Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Digital Spy Review: Britney Spears: ‘The Singles Collection’
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.
Digital Spy Review: Britney Spears: ‘The Singles Collection’
November 20th, 2009 | Author: admin
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.
Source: digitalspy.com
Britney Spears:The Singles Collection Review
What's it all about?
We all know Britney's story - but 83 million album sales later, is she still a pop princess?
This compilation should give you a fair idea. It puts together 17 classic hits and one new song in (almost) chronological order, so if like me you were 15 when she first broke into the music biz, each song has a similarly cringeful yet massively enjoyable significance.
Whether it signals the end of an era or simply the beginning of a much more mature Brit-Brit, one thing is for sure - if you can ignore the perpetually vacant expression, dishevelled style and tacky lyrics that seem to be Spears' modus operandi these days, this is a really fun album from someone who may not be able to sing live, but can definitely rock a pop song or two.
As an example...
"I'm not a girl, not yet a woman/All I need is time/A moment that is mine/While I'm in between/I'm not a girl" - I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman
"Love me, hate me, say what you want about me/but all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy" - If U Seek Amy
So is it any good?
There are probably a huge proportion of music snobs who think an album like this is unrelentingly bad. And I admit, some of the tracks are garbage. I'm Not A Girl… is pure cheese, while Everytime just conjures up images of the awful video that was made to promote it (it involved Britney faux-drowning in a bath, being reborn, wearing rank hair extensions and being chased by Stephen Dorff). Me Against The Music was a poor example of Madonna trying to catch the zeitgeist by teaming up with Britney to produce a sub-par dance record (complete with no-longer-shocking pseudo lesbian kiss in the video) and… well I'm actually struggling to think of anymore clangers. The truth is - if you want a classic pop collection, this is a must-have.
The album kicks off with new single 3 (I listened to this with my mum in the car and she asked what the lyrics meant, which was highly embarrassing to explain), followed by Baby One More Time, (You Drive Me) Crazy and Born To Make You Happy (false advertising really, given Britney's troubled relationship history), Oops! I Did It Again and Stronger - which are all very typical of the Jive sound in the mid-90s. You can hear this in Backstreet Boys and N'Sync songs too - semi-tacky keyboards, staccato beats and lots of vocal effects.
Next, the album segues into Britney's adolescence - we get breathy smut on I'm A Slave For You and a funky remix of Boys. Both of these were produced by the Neptunes and they've got the signature style of the hip-hop duo - thumping bass lines and empty lyrics, but unmistakably catchy.
Toxic - I challenge anyone to not tap their feet to this song, recorded just as she stopped caring about what she looked like and met K-Fed.
Finally, the six songs that round off the album - while still great - divided critics. They couldn't seem to look past the head-shaving, umbrella-waving, glassy-eyed, reportedly-bad-mother, finally sectioned Britney. It's a real shame about what happened to her, but there are some corkers in this last section of the album - Piece of Me is delightfully bitter and If U Seek Amy is childish but fun.
Overall? Buy it if you're a fan now, or ever have been. If you're not, then what are you doing reading this review…?
9/10
Isabel Plumbly
Source:Inthenews.co.uk
Credit:Cinderella Britney
3 climbs in the World Chart
Mediatraffic already updated the list of songs and Britney Spears came up with his new easy 3 with its launch in much of Europe last week, up two positions reaching #5.
3 Mediatraffic Performance:
Debut Week: # 2 (244,000)
Week 2: # 5 (203,000)
Week 3: # 11 (165,000)
Week 4: # 9 (175,000)
5th week: # 7 (193,000)
6th week: # 5 (237,000)
Pts. Total: 1,217,000
Source: Mediatraffic
Britney Spears And Madonna 'Tease' Fans In 'Me Against The Music' Video
'I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game,' director Paul Hunter explains.
It was the changing of the guard — or at least the meeting of two of the most influential pop divas of all time — when Britney Spears and Madonna hooked up for Brit's single "Me Against the Music," from 2003's In the Zone. The superstars tantalize the audience (and each other) throughout the flirty video.
"Madonna is an icon of an earlier generation, and then Britney of the newer generation. She was at her peak at that point," director Paul Hunter told MTV News about the video. "So it was a challenge to kind of bring both of the worlds together. I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game and a little bit of a foreplay between Britney and Madonna and just sort of tease the audience."
