Britney Spears Womanizer Review
Dance Single Produced by the Outsyders from Forthcoming Circus CD
Oct 8, 2008
Ten years ago, former Mouseketeer Britney Spears burst on the music scene sporting a tight fitting school girl outfit begging “Baby… One More Time”. A year later, “Oops…I Did It Again”, and suddenly a star was born.
Along with the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Christina Aguilera, Spears ushered in a new golden age for teen pop. Ten years later, Spears, now a twice-divorced mother of two, sells more gossip magazines than any other recording artist, fuelled by very public breakdowns, head shavings, disastrous music award performances and heavy partying.
In the fickle pop world, just one year ago, it seemed her music career was all but washed up. Then somehow, somewhere, someone was able to prop Britney up in front of microphone to record last year’s fantastic danceathon Blackout.
The Outsyders Womanizer
In the year that has followed, less has been made of her public life. Yet it seems a little quiet without Britney dropping her baby, her panties or causing some kind of havoc somewhere. So the focus comes back to the musical comeback.
Now on the eve of the December due date of her sixth album, Circus, (her second album since the appearance of her Greatest Hits and remix albums) Spears releases “Womanizer”, written by Nikesha Briscoe & Rafael Akinyemi and produced by the Outsyders.
With its dark synths and pounding backbeat, “Womanizer” sounds conspicuously like several cuts on the Blackout album, a cross between “Ooh Ooh Baby” and “Get Naked (I Got A Plan)”. The new Britney track adds nothing to music history books except that it’s the lead single from her second comeback album following her total meltdown.
A Piece of Her Circus
Devoid of a chorus, Britney simply repeats “Womanizer” over and over to a saturation point that comes all too quickly. As a dance track, the song is catchy enough, but lyrically it barely goes beyond the point of calling some poor slob hitting on her in a bar a womanizer. What’s the point? Absolutely none - and actually that is the point.
Britney Spears’ music has never been deep, emotionally connectable or socially conscious. The closest she has ever come to making a statement was on her brilliant single from last year “Piece of Me”. But even then the statement was as thin as April ice, and her statement consisted of contemplating just how bonkers she had become, a sort of serious parody.
Musically “Womanizer” follows in the electronic/ dance footsteps of the best tracks on Blackout without completely abandoning the pop mold she has so skilfully crafted.
If anything, this track should prove the resilience of the troubled star and keep many a dancing queen twirling on the floor before the full album drops later this fall.
Already, in its first week of release, "Womanizer" has topped the Billboard Hot 100.
“Womanizer” is available now on iTunes. Circus is available December 2.
