12 March 2011
What a day to be alive. While I was going through emotional turmoil, what with University work coming out of every orifice, coupled with my OCD manifesting itself in a variety of manners, there was one saving grace: Someone leaked Britney Spears’ new album, the first one since the alleged secret 2nd breakdown in 2010, “Femme Fatale”. I only found out it was the anniversary earlier today, after seeing various posts on my Timehop banging on about how I thought this was her best album since “In The Zone.”
REALLY?!
Has my opinion changed in the 8 years that have passed, to fall in line with that of most Britney stans, that “Femme Fatale” falls short of being in the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Britney albums- 2004’s “In The Zone”, 2016’s “Glory” and, most importantly, the one I ignored this time in 2011, the 2007 hot mess of “Blackout” and all that went on around its creation and such like….?
Well, it’s only more recently, since the highly popularised Bradley Stern and T. Kyle podcast, celebrating 20 Years of Britney (click here to listen), that I’ve really recognised all the shit Britney went through back in 2007 and early 2008. Naturally, I remember it and recall the unfortunate events in everyday conversation with friends who are also Britney stans. But, it’s only been the last few weeks it really hit me how awful all that stuff must have been for her at the time, and I can appreciate why she still isn’t the woman she was (but then who really is the same person they were 12 years ago, eh?)
I hadn’t even considered, prior to listening to the aforementioned podcast, that Britney may have a 2nd breakdown away from the glare of the paps, in the spring of 2010. It would certainly explain how Britney started the year without the desire to dance on point and, ended the year with, not only without the desire to dance on point, but an album of songs autotuned to within its last “woah-oh-oh-oh”, except for “He About To Lose Me”, for which Ina Wroldsen provides the high notes (thanks, Ina). It seems Britney lost her top notes if her Good Morning America promo from March 2011 is anything to go by…
Plus she looked older than my mother!
The album is 16 tracks of perfection. “I Wanna Go” remains my most played song ever, according to my Last FM profile (Last FM link).
Max Martin has been a saviour when it comes to providing the best songs for the best female vocalists, Britney being the most famous of course. He returned to the flock after being completely dismissed by the time “In The Zone” was in production in 2003. He came back at the right time as well. “Circus” contained a bit too much filler and, in hindsight feels like it was thrown together just to keep Britney busy instead of being in the back of an ambulance again. There’d been the moderately successful “The Singles Collection” and “3” released in 2009, to keep the money rolling in in the interim. But, I think without Britney having a tried and tested songwriter/producer at the helm, the album we now know as “Femme Fatale” could have been a marketing disaster.
The most noticeable quality of “Femme Fatale” is its accessability. There’s no grower, it’s all shower. Even, the less ‘bangier’ tracks, like “How I Roll” are so unusual in their structure when placed straight after the mega “I Wanna Go”, you can only listen and think ‘wow, that’s different in a good way’ and want to listen again and again.
“Femme Fatale” served its purpose as an album to keep the money rolling in and to keep the Britney brand selling, while the face of the brand was apparently dealing with her demons for a while yet. In hindsight, and coming to the realisation Britney was clearly the consummate professional when creating “Blackout”, I can understand why the fans want a Part 2. I can therefore understand why many don’t want her to go back to Max, nor Dr. Luke (obviously), when she seemed so disinterested. Personally, I don’t think we should go backwards. Isn’t it our Queen who is “stronger than yesterday” after all?
And whatever happened between the atrocious “Britney Jean”/start of the Vegas residency, and her ability to string a sentence together that consisted of more words than just “cool” and “artsy-fartsy to record the more engaged “Glory” 3 years after, “Femme Fatale” remains her best album ever as far as I’m concerned. Let’s just enjoy the music, celebrate 8 years of “Femme Fatale” and keep on dancing till the world ends.
Listen to “Femme Fatale” here via Spotify
DJTim:E's Pop Music Journal 