Terrible Music Challenge: The full discography of Britney Spears: Part 1
My quest to listen to some of the least respected artists in the main stream of music continues. Yesterday, I went through a few of Britney's albums, so this is part 1 of 2 or 3 to come.
Of course I know all of the - in their time - practically inescapable singles of Britney Spears, but on album level, I don't really know what she's all about.
For this entry I will have listened to her albums in chronological order and reacted to them accordingly. Hopefully this will lead to some sort of change of perspective along the way, as I work my way through these albums, but let's see how it goes.
Baby One More Time
Most tracks on this albums are flat and dull. I mentioned Atomic Kitten in passing a few posts above and that band is my personal benchmark for terribly bland pop. A lot of this album sounds like Atomic Kitten. That's a very harsh condemnation. There's a banger or two, but most of the album is so boring it gives me a headache.
A lot of these tracks inarguably sound like Mariah Carey minus a capable singing voice.
*Flushes toilet*.
Oops!... I Did It Again
"I Can't Get No Satisfaction" cover that doesn't exactly rock.
WHERE ARE THE CATCHY POP TUNES!?
I'm quite confused. I thought this was gonna be what Briteny albums were all about, but there so much dull, whitebread waffle pop here that I feel like this album and the one before it were created to pacify stressed out suburban housewives.
The only reason why I'm able to carry on with this little project is that I expect this **** to fade way as we remove ourselves from the 90's.
Pop really is better these days. That is honestly a revelation that came to me while listening to this.
*Flushes toilet*.
Britney (self titled)
The song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" is exactly the sort of thing that sunk her two previous battleships and I hate it.
Most of the other songs on this album aim for a bit more energy, sexiness (successful or not) and catchiness.
There's some decent dance numbers here, but I'm not exactly impressed.
Call me biased, but some of this stuff is just Kylie Minogue lite.
"Boys" is one of the decent tracks. "Let Me Be" is also a highlight, although I suspect both seem better than they are, since the previous two albums were largely a wash.
"Bombastic Love" is one of the most amusing song tiltes I've seen in a while. I'm not sure why, but it just seems so dumb.
Not a terrible album, although it sneaks in some syrupy, goopy balladry of the worst kind in near the end. Not really a good album either. It's too bland to be good.
In The Zone
Ok, it's starting out a bit more busy than anything on the previous albums. Feels nice after all that overly restrained pseudo-muzak I just went through. So far, it's as if even the supposed "bangers" aren't really letting loose.
I'm still waiting for things to get more fun and energetic. I'll skip through this album a bit to help things move along before I lose my mind.
A bit furhter along, I think my take on this album is going to have to be this: While it's really nice to see that we're starting to remove ourselves a bit from the most played-out clichés of late 90's/early 2000's pop, this still doesn't strike me as very involving music. It's less fun than agreeable and honestly feels like it's been made less to light the dancefloor on fire than to sit comfortably in the background while you're doing your dishes.
Best album so far, but still not very good.
Some tracks reminded me a bit of mid-90's Madonna, but I honestly never liked Madonna, so that's not really meant as praise.
*phew*
I need a break. All of this **** is starting to sound the same. I'll continue listening/writing tomorrow.