs, alcohol, divorce, questionable parenting and even more questionable public behavior plagued the young singer and ravaged her image. She worked through the turmoil, releasing Circus and completing its obligatory tour, but the feedback was less than stellar as the singer was charged with everything from being extra hefty to working in obvious backing tracks to augment, if not replace her live vocals. It was enough to kill the career of a veteran superstar, unless your name is Britney Spears. Her latest album, Femme Fatale proves that her path to career suicide has been rerouted with Femme Fatale.
As the queen diva of a set of young singers known more for style than substance, Miss Spears has not only contended with her troubling past, but kicked it in the ass just like she did her doppelganger in her first video for the album, “Hold It Against Me.” With her reign still intact, Spears releases an album that is, as she puts it, “Strong and sexy. Dangerous, yet mysterious. Cool and confident.”
Co-Executive Producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin provide a foundation that is as icy as some of Britney’s provocative lyrics. Long, vibrating lines of sinister synth absorb heavy, “Big Fat Bass” that thumps enough to jiggle your computer speakers. Odd off-shoots take you down tangent paths that weave back around to song structures that build and break like sonic waves. It’s menacing and decadent dance production that urges club goers to give in and become slaves to the rhythm.
Britney purrs through the album as she tosses out her lasso to retrieve every hot Tom, Dick and Harry crossing her path. Packed dance floors, dark hallways, and smoky lounges all serve as fertile hunting ground for the Femme Fatale who slinks through almost every situation with one thing on her mind. Don’t get it twisted though, easy girls don’t set the rules, they follow them. Brit, while a bit randy, is in total control.
On the undeniably steamy “Inside Out,” Spears sings, “Won’t you give me something to remember? Baby, shut your mouth and turn me inside out,” to a slow surge of synth. The I-only-want-you-for-one-thing theme is repeated as Sabi, Britney’s featured rapper tells another suitor in “Drop Dead Beautiful,” a song you have no choice but to bob your head to, that she doesn’t want his money, just his D. And of course there is the cheesy pick up line turned lead single “Will You Hold It Against Me.” While her subject matter is incredibly limited, (When she’s not singing about D, she sings about booze and partying; all the stuff that comes right before the D) Britney’s mission is to make you sweat it out as she demands you “Dance Until The World Ends.”
“Criminal” is the lone attempt at a non-dance track. It’s also the least interesting song on the album and an odd close for such a hard thumping, sexually aggressive LP.
Femme Fatale is not the happy dance party music that poured into music stores this past summer. It’s darker and more wanton. There isn’t much depth in the theme scheme and once you’re 30-40 minutes in, the songs start sounding a bit too similar. Nonetheless, the project is cohesive and the songs are well-constructed. The production is top notch and Britney sounds as sexy and nasally as ever. So forget the past and enjoy the present. Britney is back.
3.75 out of 5
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