{"id":542,"date":"2013-12-13T13:19:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T18:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=542"},"modified":"2014-01-13T09:55:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T14:55:48","slug":"britney-spears-britney-jean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/britney-spears-britney-jean\/","title":{"rendered":"Britney Spears
Britney Jean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Britney<\/a>Shrug if you will, but since the release of Blackout<\/i>, the career trajectory of Britney Spears has warranted some serious conversation. That 2007 album was her first post-breakdown, post\u2013fall from grace record, accompanied by the realization that her pop stardom had transformed into a cult of personality with a public more likely to buy tabloids than a new Britney record. But while the hits that had come before were guilty pleasures, ephemeral pop candy, Blackout <\/i>also marked a second chapter. The songs signaled some revenge, some reflection, and best of all, popcraft invested in the future of the genre, not a bottom line. Maybe it wasn’t cutting edge, but there was an edge and a perfect balance between Britney the icon and Britney re-invented. Hiring the best production heads and ghostwriters, Ms. Spears and her handlers had constructed a statement record. It was something rare in pop music to hear an album where the un-hits were just as engaging as the radio-ready monsters. But millions of dollars thrown towards a project will do that (have you heard the Pharell-helmed \u201cWhy Should I Be Sad?\u201d). It had the whiff of underdog, but also the poise only someone like Spears could manage.<\/p>\n

By now you’re rolling your eyes… and I get it. Regardless whether you commit to the notion that Britney Spears is the single biggest pop star since Madonna and MJ or not, with her last three albums she has become a barometer for where pop is headed\u2014instead of aping it, phoning it in, and becoming a punchline starring in her own white-trash version of Sunset Boulevard<\/i>. Again, the hits have declined, but the substance (or what can reasonably be considered substance for pop of this ilk) is in full force. Stay with me.<\/p>\n

This brings us to Britney Jean <\/i>(RCA), posited as the most \u201cpersonal\u201d record of her career, the disclaimer being that you can never have high hopes or increased expectations for each subsequent Britney album. That goes for fan and intent or casual observer. Circus<\/i> (2008) was a schmaltzy dip, though it had some stunners, while 2011’s Femme Fatale<\/i> was her proverbial phoenix rising from what was left of the ashes, filled with hits if only to succumb to EDM tropes (all the rave these days). So in 2013, an age when Top 40 \u201980s pop is considered a retro proposition as aesthetic, and even the \u201990s gloss, of which Spears was a figurehead, has fogged up the periphery (ahem, Sky Ferreira), Britney Jean<\/i> was supposed to be her most leftfield release yet. Max Martin and Dr. Luke were set to return, the hottest producer and composer in pop, and Dev Hynes was rumored to be in the mix\u2014all giving the vibe that Spears would follow in the footsteps of Solange, Sky, and Kelela to make something slightly avant, slightly R&B, and slightly hypnogogic even. Much of that never transpired, or if it did, we’ll only hear it in top secret demos leaked out covertly. Instead, Spears snuggled up with the very safe Will.i.am, who goes for hyper-populist bombast that sounds generic and trite. \u201cPersonal\u201d this is not, but who knows who had the final decision, the starlet or the stock?<\/p>\n

Still, there’s enough hiding here to, again, warrant that conversation I was talking about. The William Orbit\u2013produced lead \u201cAlien\u201d and the Diplo-helmed \u201cPassenger\u201d see Spears stepping out of her comfort zone to traipse through space and isolation, blurred clouds of ambience, or NES-tinged techno-quibbles. Yes, \u201cWork Bitch\u201d is not representative of the oddity of Britney, so we can throw that out. But neither is the luxurious balladry of \u201cPerfume,\u201d yet it shines as the album\u2019s best moment and emblematic of what Spears can do in that capacity. Guilty pleasure is elicited with \u201cChillin\u2019 With You,\u201d a song about a girl\u2019s night out drinking red wine with sister Jamie Lynn (who duets here). Though it\u2019s absolute thoughtless filler, it\u2019s the catchiest hook on Britney Jean<\/i>. That\u2019s how most of the album operates this time around. When it seems Britney and company are trying too hard, they usually are, resulting in over-the-top attempts at chart domination. When it seems nobody\u2019s looking (or in the case of Britney Jean<\/i>, the bonus tracks left off the final release), there\u2019s an effortless charm to the production and Spears\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shrug if you will, but since the release of Blackout<\/i>, the career trajectory of Britney Spears has warranted some serious conversation. That 2007 album was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,221,222],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-britney-spears","tag-rca-records"],"yoast_head":"\nBritney Spears Britney Jean - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/britney-spears-britney-jean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Britney Spears Britney Jean - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shrug if you will, but since the release of Blackout, the career trajectory of Britney Spears has warranted some serious conversation. 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