Britney Jean
Britney Jean is the eighth studio album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released on November 29, 2013, by RCA Records. The album is Spears's second eponymous record after Britney, though the album's name refers to both her first and middle names. It marks Spears's first major activity since the dissolution of her longtime record label, Jive Records, in 2011. The singer began recording material for Britney Jean in May 2013, eventually continuing into October of that year. On numerous occasions, Spears has described the album as the most personal record from her catalog. Having assumed an integral position in its production, she co-wrote each track and collaborated with songwriters and producers including Sia and will.i.am to achieve her desired sound. Furthermore, the record features guest vocals from Spears's younger sister Jamie Lynn, T.I., and will.i.am. Musically, Britney Jean contains strong elements of EDM and pop.
Upon its release, Britney Jean received mixed reviews from music critics, who felt the album was impersonal despite its marketing, and were ambivalent towards its dated production. The record debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 107,000 copies. In doing so, it became Spears' lowest-peaking and lowest-selling record in the United States. The same happened in the United Kingdom, where it debuted at number 34; worldwide, Britney Jean reached the top 20 and top 30 in most countries. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined album-equivalent units of 500,000.
"Work Bitch" was released as the lead single from Britney Jean on September 17, 2013. The track debuted and peaked at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was a moderate success worldwide, later becoming one of her signature songs. "Perfume" was released as the second single from the album on November 3, 2013, and peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Til It's Gone" impacted French radio on December 4, 2013, and "It Should Be Easy" impacted Italian radio on June 13, 2014, as the third and fourth single from the album, respectively. No further promotion was done for the record, a situation which was reported in the media. However, Spears appeared on Good Morning America on September 17, 2013, to announce a two-year residency show at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas, titled Britney: Piece of Me, which began on December 27, 2013, and concluded on December 31, 2017.
Recording and production
In 2012, while serving as a judge on the second season of the American version of The X Factor, Spears was spotted in the recording studio with producer Rodney Jerkins. Songwriter Elijah Blake commented that Spears was "definitely trying to push the envelope" by "playing with new textures and stomping on new grounds and genres." Their collaborations, however, were denied by Spears's representative, though he confirmed that producer Hit-Boy worked with Spears to create a "global sound" fusing elements of hip-hop and pop. Producer Scoop DeVille had also worked with Spears for the album's early stages. Additionally, Spears had also recorded an unused song titled "Police" with rapper Wiz Khalifa for the album. In an interview with Shape, Spears described the album's initial concept as having a hip-hop feel, saying "the record is definitely going to be more hip-hop than pop this time around."In May 2013, Naughty Boy and William Orbit were announced to be working on the record; the former expressed his satisfaction with his collaborations with Spears, adding that he had wanted always wanted to "do something a bit different." He commented that he is "a big fan of pop music and that culture", and wanted to "keep that going in own kind of style." Later that month, will.i.am was confirmed as the executive producer of the project. He described that his recording process differed from his past experience with the Black Eyed Peas, elaborating that " had these juicy sessions, where been bonding, building the trust and comfort." The album's associate executive producer was Anthony Preston for will.i.am music. In July 2013, Spears acknowledged through Twitter that she "wrote such a special song" with Sia, which was later revealed to be Spears's favorite track, the ballad "Perfume". The following month, she reportedly traveled to Lake District in the United Kingdom to continue work with Naughty Boy and Orbit. Naughty Boy later stated he was not able to work on the material for the album with Orbit because he "wasn't able to come to L.A. at the time was promoting 'La La La' around the world." Charli XCX revealed in a 2022 interview that she wrote material for the album, but none of it made the cut.
On numerous occasions, Spears has considered Britney Jean to be the most personal record from her catalog. She stated that her experiences in recent years, including her break-up with ex-fiancé Jason Trawick, encouraged her to "dig deeper and write songs that everyone can relate to." Spears added that the production of the record was an "amazing experience" and that her colleagues "helped bring to life." Spears told Rudolph, "I want Will to be a central figure in the album; I don't want to have hundreds of songs sent over."
