Blackout - track by track
Oct. 29th, 2007 02:37 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
katstevens.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
poptimistsThe back cover says "Executive producer: Britney Spears". Let's see what she can come up with!
Gimme More - The lead single sounds way more amazing without the awful video, This is how you do a cardboard box chord progression! The last minute builds up into proper menacing Danger Will Robinson. Great start.
Piece Of Me - Drumbeats that sound like rattling chains! Bloody hell this chorus is like an awesome compressed Britney sausage coming out of a meat grinder in a big long snake, all the right ingredients having been fed in and the bumps ironed out. I drifted off in the middle somewhere but then the electro synths wibble back in for the last half a minute.
Radar - Britney's done a schaffle record! OMG! Bloody hell this is totally bonkers batsh1t. She might be vocodered to hell but compared to the background level mix of Gimme More, Brit's voice is all over this one, bouncing off the walls like a ball on top of karaoke screen lyrics. It's missing meaty bottom end drums (relying on minimal kick & clap) so this almost sounds like a... BALLAD? Heehee, she just rhymed 'tingle' with 'mingle'!
Break The Ice - Destiny's Child-ish electro-string-stabs and harpsichord, again very little bottom end except for the mini breakdown for "my 808". Ooooooh that's better, a lovely warm chorus sucks the bass back in. Oh my god the spoken middle eight - Jesus Britney, you are a grade A fvcking mental girl! And again, at the end you suddenly hear what's been going on in the song all this time underneath bonkers Brit's layers of lovely intertwining vocals.
Heaven On Earth - Ellis-Bextor did it earlier this year with 'China heart', here Britney attempts to outdo Donna Summer with an awesome playground disco obble-obble-obble intro. The vocal isn't so strong here but it still works very well, haunting verse contrasting with soppy chorus. This would be a GREAT Girls Aloud song - a wider variety of vocals to pick out the different parts. Blimey, it's even got a nonsense middle-8 line for Nicola to sing on repeat: "I fall off the edge of my mind". Of course you do, Britney!
Get Naked (I Got A Plan) - Brilliant unintelligible letchy slurring from Danja - his production is very similar to Gimme More - but FAR FAR better in the use of bass and beats. If they hadn't already released the former as a single I'd definitely say this Get Naked should be released next. Gosh this is definitely one of my favourites so far - it's almost like micro-house with pitch shifts and whooshes and glitches all over the place.
Freakshow - This sounds a lot like Robyn! Britney sounds in control of the track for once, actually using her voice and showing us what she can do. Again it's very blippy and glitchy but the vwarp-vwarp bass holds it all together nicely. This is one for the remixers, I think, some euphoric hands-in-the-air would suit this very well!
Toy Soldier - Cor, if Get Naked was micro-house then this is almost tech-house! AHAHAH brilliant, marching drums! I'm fast running out of words to describe how enjoyably crackers this all sounds but... but... OH DUDES THIS IS THE SORT OF SONG I'D MAKE IF ONLY I COULD. It just needs speeding up a bit. Man, those Swedes... I'm speechless.
Hot As Ice - Britney sounds very child-like on here, a refreshing change from the breathiness of the previous tracks. Not as impressed with this one overall but Toy Soldier is a tough track to follow.
Ooh Ooh Baby - I said never again but it's Rachel Stevens glam stomp time again! The melody line follows a similar structure to a couple of the other songs but really suits the 'oooga-chaga oooga-chaga' beat. This is actually a deceptively sparse track, I kind of want to colour in the spaces. Hang on was that a ROCK GUITAR crayon I just heard there?
Perfect Lover - Back to breathy vocals again. I really appreciate the song twists (plenty of interesting chord switches) here but the beats themselves are a bit unremarkable. And again, as soon as I write that, the outro turns up a whole new palette of noises. Blip blip blip!
Why Should I Be Sad - Not quite slow enough for a slow jam. This reminds me of an 80s soul track that I can't quite remember the name of with extra bop-bop on the top. Good but a bit of an uncertain wobbly finish to proceedings.
Phew! Well, the first good sign is that I want to listen to it all again immediately. It's not too long (hurrah for concise albums!) and *just* about varied enough to be able to tell the tracks apart. None of the songs aside from 'Gimme More' really follow a traditional structure (hence the single release I guess), which is most definitely a good thing. I love clicky noises and electro vworps, and am VERY GLAD that someone has made a pop r'n'b album that uses them properly! Britney, you've done yourself proud.
