Britney Spears 'Oops!...I Did It Again'

Chart Peak: 1

YouTube

It's not enough for Britney Spears to dominate the international teen-queen market - she's now trying her hand at being a best-selling author!... Together with her mother Lynne (who is also Britney'd best friend) she has written her first book Heart To Heart, her life story so far. 

Yes, I sort of said I was going to stop with the albums ending in 6 but in the end this one kind of leapt out at me. Maybe it's the nice bright colours on the cover that look appealing in November and December (the album was originally released in July 2000) but there are plenty of tracks on here that seem memorable.

And we start with one of the big hits of that summer alright. The lead single from the second album by the biggest new star of the day was obviously a big moment for all concerned, and there's a lot of investment and not a lot of risk-taking going on here. As the title hints, the song refines the musical template of ''...Baby One More Time' rather than reinventing her (they even repeat "Oh baby baby.." in the chorus). That should be a bad thing but in practice this is a fun track to hear for the majority of its running time. At the time I preferred to her first hit, partly because it was less overplayed and partly because it lacked that masochistic overtone. Both these things are still true of course, although this one hasn't aged as well musically - the massed backing vocals on the chorus sound very turn-of-the-century somehow - and it still has its greatest flaw, that awful spoken section in the middle that just about works in the video but is bizarre and annoying in sound-only.

It's kind of strange to think now that when she sings "I'm not that innocent" on this song, it's a sign of how innocent she then was.

Also appearing on: Now 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 78
Available on: Oops! I Did It Again - The Best Of Britney Spears

Britney Spears 'I'm A Slave 4 U'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

'I'm A Slave 4 U' marks a change in musical direction for pop-superstar Britney Spears - the raw vocals and uptempo pop reflect the star's development from teenager to young woman... There are many guest collaborations on Britney's new album including a contribution from her famous boyfriend - N*Sync's Justin Timberlake.

Reading these sleevenotes reminds you ten years can be a long time. Those last six words are as compact an example of such as you might hope to find here, and of course Britney herself is pushing 30 now.

The trouble with this record is, I just don't believe in it. It's not the fact that she didn't write it herself (it was in fact written and produced by The Neptunes, who seemed at the time to be taking over from Dre and Timbaland as the top producers of the day), it's that the whole effect comes over as so contrived, a marketing department's idea that now she wasn't a teenager she'd have to start making sexier sounding records. Even though I can intellectually believe that she liked this sort of music, and subsequent events strongly suggest that the lyrics of this song weren't inaccurate either, it somehow doesn't allow the suspension of disbelief, maybe because it overplays its hand somewhat, from the naff spoken intro onwards. It's not a career high for the Neptunes musically either. Still rather better than the records she seems to make on autopilot now, but not by much.

Also appearing on: Now 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73
Available on: The Singles Collection

Britney Spears 'Piece Of Me'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

I've never really believed in the concept of Guilty Pleasures, but this is about the closest that I come. Not because it's being sung by somebody who didn't write it, or is somehow not "real" music but because this entire album, released at the depths of her well-publicised problems, seems very like exploitation - and especially on this track, which seems to be cashing in to an almost offensive extent. Annoyingly though, it's one of the best records she's ever made, possibly because she has so little to do with it - in fact, her vocal is distorted almost beyond recognition in pursuit of a harsh, angular soundscape, as is the backing vocal by Robyn.

I wouldn't have paid money for this, especially not at the time, but I was sort of glad it fell into my lap. I couldn't watch the video though.

Also appearing on: 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 68, 70, 72, 73
Available on: Blackout

Britney Spears '...Baby One More Time'

Chart Peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

And so we leap forward the small matter of sixteen years to Christmas 1999, and Now That's What I Call Music! 44, which is not only the biggest seller of the series, but the biggest-selling Various Artists album ever in the UK (apart from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack and a couple of cast recordings). Of course this leaves me curious to try and investigate what this has that the others don't.

'...Baby One More Time' [contrary to popular belief, "Hit me" is not actually part of the song title] helpfully supplies part of the answer. Not so much in its own phenomenal popularity (after all, people could and did buy this track in other places) but the fact that it was originally released in February; there had been two volumes already that year so its appearance here gives Now! 44 the appearance of a review of the year. Putting it right at the start of the album also enables me to pad out this post with all the scene-setting, as it's one of those records that's so well-known it's difficult to come up with a fresh perspective on it.
It has of course dated a bit, now that it's ten years old - the piano solo section towards the end is especially of its time - but it doesn't yet sound completely hideous. To make an obvious comparison, it's aged better than 'Genie In A Bottle'. The pounding piano remains the single most impressive element, which is presumably why it's brought forward to the very start of the song, and the slap-bass is unusually tolerable too. Listening to a streamed version on headphones, though, the production sounds almost too high-resolution, as if (in the best pop tradition) it wasn't really meant to be heard that clearly.
The lyrics are a different story, and not just because of that awkward "blinded/planned it" rhyme. There's an uncomfortable air of desperation on the part of our protagonist here: of course she's not literally asking anyone to hit her, but the effect is curiously uncomfortable even though it's all pretty much standard pop lyrics. Perhaps this is a result of Spears' clipped vocal performance. As with the music, it's not really intended to be taken this seriously, but it has the unfortunate effect of encouraging awful "serious" covers by the likes of Travis.

Also appearing on: Now 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 68, 69, 70, 72
Available on: Baby One More Time