(Hugo, Williams)
Album: Boys – Single / Britney / Austin Powers Goldmember (Soundtrack)
Clocking in at six total singles released (including both stateside and international releases), Britney qualifies as Spears’s most prolific singles era. “Boys,” was the final single off the album, and the second single to receive the remix treatment for official release. Another Neptunes-written track (like “I’m a Slave 4 U,” also rumored to have been originally offered to Janet Jackson) the album version kicks off with some electro-claps and a funky, pulsating baseline where Spears’s breathy spoken-word verse slowly becomes more rhythmic and transitions into the slinky bridge. The track serves as an effective homage to Jackson, and one could see parallels between her apt transition from Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 to janet. and what Spears herself aimed to accomplish with the more mature sounds of “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Boys.” The “Co-Ed Remix” (brilliantly named) became a duet between Spears and one of the song’s authors, Pharrell Williams. The remix trades out the original baseline for another hip hop beat where percussion is brought to the fore. Both versions were welcome additions to Spears’s discography, but the original baseline and euphoric middle eight put the original over the top here. However, performances of both versions also provided some of the best choreography moments of Britney’s career.
Comments