Spears. At her best when her vulnerability comes to the fore.
Even with its electronic music innovations and exotic riffs that are right up her alley, Britney Spears’ eighth album, “Britney Jean”—the pop star’s lowest-selling record in the United States, debuting at “only” No. 4—feels thematically disjointed and emotionally sterile.
By aiming to capture the “loneliness of pop life,” the collection puts a premium on gimmicky hooks over “relatable” themes, and ends up “disconnecting” the pop princess from the sleek tunes she’s required to breathe pulsating life into.
The new repertoire equips itself with sonic thrills that has Britney retrofitting her sound to suit David Guetta’s scorching grooves (“Body Ache”), and getting “electro-fied” (“Work Bitch,” “Til It’s Gone”) and vocally “digitized” (“It Should Be Easy,” featuring will.i.am).
Britney is at her best, however, when her vulnerability comes to the fore, as the confessional “Perfume” demonstrates. Also noteworthy is her easygoing duet with younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears (“Chillin’ With You”), as well as the grinding “Passenger,” which she cowrote with, among others, Sia and Katy Perry!
Dion. Laudable exercise in restraint.
‘Loved Me Back To Life’
For her part, Celine Dion evinces growth in the No. 2 album, “Loved Me Back To Life,” her first English-language recording since 2007’s “Taking Chances.” This time, the 45-year-old
Canadian belter known for her bravura singing style (“My Heart Will Go On,” “All By Myself”) performs her tunes with understated grace (“Didn’t Know Love,” the pristine revival of “Water And A Flame”) as she judiciously avoids “oversinging” their high notes—a laudable exercise in restraint.
She sings two covers from her long-running Las Vegas show. Listen to the wistful warmth she conveys in Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen,” and her reverential take on “Overjoyed,” sung with Stevie Wonder.
Being a Dion album, however, “Loved Me Back To Life” wouldn’t suffice without a “permissible” reminder of Celine’s formidable pipes: She renders “Always Be Your Girl” with some of the iceberg-melting money notes and schmaltzy bombast that have made her a household name!