I've always wanted to do a Britney Spears playlist in this series, because sometimes I'm educating other people about the albums by a big singles artist and sometimes I'm educating myself. And I've never really listened to her records much, but she was kind of the living embodiment of pop music for a decade or two there. I was gonna wait until the next time she released an album, but the Framing Britney Spears documentary has kind of put discussion of her entire life and career front and center lately. And that whole conservatorship thing has always been really strange and alarming to me, I hope something changes and she regains her freedom soon. 

Britney Spears deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Deep In My Heart

2. I Will Be There

3. E-Mail My Heart

4. Can't Make You Love Me

5. What U See (Is What U Get)

6. That's Where You Take Me

7. Lonely

8. What It's Like To Be Me

9. Brave New Girl

10. Showdown

11. Breathe On Me

12. Get Naked (I Got A Plan)

13. Heaven On Earth

14. Why Should I Be Sad

15. Shattered Glass

16. Lace And Leather 

17. How I Roll

18. Gasoline
19. Alien

20. Body Ache

21. Just Like Me

22. Just Luv Me

I didn't hear ...Baby One More Time when it came out, but I remember reading a couple reviews at the time and chuckling over there being a song titled "E-Mail My Heart" -- I'd had an e-mail address for a couple years by that point, but it was still kind of a novelty in pop culture (You've Got Mail was released about a month before Britney's album). That first album was made before they knew what the winning formula was and it's kind of fun to hear some different, breezier attempts at finding the Britney Spears sound -- I particularly like "I Will Be There," which was produced by Max Martin but sounds like Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn." The next couple albums tighten up the formula a bit, "Can't Make You Love Me" and "What U See (Is What U Get)" sound like they could've been smash hits if they'd gotten the push instead of "Oops." 

When I learned that "...Baby One More Time" was originally offered to TLC, that helped me make some sense of Britney's weird vocal style -- she was basically doing a T-Boz impression on her first single, and she gradually came to pattern a lot of her singing after that. But on her later albums you tend to hear her stretch her voice in different directions -- "Heaven On Earth" and "Brave New Girl" are really good pop songs and I have to wonder if they weren't released as singles mainly because she didn't fit the mold of a Britney single. My taste in Britney hits tends towards less obvious songs like "(You Drive Me) Crazy" and "Work Bitch." But I'll stand with the consensus that "Toxic" is her best song, and "How I Roll" and "Showdown" are for my money her next best tracks produced by Bloodshy & Avant. 

Britney Spears doesn't have a lot of writing credits on her songs, and seldom the singles -- on this playlist, she co-wrote "Lonely," "Showdown," "Brave New Girl," "Alien," "Body Ache," and "Just Like Me." "What It's Like To Be Me" was written by Justin Timberlake and choreographer Wade Robson, which is a little awkward considering that Robson is often implicated as being involved in Justin and Britney's breakup, but it's a good song. But what surprised me is that one of Britney's later albums, Blackout, is about half DanjaHandz doing FutureSex/LoveSounds retreads, which makes me really look sideways at the cult that insisted that album is her best. "Get Naked (I Got A Plan)" is at least a pretty funny "SexyBack" retread. And I was never that into "I'm A Slave 4 U" so I think "Why Should I Be Sad" is the best Britney/Pharrell song (even if Skateboard P really recycled Twista's "Lavish" for the track). 

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »

| Next »