A few years back, Britney revealed that the collaboration came together thanks to the 2003 VMAs — you know, the show where Britney and Madonna locked lips. "I was in the middle of rehearsals for the VMAs and I played her the song, and she was like, 'That's your first single, right?' " Britney recalled. "I was like, 'Yeah, hopefully.' She was like, 'I really like it.' I was like, 'Really?' I was like, 'Well, you wanna do it with me?' She said, 'Yeah.' "
Hunter said the video was all about setting Spears and Madonna apart. "I try to play opposites, when you have Britney in dark and Madonna in white," he said. "And then we see them kind of dance around the bed ... and you think they're gonna get on top of each other and do something crazy."
But Spears said nothing crazy was supposed to happen; it was all about teasing people. "I never actually see Madonna or touch her; I just feel her presence there," she said. "[The song is] basically about just going to a club and letting yourself go and battling with whoever is around you and battling against the music as well. This is my first time doing a collaboration, and it's with Miss Madonna herself."
Source:MTV.com
Britney Spears happy meeting young fans backstage in Sydney at Acer Arena
SHE was hardly wearing the outfit of a nurturing mother, but Britney Spears was happy to show her maternal side as she met some of her younger fans.
Spears, who will perform her final Sydney show tonight before heading to Brisbane, hung out with Randwick Children's Hospital patients Jessica Sukkar, Amelia Sukkar and Sonia Tadros backstage after her concert on Tuesday night.
And the US pop princess has been playing the doting mother with her own children while in the harbour city, taking sons Sean Preston and Jayden James to Sydney Aquarium on Wednesday.
Spears, who has already performed three shows at Rod Laver Arena, will return to Melbourne with her Circus tour on November 27, and then finish in Adelaide on November 29.
Source:heraldsun.com.au
Britney Spears' Style Is 'So Real,' Christian Siriano Says
Britney Spears has made a career out of crawling around onstage and dancing through her videos in barely there outfits. But when it comes to really nailing down the one moment that Britney was at her most stylish, designer Christian Siriano says it's all about her understated look when she performed onstage with Madonna in 2008.
"My favorite Britney moment was when she was kind of having this tiny bit of a comeback, right at the beginning," he told MTV News. "And it was when she wore the beautiful black pants and that white blouse onstage with Madonna. I thought that was so chic and so not her, so that's why I really liked it."
Britney also dazzled Siriano's senses at the 2008 VMAs. "And then obviously when she won all of her music awards recently in that sequin dress," he recalled. "And she looked really chic, but I liked it. I think it worked."
She also could do no wrong at the 2001 VMAs. "She did wear a black Dolce and Gabbana minidress, like, years and years ago," he remembered. "That was good. That was really good. Even though it was crazy, that was good."
Siriano said he would love to tackle the challenge of designing a little something for the pop star. He's already got Lady Gaga on his résumé, so why not?
"I always say, 'Britney, I would love to do it,' " he said. "I would love to make something fabulous for her because fashion-wise, it's very interesting. She's one of the biggest pop icons but ... it's never about clothes ever. It's so weird, because every other of these pop divas it's so much about clothing and fashion, and it's not with Britney. It's very strange."
But, Siriano applauded her down-to-earth, girl-next-door sense of style. "On her down days, she's just a normal girl and in her cutout jeans and Uggs and cutoff T-shirt," he said. "And I think it's kind of cool that it's so real."
Source:MTV.com
"My favorite Britney moment was when she was kind of having this tiny bit of a comeback, right at the beginning," he told MTV News. "And it was when she wore the beautiful black pants and that white blouse onstage with Madonna. I thought that was so chic and so not her, so that's why I really liked it."
Britney also dazzled Siriano's senses at the 2008 VMAs. "And then obviously when she won all of her music awards recently in that sequin dress," he recalled. "And she looked really chic, but I liked it. I think it worked."
She also could do no wrong at the 2001 VMAs. "She did wear a black Dolce and Gabbana minidress, like, years and years ago," he remembered. "That was good. That was really good. Even though it was crazy, that was good."
Siriano said he would love to tackle the challenge of designing a little something for the pop star. He's already got Lady Gaga on his résumé, so why not?
"I always say, 'Britney, I would love to do it,' " he said. "I would love to make something fabulous for her because fashion-wise, it's very interesting. She's one of the biggest pop icons but ... it's never about clothes ever. It's so weird, because every other of these pop divas it's so much about clothing and fashion, and it's not with Britney. It's very strange."
But, Siriano applauded her down-to-earth, girl-next-door sense of style. "On her down days, she's just a normal girl and in her cutout jeans and Uggs and cutoff T-shirt," he said. "And I think it's kind of cool that it's so real."
Source:MTV.com
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