Britney Spears – Trip To Your Heart / How I Roll
“Pop princess crown?! ARE YOU IN THERE?!” is what we imagine Britney screaming as she attempts to bash in the window of a car which possibly contains Lady Gaga, Ke$ha or perhaps even Katy Perry – three strumpets who have swept in and are now carrying the torch for successful and clever electronic chart toppers in her absence. Clearly “Hold It Against Me” was a pretty poor attempt at stealing that crown back – Dr Luke and Max Martin should take note that sticking a bit of dubstep wobble into a middle eighth does not a revolutionary pop song make – but what does “Femme Fatale” have in store?
Well, nothing special on the whole. Much of the LP is highly simplistic eurodance and very much substandard Ke$ha, owing to having many of her songwriters and producers in common. And where Ke$ha can pull off the swagger required for bosh-pop-by-numbers, Britney’s vocals are merely processed to within an inch of their life to suit the songs. However, a few moments do shine brighter. Rodney Darkchild Jerkins contributes the restrained and cumbia-infused “He About To Lose Me” as well as the Kelly Clarkson-esque “Don’t Keep Me Waiting” which are both solid efforts (and oddly appear as part of the deluxe edition only).
But what’s actually genuinely brilliant? Two songs in our opinion which are both helmed by Swedish producer Bloodshy. Bloodshy & Avant (the production duo and 2/3 of Miike Snow) are prolific songsmiths and have had a hand in much of Brit’s best work including “Toxic”, “Do Somethin”, “Piece Of Me”, Bobby Brown cover “My Prerogative” and the little known and hugely underrated “Trouble”, one of our personal favourites. But back to “Femme Fatale”…
“Trip To Your Heart” is a sweet but not disgustingly so love song that is carried forward by some subtle trancey synths, gently chiming bells and a simple but effective melody. The gentler touch works well with Britney whose voice has always been much better suited to a delicate instrumental (There’s a reason minimalist Neptunes produced hits have been some of her most successful). But the absolute best song by a mile is the futuristic “How I Roll”. It begins with heavily processed breathing, followed by some glitch effects. Then there’s hints of Chicago Juke in the high speed Cajmere-esque perculating pops and a clever use of B-more bass stabs, before Britney sings a duet with herself pitched down at least two octaves on the chorus. Somehow a few piano chords hold this mutant tapestry of production schizophrenia into something that is unequivocally pop, but not like we’ve ever heard it before. Finally, we’ve listened to it over and over and we’re pretty sure that one of the lyrics is “You can be my fuck tonight, we can tear it up tonight”. Stunnin’. A career high?
Britney Spears - Trip To Your Heart
Britney Spears - How I Roll
Femme Fatale was an amazing effort made by Britney Spears and Jive records!
It’s not all about your taste in music, the reason behind Britney’s sucess is the fact that she has delivered to her fans for about 15 years now, no amount of slating her will ever diminish that fact!
Looking from a fans perspective this album has the exact amount of classic britney required. Catchy pop songs with edgy instrumentals has always been Britney’s game!
Good for her if you ask me, she clearly makes the mass of music fans happy and thats probably all u can ask for when u are an artist!
Femme Fatale has got to be her best albums to date!
Dr Luke is a definate and I think she should continue her discography with him and others such as Billboard!
Max Martin and Britney are the perfect team!
It may not be your preferred genre of music but one thing is for sure, number 1′s are being delivered!
The time for bashing Britney has been and gone!
We should look forward to the future of music!!
With all the newbies that have surfaced… ke$ha, Gaga, Perry and so on down the pop culture road, for me it’s an incredible achievement to still have an outstanding input from one of our 90′s legends!
I promise… Britney will be here a long time yet!!
Support Her! She is just doing her thing!!
That’s probably why Femme Fatale debuted at number 1!