Review Revue: Critics React To Britney Spears’ ‘Femme Fatale’ Album

Robbie Daw | March 14, 2011 11:23 am

Those working high up in Britney Spears’ camp likely blew a gasket when her new album Femme Fatale hit the Internet this past Friday, over two weeks ahead of its scheduled March 29 release date. Nevertheless, the online world quickly began to weigh on the sultry cover girl‘s seventh studio LP—and for the most part, critics were finding plenty to dance about! Head below for our roundup of early reviews for Spears’ latest. * Entertainment Weekly‘s Music Mix tried to show some restraint, despite the early leak. But overall, they were impressed: “We here at EW are waiting for the full, mastered versions of everything before we weigh in too much, but I can say this: This album is already rocking my world, based on what we’ve heard.”

* Culture Bully was won over by Britney’s seventh LP: “Though not entirely consistent, it is steady in delivering track after musically relevant track of delightfully vibrant music which pleasantly complements Spears’ contributions. Once again, the album is exactly what it needed to be; which is simply to say that Femme Fatale might actually be worthy of its mighty hype.”

* Digital Spy also found itself a victim of Femme Fatale‘s pop charms: “Despite the album’s well-worn producers and slightly obvious theme, the production is polished, intriguing and – best of all – fun.”

* Add OK! to those seduced by Spears’ latest: “We struggled to keep our feet still as we were played the beat-pumping, poptastic track Gasoline (we’re predicting this one will soar up the charts), which was produced by super-producers Dr. Luke and Benny Bianco. Next up we heard the pop princess’ only mid-tempo song on the album, “Criminal,” which had remnants of Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” and is guaranteed to have one of those videos that just embodies the song.”

* PopJustice pointed out that there is room for more than one pop diva on the 2011 musical landscape: “From what we’ve heard from this album (which is the whole thing, bar deluxe edition bonus tracks) and from what we’ve heard of the Lady Gaga album, they are entirely different bodies of work with entirely different influences and objectives from two entirely different artists at entirely different stages in their respective careers. Between them they offer a fantastic account of pop music in 2011 and should be viewed as complementary, not contradictory. There is room for both. Let’s all just try to get along.”

* Vulture approached Femme Fatale with a sense of caution: “Britney’s album, Femme Fatale, has leaked, and though it can’t change the fact that Spears is dead in the eyes, it’s interesting. Yes, it’s a record of heavily produced dance songs, but it’s both not that bad — way better than we would have predicted after the mediocre lead single ‘Hold It Against Me’ — and also a little strange.”

* Same Same said the album “comes ever close to reaching the highs of Blackout, but falls just short, but it is hard to compete with an album that was steeped in so much context. A highly recommended album, even if you aren’t a Britney fan.”

* Only Slant seemed unmoved by Brit’s new set of jams: “Longtime collaborator Max Martin and his partner in auricle-crime, Dr. Luke, produced the bulk of Femme Fatale, and their contributions are mixed-to-shoddy. The album’s lead single, ‘Hold It Against Me,’ makes good on the failed double entendre of ‘If You Seek Amy,’ but the rest of the lyrics are comprised of cheesy pickup lines strung together atop the kind of generic Eurotrash beats and dated trance synths that are sadly all the rage right now… ‘Till the World Ends’ is so similar to Ke$ha’s ‘Blow’ (Ms. $ebert co-wrote both) that I can’t decide which one I like more—or if I even like them at all. If not for its infectious pre-chorus whistle, ‘I Wanna Go’ would be just another song off the Max Martin assembly line, and ‘Gasoline’ is, for better or worse, not a topical screed about energy independence and the rising price of crude oil.”