What Was The Fandom's Response To 'Britney Jean' Upon Release?

[hernameis]

Bad album, never understood the hate towards It Should Be Easy. 

[everybodygoesdown]

Just now, hernameis said:

Bad album, never understood the hate towards It Should Be Easy. 

ISBE is so good !

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

I remember being excited about the album because it was a new album, but I was kinda caught off guard by it because it was being advertised as her most personal, and it very clearly wasn't. Britney has spoke about guitars and rock the year before, but we got 2013 EDM...

That being said, vocally, it always felt different. Initially, I put it down to it being that Britney's music had been as vocally demanding for the two years previous, but it always felt different. The Myah rumours started long before the albums release with her fathers comments, and Passenger was believed to be a demo when it leaked...

So I was blinded as a fan,  but it didn't last very long.

[The Pink Sheep]

I remember when it leaked and I was so excited to listen. I really enjoyed the album and it's definitely one of my favorites. 

I remember losing my **** when I heard songs like 'Tik Tik Boom,' 'Til It's Gone' and 'Dont Cry' 🤍

[brymo]

The Alien glitch was annoying and showed the level of care that was taken with the album. I remember just feeling like... "This is what we get?" I knew Will.i.am was going to mess it up because of his past terrible producing (Cheryl and some of Nicki Minaj's stuff), so not a huge surprise there.

[PokemonSpears]

Everyone loved it . I wish we could still see the 2013 threads. Each song, except Chillin With Lou had people doing campaign threads to make them the fourth single (because we all assumed Alien was the third after IABJ documentary aired). 

[agustinmalandra]

When it first came out, we were being delusional af saying it's a great work of music and ish... I remember that we were shocked at the glitch of Alien, and also surprised at "her" high notes on Passenger... the hype lasted 3 weeks, I guess... as we could see it was the first album of her not getting the #01 spot, so GP and fans had spoken.

 

It had mixed to bas reviews... the WB dessert performance fiasco was the first warning sign and everything after was a fail.

I remember the first question about "her" vocals were with Body Ache... where we just thought that the second verse was NOT Britney (like we being good cuz we know Britney doesn't sing in that "song" at all) then the rumours blowed up and ther truth we all know was out: Britney doesn't sing in 60% of the album.

Also, I think I've read somewhere that recording sessions of that album were suspiciously erased or lost... how convinient.

 

When the line vocal video came out I couldn't believe the amount of Myah, and now it is sooooo clear the voices are different, but in that time, we took the bait.

 

[Mateo]

There's still some good songs on there (work *****, body ache, alien, til its gone), but from the beginning this was my least liked britney album. I didn't know who myah Marie was back then but I knew something was up with that voice change in body ache and I love britney but no way was passenger her voice.

[Danielle1987]

I simply listened to the album and did not like it. At all. I pretend it does not exist. 
 

Also, the promo interviews are probably harder to listen to than the album. She SO OBVIOUSLY did not want any part of it. Her lack of passion leaked into my anticipation of the album…not a good result. 
(I could tell since 09 she was forced to do things she did not want to do)

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

Just adding to this, William Orbit speaking out about how he essentially lost control over the track and the glitch wasn't his fault. Then we had country club martini crew talk about the stems they had and how, even though there were different take for the verses, passenger didn't have a Britney take for the chorus, which really set the Myah Hate train in motion...

Then there was the "raw" audio, that was edited, which was supposed a practice take, but sounded very like the final...

In retrospect, there was so much criticism that left a mark on Britney's artistry because it really feuled criticisms she had received before this, and even to this day, still linger on.

 

[MasterMindz]

MELTDOWNS! It was crazy 

I personally think Work ***** is one of Britney's best singles. I also liked Perfume, Alien, and Tick Tick Boom. The rest of the album is just okay. 

Passenger was definitely a great song, had she sang it...

[MasterMindz]

Some rumors also discussed that Don't Cry was part of the original direction of the album before it changed. And Britney definitely sang that one.

[The Queen]

It gave us her worst: Chillin' With You

Enough said

[sodapopbritney]

It was at the peak of my stanning her, I’d been waiting for an album since FF. I really ate up anything she released but looking back musically those years weren’t a great time. 
I listened to a couple tracks for a few weeks but had to admit I didn’t like them, and they didn’t feel like Britney songs  I was never into 2013 edm 

[stanLOONA]

At the time, I actually liked the album, I was expecting "Alien" to be a single sometime. Wasn't my favorite, but I like it the songs. But less than a year later I stopped listen to it, and then I forgot about it. (except for WB, that song arrived and stayed )

But the album is just so dated, and if you look back, it was dated by the time of release.

I do have to say that even at the time I never understood the "my most personal album yet", because, basically, is a dance album, what's personal about it? The photos? Even the booklet is disconnected with the album itself.

So sorry to Britney (2001), an album that did seemed personal.