Gimme More - The lead single sounds way more amazing without the awful video, This is how you do a cardboard box chord progression! The last minute builds up into proper menacing Danger Will Robinson. Great start.
Piece Of Me - Drumbeats that sound like rattling chains! Bloody hell this chorus is like an awesome compressed Britney sausage coming out of a meat grinder in a big long snake, all the right ingredients having been fed in and the bumps ironed out. I drifted off in the middle somewhere but then the electro synths wibble back in for the last half a minute.
Radar - Britney's done a schaffle record! OMG! Bloody hell this is totally bonkers batsh1t. She might be vocodered to hell but compared to the background level mix of Gimme More, Brit's voice is all over this one, bouncing off the walls like a ball on top of karaoke screen lyrics. It's missing meaty bottom end drums (relying on minimal kick & clap) so this almost sounds like a... BALLAD? Heehee, she just rhymed 'tingle' with 'mingle'!
Break The Ice - Destiny's Child-ish electro-string-stabs and harpsichord, again very little bottom end except for the mini breakdown for "my 808". Ooooooh that's better, a lovely warm chorus sucks the bass back in. Oh my god the spoken middle eight - Jesus Britney, you are a grade A fvcking mental girl! And again, at the end you suddenly hear what's been going on in the song all this time underneath bonkers Brit's layers of lovely intertwining vocals.
Heaven On Earth - Ellis-Bextor did it earlier this year with 'China heart', here Britney attempts to outdo Donna Summer with an awesome playground disco obble-obble-obble intro. The vocal isn't so strong here but it still works very well, haunting verse contrasting with soppy chorus. This would be a GREAT Girls Aloud song - a wider variety of vocals to pick out the different parts. Blimey, it's even got a nonsense middle-8 line for Nicola to sing on repeat: "I fall off the edge of my mind". Of course you do, Britney!
Get Naked (I Got A Plan) - Brilliant unintelligible letchy slurring from Danja - his production is very similar to Gimme More - but FAR FAR better in the use of bass and beats. If they hadn't already released the former as a single I'd definitely say this Get Naked should be released next. Gosh this is definitely one of my favourites so far - it's almost like micro-house with pitch shifts and whooshes and glitches all over the place.
Freakshow - This sounds a lot like Robyn! Britney sounds in control of the track for once, actually using her voice and showing us what she can do. Again it's very blippy and glitchy but the vwarp-vwarp bass holds it all together nicely. This is one for the remixers, I think, some euphoric hands-in-the-air would suit this very well!
Toy Soldier - Cor, if Get Naked was micro-house then this is almost tech-house! AHAHAH brilliant, marching drums! I'm fast running out of words to describe how enjoyably crackers this all sounds but... but... OH DUDES THIS IS THE SORT OF SONG I'D MAKE IF ONLY I COULD. It just needs speeding up a bit. Man, those Swedes... I'm speechless.
Hot As Ice - Britney sounds very child-like on here, a refreshing change from the breathiness of the previous tracks. Not as impressed with this one overall but Toy Soldier is a tough track to follow.
Ooh Ooh Baby - I said never again but it's Rachel Stevens glam stomp time again! The melody line follows a similar structure to a couple of the other songs but really suits the 'oooga-chaga oooga-chaga' beat. This is actually a deceptively sparse track, I kind of want to colour in the spaces. Hang on was that a ROCK GUITAR crayon I just heard there?
Perfect Lover - Back to breathy vocals again. I really appreciate the song twists (plenty of interesting chord switches) here but the beats themselves are a bit unremarkable. And again, as soon as I write that, the outro turns up a whole new palette of noises. Blip blip blip!
Why Should I Be Sad - Not quite slow enough for a slow jam. This reminds me of an 80s soul track that I can't quite remember the name of with extra bop-bop on the top. Good but a bit of an uncertain wobbly finish to proceedings.
Phew! Well, the first good sign is that I want to listen to it all again immediately. It's not too long (hurrah for concise albums!) and *just* about varied enough to be able to tell the tracks apart. None of the songs aside from 'Gimme More' really follow a traditional structure (hence the single release I guess), which is most definitely a good thing. I love clicky noises and electro vworps, and am VERY GLAD that someone has made a pop r'n'b album that uses them properly! Britney, you've done yourself proud.
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