Music and lyrics
Britney Jean has been described as a concept album about "the loneliness of pop life." The opening track "Alien" deems celebrity an isolating experience that Spears describes in terms of feeling like an extraterrestrial over synth bleaps, which according to some critics, "it echoes William Orbit work with Madonna on Ray of Light." The second track "Work Bitch" is an EDM song, where Spears sings about what it takes to be rich, famous and beautiful, repeatedly encouraging listeners to "get to work, bitch." The third track "Perfume" is a 1980s-influenced power ballad, which Spears described as "incredibly special to me because it hits close to home, and I think the story is relatable to everyone. Everyone's been through an insecure moment in a relationship that's left them vulnerable and I think this song captures that." The fourth track "It Should Be Easy", which features will.i.am, insists that love "shouldn't be complicated," with Spears imagining a bright-normal-future with a man who's stolen her heart, with "robotized" voice and EDM beats. The song was heavily criticized for the excessive use of Auto-Tune, credited by will.i.am. The album's fifth track "Tik Tik Boom" finds Spears begging a lover to make her "tik, tik, tik, tik, boom" over trap beats. It was described as a "club banger" and "the closest the album comes to bringing Blackout 2.0 to life," featuring a "sex-drenched" appearance from rapper T.I."Body Ache" follows with its lyrical theme about dancing hard in a club, over shrieking sirens and EDM beats, whilst "Til It's Gone" gives value to the stability of a good relationship, albeit after it dissolves, with its electronic and EDM sounds. With the eighth track "Passenger,” which noodles around with some EDM impulses before imploding into "brooding" pop-rock, Spears emotes about finding happiness after being willing to cede control. "Chillin' with You" features Spears's younger sister Jamie Lynn into a song about grasping at happiness over lush trap, EDM and country pop sound. The album's closing track on the standard edition, "Don't Cry", opens with a spaghetti Western-esque whistle, and it finds Spears refusing to give in to post-relationship grief. Some critics labelled it "her best vocal performance on the album."
Title and artwork
On October 15, 2013, during an appearance on Capital London, she announced that the record would be titled Britney Jean, a nickname used affectionately by her family and friends. On October 24, together with an open letter to her fans, Spears unveiled the album artwork. The black-and-white image depicts a close-up image of Spears with the term "Britney Jean" colored in blue lettering inside a pink heart near the bottom of the cover. A report from ABC News Radio likened the usage of Spears's middle name in the album's title to being inspired by Janet Jackson's eighth studio album Damita Jo, saying "taking a page from Janet Jackson's 2004 album, Damita Jo, Britney Spears has combined her first and middle names—Britney Jean—to come up with the title." A writer for The Huffington Post later suggested that the neon-style typography was inspired by the cover of Miley Cyrus' fourth studio album Bangerz, which itself depicts a blonde Cyrus wearing a short black coat with the title "Bangerz" stylized in fluorescent neon lighting in front of palm trees. While the typography was compared to that of Bangerz by a writer from The Huffington Post, Britney Jean marks the third album artwork from RCA Records to use a neon-style typography design, Bangerz from Miley Cyrus being one and the other being Mechanical Bull from Kings of Leon. Byron Flitsch of MTV News shared a similar sentiment, and added that the artwork was reminiscent of Spears’s fourth and seventh records In the Zone and Femme Fatale. On November 4, a colorized version of the cover was unveiled as the primary visual for the standard edition, with the original cover becoming the primary visual for the deluxe edition.Release and promotion
In May 2013, record producer Danja, who collaborated with Spears during its production, commented that he " know when the next is going to be, but there's going to be another one." On August 20, 2013, Spears relaunched her website with a countdown ending on September 17, originally speculated to be the release date of her then-unannounced lead single. On September 17, Spears announced on Good Morning America that her album would be released on December 3, 2013, in the United States, the day after her 32nd birthday. On November 4, the album was made available for pre-order through the iTunes Store. Spears revealed the track listing for Britney Jean on November 12, which she implied was earlier than she planned after hackers " to ruin surprises." On November 20, the album leaked online, prompting the singer to address the leaks by saying: "To those of you listening to the leaks... I hope you love... I made this album specifically for my diehard fans so I'm just hoping every song touches you because each one is a piece of me.” Five days later, Britney Jean was made available for streaming in full through the iTunes Store and iTunes Radio. The record is additionally marked with the Parental Advisory label, affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to identify explicit content.Unlike her previous records, excluding her fifth studio album Blackout, Spears did not heavily promote Britney Jean, and no promotional performances in support of the album took place. However, she appeared on Good Morning America to announce her two-year residency show at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, titled Britney: Piece of Me, on September 17. Spears then traveled to the United Kingdom to promote the lead single and the album on Alan Carr: Chatty Man. She also appeared for interviews on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Entertainment Tonight, and Surprise Surprise. Britney Jean was additionally promoted through the documentary I Am Britney Jean, which premiered through E! on December 22; it covered the production and lead-up to its release and the launch of Britney: Piece of Me. The original airing of the special in the United States was viewed by 0.706 million viewers, garnering above-average Sunday ratings for the network, while it was viewed by 0.63 million viewers in the United Kingdom. Britney: Piece of Me began on December 27, with tickets having been first made available on September 20.