Jump to content

Here's How Professional Critics Rated All Of Britney's Albums


Stannedforever

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 59
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I'm glad to see that Glory has such a positive perception relative to her other albums. BOMT was released when I was in first grade, so I've been aware of Britney and her music for my entire life, but I've always been a fan of rock and metal. One day, I randomly heard a preview of Make Me and fell in love. I had been dabbling in pop a bit at that time, but Glory really made me fall in love with pop music, and with Britney most of all. I've listened to entire discographies of producers like Max Martin, Bloodshy and Avant, and the Neptunes, and the tracks they produce for her are always highlights, if not the best, of their respective careers. I oddly enough find Britney to be her best album beginning to end though. Most of her albums have at least a couple of really annoying or sappy songs, but not Britney.

Link to comment
14 minutes ago, thrashette said:

I'm glad to see that Glory has such a positive perception relative to her other albums. BOMT was released when I was in first grade, so I've been aware of Britney and her music for my entire life, but I've always been a fan of rock and metal. One day, I randomly heard a preview of Make Me and fell in love. I had been dabbling in pop a bit at that time, but Glory really made me fall in love with pop music, and with Britney most of all. I've listened to entire discographies of producers like Max Martin, Bloodshy and Avant, and the Neptunes, and the tracks they produce for her are always highlights, if not the best, of their respective careers. I oddly enough find Britney to be her best album beginning to end though. Most of her albums have at least a couple of really annoying or sappy songs, but not Britney.

So funny, it seems people that love metal really resonated with Glory! I wonder if anyone remembers that review of the album from a guy who was more into rock/metal but was totally shocked with Glory. Anyway, I’m the same, not so much metal but I live for rock from the 70’s-90’s. Britney is the only pop artist I actually look for (edit: regularly anyway, there’s some I check but they’re not as known).

Link to comment

Metacritic is weird.

It’s based on averages, but barely any publications contributed to Glory, for instance, while albums Blackout, Circus, Femme Fatale has 20+ reviews. 

Case by case:

Glory has 7 positive reviews and 7 mixed.

Femme Fatale has 16 positive and 8 mixed. 

Circus has 9 positive and 12 mixed.

Blackout has 11 positive and 11 mixed. 

In the Zone has 8 positive and 4 mixed.

Britney has 3 positive and 11 mixed.

Oops has 11 positive and 4 mixed.

Glory is more a non-event than genuinely critically acxlaimed, compared to projects like Femme Fatale and Blackout and even Oops, with a similar amount of contribution, has way more positive reviews. 

Link to comment
9 hours ago, Commotion said:

Yeah, to me this proves Glory was the best thing she's done since Oops. May be controversial, but I love Glory so much. Blackout and ITZ are like close 3nd and 4rd to me, in that order.

Outside the Aguilera comparison, I think this review was right. FF was sort of a distraction, it was fun, but Britney needed a Glory instead of FF. BJ showed her she couldn't keep doing the same thing. BJ is the sequel to FF, many of the things FF introduced, BJ got criticised for (Myah's vocals is the main thing, but also not any personal lyrics, heavily edited voice.) Britney should've gone full-on personal in Circus or right after Circus, and it's kind of disappointing that she hasn't if she really is an artist. People wanna learn about Britney and what she thinks. People want raw emotions and they got Circus and Femme Fatale? I'd have been disappointed if I'd been a stan back then.

Musically I do think Britney the album is the weak link with Britney Jean. Love the pop bops in the first one and I don't hate BJ that much, but compared to the next albums and the previous ones, the ones with her name on them aren't the best. At least that's my opinion as a baby stan.

Not really. 

 

59 minutes ago, ITZFFGL said:

Metacritic is weird.

It’s based on averages, but barely any publications contributed to Glory, for instance, while albums Blackout, Circus, Femme Fatale has 20+ reviews. 

Case by case:

Glory has 7 positive reviews and 7 mixed.

Femme Fatale has 16 positive and 8 mixed. 

Circus has 9 positive and 12 mixed.

Blackout has 11 positive and 11 mixed. 

In the Zone has 8 positive and 4 mixed.

Britney has 3 positive and 11 mixed.

Oops has 11 positive and 4 mixed.

Glory is more a non-event than genuinely critically acxlaimed, compared to projects like Femme Fatale and Blackout and even Oops, with a similar amount of contribution, has way more positive reviews. 

This.

Link to comment
Spoiler

 

RATING GUIDE

Lauded = Almost every review was positive

Acclaim = 90% or over gave positive review

Favorable = 70% or over gave positive review

Average = 55% or over gave positive reviews

Mixed = 40% or over gave positive reviews

Negative = 20% or over gave positive reviews

Panned = under 20% gave positive reviews 

 

...Baby one more time

Overall Reception: Lauded

Most favorable rating: "There is little doubt that '...Baby One More Time' will be long remembered as one of the cornerstones of pop music in general, and it is a strong front-runner as the prototype for the late 90s pop resurgence."

Most negative rating: "a truly grand pop song that overwhelms any lingering undercurrent of Lolita ****-creepiness through the sheer fanatical earnestness of its delivery."

Sometimes

Overall Reception: Favorable

Most favorable rating: "Sometimes" is a further hit from ...Baby One More Time"

Most negative rating: "reasonable enough, though through three songs Spears' lyric approach appears to be entirely about guys

(You Drive Me) Crazy

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "When Spears starts to sing on this one, she sounds a lot like Janet Jackson."

Most negative rating: "so lamely feel-good track that it "could have been the theme song to a 'Karate Kid' sequel.

Born to Make You Happy

Overall Reception: Average

Most favorable rating: "early classic"

Most negative rating:  "could be a sentiment that a lovelorn 16-year-old can understand, but it also sounds like Spears is in training to be a geisha."

From the Bottom of My Broken Heart

Overall Reception: Average

Most favorable rating: "Baby One More Time has its share of well-crafted filler, but the singles, combined with Britney's burgeoning charisma, make this a pretty great piece of fluff"

Most negative rating: "another rejection ballad that references kissing but nothing else"

Oops!... I Did It Again

Overall Reception: Lauded

Most favorable rating: "a perfect 10 on the "wow" scale, with the wacky "Jack-Rose" dialogue"

Most negative rating: "harder, carbon copy" of "...Baby One More Time" that is easily as good as her breakthrough single"

Lucky

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "perhaps Britney's finest moment. The ultimate mallrat, bittersweet teenage symphony"

Most negative rating: "a heart-rending tale of life at the top of the teen pop tree, transformed into an anthem for dramatic, moody 12-year-old girls everywhere by Max Martin's scary talent for teenybop lyrics"

Stronger

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "the best dance track of Oops!"

Most negative rating: "there's the deranged helium synth pop of 'Stronger' with the huge ABBA chord change in the chorus that sounds scarier and more robotic than the Backstreet Boys"

Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know

Overall Reception: Favorable

Most favorable rating: "the best showcase of Spears' talents"

Most negative rating: "absolutely frightening"

I'm a Slave 4 U

Overall Reception: Favorable

Most favorable rating: "The song is funk the way God intended —hypnotic, insistent, mysterious, suggestive— and if Prince was a nineteen-year-old former Disney Club host and virgin, he'd be proud to create such a record"

Most negative rating: "While her normal source of junior ranch [Max Martin] churns out the usual feisty hits... the remaining chastity-endorsing mush is nowhere near as exciting"

Overprotected

Overall Reception: Favorable

Most favorable rating: "pivotal moment on Britney Spears' third album, the record where she strives to deepen her persona"

Most negative rating: "hardly the first not-terribly-bright teenager to approach self-knowledge via the words of others"

I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "well-executed ballad"

Most negative rating: *won golden raspberry award for the worst original song*

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "Britney still works best when making a good pop cheese and dance sandwich"

Most negative rating: "her remake is neither imaginative (it simply xeroxes Joan Jett's arrangement) nor all that believable"

Anticipating (French only)

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "strongest track in the album"

Most negative rating: "”Anticipating” and ”Bombastic Love” rely on enervated formulas — faux disco and ABBA lite"

Boys

Overall Reception: Acclaim

Most favorable rating: "A simple concept, but an effective one, resulting in Britney’s best single in ages."

Most negative rating: "never have a groove and a verse been so betrayed by a limp chorus"

Me Against the Music

Overall Reception: Mixed

Most favorable rating: "a fine specimen of Britney 4.0 – a fast-paced dance anthem, all grinding percussion shuttling through a traffic jam of synths"

Most negative rating: "Despite bringing out the big guns in a duet with Madonna, 'Me Against The Music' is not danceable, the measure of success in any pop tune"

Toxic

Overall Reception: Lauded

Most favorable rating: "irresistible ear candy in what is surely Britney's most ambitious, adventurous album to date"

Most negative rating: "one of Spears' greatest hits and insanely catchy", the chorus alone makes you want to forgive the Alias wannabe video that accompanies the song."

Everytime

Overall Reception: Lauded

Most favorable rating: "it is just a spare piano ballad, simple yet effectively fragile"

Most negative rating: "The breathy ballad got a stage musical feel to it, but Britney's no Elaine Paige."

Outrageous

Overall Reception: Mixed

Most favorable rating: "a forgettable but nonetheless catchy single"

Most negative rating: "with its cheap, tinny production – it would take a rather senile and unworldly old lady in Tonbridge Wells to find this even diverting, let alone shocking."

My Prerogative

Overall Reception: Negative

Most favorable rating: "the cover became an anthem for teen-idol rebellion"

Most negative rating: "an useless remake, which seems to exist solely for its video"

Do Somethin'

Overall ReceptionFavorable

Most favorable rating: "very good previously unreleased tune"

Most negative rating: "a decent bit of crunk where she raps in a cutesy-poo drawl that suggests she could have nabbed the Dukes of Hazzard sexpot role from Jessica Simpson"

Someday (I Will Understand)

Overall ReceptionPanned

Most favorable rating: "Britney goes genuine for this ode to her unborn baby"

Most negative rating: "nothing can rescue Spears' freakishly sappy flop single "Someday (I Will Understand)""

Gimme More

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "hypnotic pole-dance pop"

Most negative rating: "this is a genetically engineered sort of dancefloor banger"

Piece of Me

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "it's been Spears who's been laughing hardest during her year of zany media antics"

Most negative rating: "Musically - Piece of Me is one-dimensional, robotic exercise"

Break the Ice

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "it is a really brilliant track"

Most negative rating: "numbing club filler"

Womanizer

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "The track lays a really strong foundation for the fully-realised comeback that didn't quite happen last time and it's hard not to think of it as a late contender for single of the year. [...] It's literally quite good"

Most negative rating: "The pre-chorus was the most repetitive in a pop song since The Shaggs's "Gimmie Dat Ding"

Circus

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "True and triumphant Britney Spears pop song with a pensive underbelly (the first verse in particular) and a supremely executed hook"

Most negative rating:  "Ann Donahue of Billboard criticized the lyrics for rehashing the theme of fame and compared it to "Lucky" and "Piece of Me""

If U Seek Amy

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "Max Martin and Spears at their best: a stomping dance floor beat with building synths prodding the song along and the singer sounding like she's having a blast being the bad girl"

Most negative rating: "a Katy Perry-styled exercise in crass commercial carnality that is at once the best and worst song here"

Radar

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "a bubblegum-electro dance floor jam with a hook most pop stars would kill for"

Most negative rating: "repetitive and over-produced"

3

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "builds to a climax of wildly pulsing bass that summons fans to the dancefloor"

Most negative rating: "sweetly generic"

Hold It Against Me

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "Britney stepping into new territory and pushing the boundaries of dance pop once more"

Most negative rating: "Spears sounds bored [...] as is the case with most of her recent work"

Till the World Ends

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "sounds solid on the radio and brings crowds to the dance floor"

Most negative rating: ""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."

