Britney Spears - 'Womanizer'
I've made some idiotic judgements about music in the past (indeed, there are many comments on this very blog attesting as much, but that's another matter). I own two A1 albums. I bought Tracy Shaw's cover of 'Happenin' All Over Again' (admittedly it only cost me 50p, but that's at least 60p more than I should have paid for it), I supported Javine's campaign to represent the UK at Eurovision...well, I could go on. However, the most heinous crime I've committed in recent years was thinking that 'Womanizer' was not very good when I first heard it.
Maybe it was the fact that my first experience of the song was on a poor quality radio rip someone had uploaded to YouTube. Maybe it was the fact that I was at work at the time and really should have been doing something else, so my concentration was compromised. Whatever the reason, I can only apologise, because 'Womanizer' is superb.
Perhaps a good way to describe it is that it sounds like if 'Toxic' were a track on 'Blackout' - it's got 'Toxic's innate pop sensibility and brilliantly overblown ridiculousness, melded together with Britney's 'Blackout'-era aloof electro-scuzziness. It kicks off with a bloomin' great siren before surging into a toe-tapping verse, which segues into an awesome chorus, which in turn segues into ANOTHER CHORUS, and then the whole thing goes back to the beginning and starts again.
(The video is . And you'll never guess what, Britney's clothes have all fallen off again)
Admittedly it's unlikely to convert anyone who's resisted the charms of Britters thus far, because these people might counter that it's overproduced (true, but it works, so I don't care), that her voice is obviously digitally enhanced (also true, still not caring) and that her actual input into the production of the song was probably minimal (possibly true, but I maintain that when the end product is this good, it doesn't matter if it was produced by Britney Spears, the Outsyders, or an advance party of Martians who were assessing the studio to see if it would make a suitable base command for their impending invasion of Earth) - but it's their loss, frankly.
A friend of mine said that it's one of those songs that has so many best bits it's impossible to actually pick one out, so I'm going to list a few here, just for the sake of atmosphere:
- Aforementioned big honking siren at the beginning.
- Blisteringly-paced final lines of the first verse which are delivered in a scattergun style providing quite the tongue-twister.
- "WOMANIZER WOMAN-WOMANIZER YOU'RE A WOMANIZER OH WOMANIZER OH YOU'RE A WOMANIZER BABY"
- "BOY DON'T TRY TO FRONT I-I KNOW J-JUST WHAT YOU A-A-ARE"
- "You say I'm crazy? I GOT YOUR CRAZY"
- The scathing middle eight ("Maybe if we both lived in a different world / It would be all good and maybe I could be your girl / But I can't cos we don't")
And you know what else is amazing? After the HORRA of the Blackout-era videos, she actually looks like she's having fun in the promo for this song. Like she's back to her old self again, and ready to re-conquer the world of pop. And I for one welcome our new Britney overlord.
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 24th
(Steve Perkins)
Comment number 1.
At 8th Nov 2008, freeclench wrote:You might have saved yourself and your readers some effort by simply writing: "Britney Spears' new video appeals to male rape fantasies."
-FreeClench
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Comment number 2.
At 8th Nov 2008, freeclench wrote:I don't see why you referred me to the moderators: Britney Spears is the one with the carniverous ..er.. "bed."
-FreeClench
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Comment number 3.
At 9th Nov 2008, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:I don't think Britney HAS moderators, FreeC. I think that might be part of the problem...
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Comment number 4.
At 10th Nov 2008, pinkparadox wrote:Will you *ever* use another pic of her, tho..? :)
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Comment number 5.
At 6th Dec 2008, Paydayloans wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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