Album DescriptionAvailable in:
Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, first released on March 25, 2011, by Jive Records. Spears began working on the album during the second leg of The Circus Starring Britney Spears, while also working on her second compilation. Spears worked with record producer and long-time collaborator Max Martin. Along with Dr. Luke, Martin wrote several tracks, including "Hold It Against Me", a track that was originally planned for Katy Perry, but they later decided that "it definitely wasn't a Katy Perry record." Musically, Femme Fatale is a dance-oriented album that incorporates elements of various genres, such as dubstep, techno and trance.
Spears explained that she "wanted to make a fierce dance record where each song makes you want to get up and move your body in a different way." She wanted to stray away sonically from her previous material, and worked with different producers over the course of two years, such as William Orbit, Fraser T. Smith, Rodney Jerkins, will.i.am and StarGate. Several collaborations were made with high-profile artists for the album's promotion such as Kesha, Nicki Minaj, Travis Barker, and Rihanna. Spears stated that Femme Fatale is her best album so far, and also a "fresh-sounding" record for clubs. It was also Spears's final album with Jive following the label's closure in October 2011.
Upon its release, Femme Fatale received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and dance-pop style. However, some criticized it for Spears' supposed lack of involvement and heavily-processed vocals, while stating that the singer was no longer the center of the album and found a trade-off to be real personality. Singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder defended Spears, saying that Frank Sinatra and Garth Brooks were huge artists who didn't write most of their songs. Commercially, Femme Fatale has become successful, debuting atop of the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and peaking inside the top ten in twenty-four countries. In the United States, she earned her sixth number one album and has sold over 755,000 copies.
Four singles were released from the album: "Hold It Against Me", "Till the World Ends", and "I Wanna Go" became worldwide hits, and reached top ten positions in the United States, making it Spears' first album to have three top ten hits in the country. The fourth single "Criminal" turned out as a moderate hit, peaking inside the top twenty in five countries. However, it reached number one in Brazil. To promote Femme Fatale, Spears performed the songs in a number of television appearances and also embarked on the Femme Fatale Tour in 2011. Joe Jonas, Nicki Minaj and Nervo served as the opening acts for most shows of the tour.
User Album Review
Britney Spears’ career has followed a curious trajectory. Until the turbulent extremes of the Blackout period, it was her image rather than her carefully manipulated persona that fans fell for. And now it’s make-or-break for the singer, Femme Fatale offering the chance to replace 2008’s relative flop Circus with fun-time Britney, a recording artist on top of her musical game.
As it turns out, Spears’ seventh studio album is part-success and part astounding failure, mixing some of her very best songs with hideous black holes. On first listen it’s easy to label the entire thing a horrific collection of Auto-Tune and vacant beats aping Ke$ha, Basshunter and The Lonely Island; but get a few plays in and it begins to reveal itself. For every Carry On lyric (Hold It Against Me), tone-lowering will.i.am appearance (Big Fat Bass) and drawn-out analogy (Gasoline), there’s something like an Up ‘n’ Down, a track which samples Inner City’s 1988 classic Good Life. It represents a moment where pop almost eats itself, but instead reincarnates into a cutting, filthily obnoxious chorus as Spears curtly drawls, "I know you want me like kids want candy." Sadly, that humour doesn’t always work out so well.
Inside Out’s tight coil and sub-bass almost hide its dreary subject matter – Spears namelessly alludes to an ex who "drove me crazy", but instead of being an exercise in nostalgia it comes off as patronising, low-level staging by her writers. But to balance that there’s Criminal with its teenage lyrics (Spears describes an old flame as a "bum bum bum"), on top of a fairytale flute melody and a rhythm so summery it manages to completely set itself free from the rest of the album. But Femme Fatale is not just nostalgia – Trip to Your Heart’s shattered synths and dead-eyed vocal display an ambition and drive to be impersonated by future-Britneys.
It’s a shame, though, that Femme Fatale’s weak links are so very poor. It would benefit from fewer tracks, and from delving a little deeper on those that remain. The listener would undoubtedly enjoy an opportunity to sit down and hear the singer’s post-party thoughts – after the night before’s mindless submission, the soiree that this album attempts to (re)create. As it is, this set is nowhere near as consistent as Blackout; but stripped down to probable singles it’s home to at least five classic Britney hits.
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments