Review Summary: As one of the most successful artists of the decade, is it any wonder this compilation is so good?
This is Britney's second greatest hits, and it's incredibly strong. It focuses mainly on her mroe upbeat, danceable numbers, with a few slower ones thrown in to change things up without disrupting the constant stream of quality pop songs.
New song "3" is very of the moment - an electro tinged pop-dance song, with a sickly sweet hook that taps right into the Gaga/Ke$ha/3OH!3 aesthetic being mined in the pop landscape at the moment to great effect. Breakthrough hit "...Baby One More Time" is almost a world away, but the teen-girl confessional still strays the right side of good compared to comparable artists today. You've all heard it before, and yes it is slightly played out now but it's a defining single of its era for sure.
Slightly more up-tempo songs such as "Stronger" showcase the side of Britney that could give us fun, sing-along hits that didn't sound as cliche or young as the aforementioned debut single or subsequent track "(You Drive Me) Crazy". The album does include ballads, but aside from the self-penned "Everytime" which is genuinely a quality, soft piano based ballad, the other two slower songs, "Born to Make You Happy" and"I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" aren't really strong enough, and will likely warrant use of the "skip" button, although to their credit they do make the inclusion of "Everytime" feel less out of place.
"Slave 4 U" signifies a shift in Britney's sound, from more wholesome teen pop to the sexier, more electronic influenced sound she owns now - although the track achieves this more through spirit than sound - the track itself undeniably a Neptunes one - the mid-tempo number seeing Britney take on an overall more overtly sexy persona.
"Toxic" is one of her best songs, the swooping strings and bubbling drum beat creating a less-abrasive but no less danceable take on her electro-pop sound. Post-breakdown trio "Gimme More", "Piece of Me" and "Womanizer" from the most recent album Circus confirm that the pop world is all the better having Britney back, her sound and style coming to the logical conclusion started on "Slave 4 U", and ultimately justifying this release as the superior of her two greatest hits compilations by moving the focus onto her most appealing sound. As one of the most successful artists of the decade, is it any wonder this compilation is so good?