I wanna go

Overall ReceptionAcclaim

Most favorable rating: "Spears' best song since "Toxic", I’d go so far as to say that it is probably the best song that she has ever recorded"

Most negative rating: "I Wanna Go" is the point of the album in which "things stop being fun and start becoming intensely repetitious."

Criminal

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "Only Brit can make a flute sound ****. Seriously, few pop stars can pull off a flute and Brit does it with ease"

Most negative rating: "weak mid-tempo fare song"

Ooh La La

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "sweet spot of sugary synth-pop"

Most negative rating: "Momma Spears' kid-friendly track is energetic to the point of hyperactivity --- Smurftastic? Maybe"

Work *****

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "thrilling, thunderously bold slice of forward-thinking dance-pop"

Most negative rating: "widespread and superficial readings of “Work *****” makes it clear that the media, and society at large, risks blindly approving the potentially harmful and oppressive message the track broadcasts"

Perfume

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "Spears' vocal ability is as strong as it has ever been. Spears' best song in years"

Most negative rating: "The song's production is careful, and Spears is pale as she overly ambitious emotes"

Pretty Girls

Overall ReceptionAverage

Most favorable rating: "anthemic chorus about girl power in the party scene"

Most negative rating: "Spears sounds more animated in her two minutes of action here than on the entirety of 2013's Britney Jean album"

Make Me...

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "woozy, future-funk burner...packed with whooshing synths and a seductive, dub step-esque boom-bap"

Most negative rating: "Pretty safe"

Slumber Party

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most favorable rating: "dreamy and genuinely ****, something that Britney hasn't truly been since 'Blackout"

Most negative rating: "spins reggae into its chorus in a way that feels much on trend after Gwen Stefani's 'This Is What the Truth Feels Like"

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Stannedforever said:
  Reveal hidden contents

 

RATING GUIDE

Lauded = Almost every review was positive

Acclaim = 90% or over gave positive review

Favorable = 70% or over gave positive review

Average = 55% or over gave positive reviews

Mixed = 40% or over gave positive reviews

Negative = 20% or over gave positive reviews

Panned = under 20% gave positive reviews 

 

Ooh La La

Overall ReceptionLauded

Most negative rating: "Momma Spears' kid-friendly track is energetic to the point of hyperactivity --- Smurftastic? Maybe"

Lol hilarious:hahayea:

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Stannedforever said:

Most negative rating: "Musically - Piece of Me is one-dimensional, robotic exercise"

 

lol this is why I love it so much! Her delivery is so eerie, I remember being surprised and so in awe, didn't expect this from her, the only disappointment is that she didn't write it. Would've been so much bigger if the credits said "writer: Britney Spears" and just that.

2 hours ago, Stannedforever said:

Most negative rating: "Spears sounds bored [...] as is the case with most of her recent work"

 

This could be used for all of Femme Fatale and Britney Jean tbh :umok:

Link to comment
Just now, It'sSamB!tch said:

Someday is not that bad imo. I feel like they overracted...it's such a honest song with a beautiful melody

:schoolingtime:Someday is one of her best ballads. It's simple and her vocals are not overly processed and even tho the lyrics are not that good it's cool. But you have to remember that it came out just after chaotic and GP hated her :ririshade2:

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

We noticed you're using an ad blocker  :ehum_britney_um_unsure_confused_what:

Thanks for visiting Exhale! Your support is greatly appreciated 💜  

Exhale survives through advertising revenue. Please, disable your ad block extension to help us and continue browsing Exhale. 🙏

I've disabled ad block