I Took A Sip From From My Devil’s Cup

Britney Spears “Toxic” – This is the kind of music that suits Britney best – sexy but mechanical dance pop which allows her to a) dance in the visual presentation and b) show off the breathy part of her voice which is the best part of her natural range (though she sounds at her absolute best when she seems processed and robotic, like a fembot pop star).

Of course, this being Britney 4.0, all of the shallow subtext that made her earlier hits so confounding/fascinating/obnoxious has been thrown out in favor of much more literal lyrics which openly cop to being sexual and revel in their apparent naughtiness, though she’s hardly being transgressive. Her songs lose something without the good girl/bad girl dynamic. There’s a tension which is missing, and while it doesn’t make this song any less enjoyable than her other great singles, it does make it feel a little less special. Though there’s a certain Britney-ness about the melody of the chorus, this doesn’t really need to be a Britney Spears song, which is something which can’t be said of, say, “Oops…I Did It Again” which musically and lyrically was tailor-made to suit both Britney the singer and Britney the pop icon.

It can be argued that the first single from each of her first three records form a narrative which take her from being the coy young girl of “…Baby One More Time” to the more worldy tease of “Oops…I Did It Again” up to the brazen sexuality of “I’m A Slave 4 U.” “I’m A Slave 4 U” seems to be the logical conclusion, the point where it is obvious that her double entendres are so flimsy that it is clear that they are only there to remind us of her earlier coyness. If she is, as Chris Rock suggested, America’s favorite stripper, then what we get on In The Zone is Britney dancing after the strip-tease is over. If “Toxic” and a few other songs from the record fit into the narrative arc suggested by those previous records, they serve as a postscript, or as episodes in The Continuing Adventures Of Britney Spears. Since the mystique of her sexuality has almost completely disappeared, are we supposed to remain interested in her as a pop cultural persona simply because she’s famous? Is part of the fun of this song meant to be trying to figure out which of her celebrity suitors it may be about – Colin Ferrell? Fred Durst? Is this pop song-as-reality show?

The string sample in this is great, by the way. I’ve been trying to find out who produced this song, but I haven’t had much luck. If you know who did it, please let me know in the comments section.

A Quick Note:

I love the part towards the beginning of Jay-Z’s “Lucifer” when Jay shouts “Kanye, you did it again! You’re a genius!” He sounds so cute and sincere, and genuinely appreciative. It makes me wish that more vocalists would praise their musical collaborators on record.