Britney Spears – Femme Fatale (Deluxe Version) (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Britney Spears – Femme Fatale (Deluxe Version) (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 58:43 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jive

Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. It was released on March 25, 2011, by Jive Records. Spears wanted to make a “fresh-sounding” and “fierce dance album”, incorporating dance-pop and electropop styles with elements of dubstep, techno, and trance. She began working on the album during the second leg of The Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009), while also working on her second compilation album The Singles Collection (2009). Contributions to its production came from a variety of producers and songwriters, including long-time collaborator Max Martin in addition to Dr. Luke, William Orbit, Fraser T Smith, Rodney Jerkins, Bloodshy & Avant. will.i.am, and StarGate.

Upon its release, Femme Fatale received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and dance-pop style, but noted Spears’ supposed lack of involvement and heavily processed vocals. Some stated that Spears was no longer the center of the album and found a trade-off to be real personality. Ryan Tedder however, defended her, saying that Frank Sinatra and Garth Brooks were huge artists who didn’t write most of their songs. The album debuted atop of the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and peaking inside the top ten in twenty-four countries. In the United States, she earned her sixth number one album.

Four singles were released from the album. It became Spears’s first album to have three top 10 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, with “Hold It Against Me”, “Till the World Ends”, and “I Wanna Go” peaking at numbers one, three, and seven, respectively. The fourth and final single “Criminal” peaked at number one in Brazil and in the top twenty in five countries. Spears promoted the album with television performances, the Femme Fatale Tour, and collaborations with Kesha, Nicki Minaj, Travis Barker, and Rihanna.

The aftermath of Britney Spears’ 2007 freak-out and Blackout wound up with her ceding control of her personal and professional life to her father and producers, respectively, leaving her as no more than a figurehead of an enterprise. Of course, Brit Brit had essentially been the face of a carefully calibrated pop machine for years, but every element of that contraption hinged on her persona, the songs and the sound fitting her evolution. Starting with Blackout, Britney started to slip into the background on her own records, a progression that continued unabated on Circus and finds some kind of culmination on 2011’s Femme Fatale. Essentially a cleaner, classier remake of the gaudily dark Blackout, Femme Fatale is a producer’s paradise, each cut decked out with stretched vocals, glassy keyboards, and insistent beats, all coming together in hyperactive arrangements that shift every five seconds. Sonically, it has everything except hooks, either in the rhythm or the melody; it’s all surface style, driven by sound and given shape by hypersexual lyrics Britney sings listlessly. Her name and face are on the cover but she is not at the album’s center; she is nowhere to be found amidst the clamor created by Dr. Luke, will.i.am, Bloodshy, Shellback, and Max Martin; she’s a black hole of charisma sucking everything in. Britney dutifully steps through the paces, singing enough of the words so they can be tweaked in the computer, never quite investing anything with emotion, never getting in the way of the producers, who deliver a showcase somewhat less captivating than Blackout. Surely, there are moments, sometimes stretched over a full song, that are compelling, but even these can’t erase the feeling that Britney no longer has a real, tangible personality. She’s now a reliable brand selling high-class productions designed to last not one minute longer than their season of release. –AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:

01. Britney Spears – Till the World Ends (03:57)
02. Britney Spears – Hold It Against Me (03:49)
03. Britney Spears – Inside Out (03:37)
04. Britney Spears – I Wanna Go (03:30)
05. Britney Spears – How I Roll (03:36)
06. Britney Spears – (Drop Dead) Beautiful (03:36)
07. Britney Spears – Seal It with a Kiss (03:26)
08. Britney Spears – Big Fat Bass (04:44)
09. Britney Spears – Trouble for Me (03:21)
10. Britney Spears – Trip to Your Heart (03:33)
11. Britney Spears – Gasoline (03:08)
12. Britney Spears – Criminal (03:45)
13. Britney Spears – Up N’ Down (03:42)
14. Britney Spears – He About To Lose Me (03:48)
15. Britney Spears – Selfish (03:43)
16. Britney Spears – Don’t Keep Me Waiting (03:21)

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