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Love her, hate her, say what you want about her, but pop sensation Britney Spears continues to release catchy and high-energy songs even after hits like “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “Toxic” caught everyone’s attention well over a decade ago. This past week, Spears returned to the spotlight with her ninth album, Glory, and her signature musical style, complete with synth dance beats and suggestive lyrics that live up to the album’s name. While Glory contributes a valiant effort in recreating a wild, party-themed collection of songs that have defined the singer in the past, it as a whole sounds a bit processed and suffers from a shortage of ingenuity that would have elevated the album to a level beyond musical novelty.
The album starts off with “Invitation,” a song that highlights Spears’s breathy and high-pitched vocals over ethereal-sounding instrumentation. It’s a fitting way to begin the album, as Spears sings, “Here’s my invitation baby / Hope it sets us free,” serving as a way to draw the listener in for the succeeding tracks.
One of the more unique songs on the album, “Private Show” utilizes an effervescent a cappella sound that really highlights the distinct sound of Britney’s belted-out vocals. The song also explores a choppy and more conversational presentation of parts of the lyrics that strays from the usual glossy and noticeably refined vocals on Spears’s other tracks. As far as the lyrical content goes, the whimsical sound of the song enhances lyrics like “Strutting on the stage / Dripping in smiles,” while adeptly maintaining the listener’s ear despite being yet another fluffy seduction song. Another of the album’s more playful songs, “Clumsy” reiterates the suggestive tone of most of Spears’s lyrics, while throwing sassy vocals over a pulsing dance beat. As catchy as the song is during the verses, the musical transitions that separate them fall a little short in maintaining the attitude cultivated by the rest of the song.
One of the most lyrically developed songs on the album is “Man On The Moon,” in which Spears extends a metaphor featuring outer space over the song and relates it to being apart from her lover. Clever lyrics like, “Last night I was in your arms so strong / One small step and baby you were gone,” and “Houston, I know there’s a problem here,” make the song more compelling than some other tracks on the album that employ less creative lyrics.
As per usual, no Britney Spears album is complete without a string of songs dedicated to seduction, and “Make Me…” (featuring G-Eazy) falls into that category. Recently performed by the artist at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), the track’s fluid melody paired with its formulaic song structure make it easy to engage with on the first listen, even though it’s not the most interesting song on the album. Other songs in the same vein include “Just Luv Me,” “Better,” and “Love Me Down,” which effectively renounce personal connection on anything beyond a physical level, and develop a deeper sense of emotional distance that detracts from the album’s personality as a whole. Continuing on the themes of excess, “Slumber Party” manages to drag stereotypes about sleepovers and their youthful innocence and paints them in a more wild and twisted color. The track’s slower tempo and laid-back, sultry sound complement the warped scene that can be fittingly summed up with the lyric, “Pillow fights and overdosin’” which presents the album’s overall sentiment in a gloriously disturbing way.
Glory also uses another trick on a couple of tracks: some of the lyrics are sung in different languages. Part of “Change Your Mind (No Seas Cortes)” is in Spanish, which complements the Latin American influence of the track’s sound and its fiery lyrics. Later on, the album finishes with a track that is sparsely accompanied by instrumentation, “Coupure Electrique,” which is sung entirely in French. While the song keeps Spears’s signature sound, it remains unclear why the singer wrote a song in this language. “Coupure Electrique” has edgy and almost mechanical-sounding instrumentation to contrast with Britney’s melodic vocals, but mentions of “l’amour” make the lyrical theme of the song highly similar to her other tracks. Thus, listeners might question whether Spears’s foreign tongue in this instance seems more like a gimmick than a genuine act of creativity.
On the whole, Glory is a successful follow-up to Britney’s wild pop legacy. The album stays true to Spears’s lyrical and musical style, but develops it in such a way that doesn’t set her apart from the rest of the pop scene as effectively as she’s done in the past.
Featured Image By RCA Records
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