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[SPEAKER_00]: These are three words that opened up one of the most important pop albums of the 2000s, an album that came out while its creator was being taken apart on every magazine cover and was dealing with struggles in her personal life.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, welcome back to Room For Us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host P and every single week I like to sit down get vulnerable and talk about all things queer, but also about things that mean a lot to me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I mentioned on my Instagram story that

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[SPEAKER_00]: One of my favorite things to do is do an album deep dive.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm such a music lover, and I love to learn more about the production, the song writing, its artist, and everything that it took before the album was released.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So for this episode, we're going to be breaking down Britney Spears' fifth album Blackout.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How it was made.

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[SPEAKER_00]: who made it, what was going on in her life?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Every single track, the song freaks show, might be the moment that dubstep actually snuck into American pop.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So in October, 2027, blackout is officially turning 20.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to go back to 2007.

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[SPEAKER_00]: First, here's just a quick refresher on Britney herself.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Britney Spears was born in Kentwood, Louisiana.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And as a little girl, she was also in love with expressing herself through movement and putting on shows for her family.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In her memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears describes her childhood love for dancing as a pure, joyful and defining part of who she was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Britney, when she broke into the scene, came out with Baby Woman Time in 1998.

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[SPEAKER_00]: By 2003, she had gone from teen pop phenomenon to something edgier within the zone, which gave us toxic, it gave us me against the music, featuring Madonna, and toxic, was produced by a Swedish duo called Bloodshy and Abant.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to be bringing them up because they are all over this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then, as we all know, in terms of her personal life, she married Kevin Fetterline in 2004, and said she was just stepping back from music to enjoy life.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She had her first son, Sean Preston, in September 2005, and then her second, Jaden James, in September 2006.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She filed for divorce on November 7, 2006 from Kevin Fetterline.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So 2007 is often talked about being the toughest year for Britney Spears.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like we have seen all of these names on social media about, you know, if Britney Spears could survive 2007, I can survive this day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was probably from what like we had access to at that time as an audience.

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[SPEAKER_00]: the toughest period of her life.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to give you a quick timeline because I want you to feel how compressed it is.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So in January 2007, her aunt Sandra, someone she was very close to, died of ovarian cancer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: February 2007, I don't like to call it this in a way, but this is

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[SPEAKER_00]: She was going through so much media scrutiny and she went through two stands at a Treatment Center in Malibu.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In July 2007, the divorce from Kevin Featherline was finalized.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have September 9th, 2007.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was the MTV VMAs in Las Vegas.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and they were calling this a comeback for Brittany, when she opened the show with Gimmie Moore, her first single.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The critics were absolutely brutal with this performance, and when you really, really look back at that performance too, I would

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[SPEAKER_00]: even say it was what people were making it out to be.

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[SPEAKER_00]: People were tearing her apart for the way she looked and at this point she is a mother of two right and it's just so terrible to see like what the headlines were around that time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost unbelievable.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then we have fall 2007.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This was the custody fight with Kevin and the tabloids treating her life like this live sporting events like I remember even being around 12 years old at that time and you wouldn't

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[SPEAKER_00]: go past a magazine without Brittany's life being at the center of it, like there was always something going on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then when we get into early 2008, she enters this conservatorship that would control her life and career until 2021.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when Blackout came out, the public conversation was initially awful, awful about the album, but also just awful about Brittany.

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[SPEAKER_00]: People weren't taking her seriously, they weren't taking the album seriously.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like people in a way were almost making fun of it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But what's so interesting is despite everyone tearing her apart around this time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She was constantly working, putting her all into this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Producers who sat in the room with Brittany kept saying the same thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She was so professional, she showed up, she always put the music first.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She had a vision for blackout.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The album's title, by the way, Jive Records said it was about blocking out negativity and embracing life fully, which given the year she had had, definitely hits a little differently.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So let's get into how the album got made.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Brittany was the executive producer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the only album in her career where she's credited in that way.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This means that Brittany was extremely involved in shaping what this record was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Alongside her, a powerhouse team, a futuristic electronic pop, and R&B visionaries shaped the records iconic sound.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to list off the core producers as well as some songwriters who were part of this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we have Nate, Danger Hills, who serves as the main sonic architect of the album, crafting these heavy ground-breaking electro-pop and urban beats for tracks like Gimmie Moore, break the ice, and get naked.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got a plan.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Blachiant Avon, who worked with Brittany on Toxic, there was Swedish duo, and they produced the definitive dance pop gems on the album, including piece of me, Radar, Freak Show, and Toy Soldier.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We also have the Neptune's Ferrell Williams and Chad Hugo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They produced the smooth, mid-tempo closing track, why should I be sad?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Carol Diogardi is also credited on the album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She co-produced and served as a key studio collaborator for tracks like Uhu Baby.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then we have Carrie Hilsen, James Jim Beans, Washington, Sean Garrett, T-Pain and Nicole Morir.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what it was wasn't what Brittany had originally planned.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Back in 2006, she was talking about experimenting with live musicians, stripped-down sounds, even leaning into her Louisiana roots, and the blues she grew up on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She also said pop at the time just felt kind of boring, and she wanted something that felt like wow.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That energy absolutely stayed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When she ended up recording an album that was dark, club built and electric forward and something that many other artists would start to be influenced with when they were making their albums.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That is why Blackout was so ahead of its time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll get into this even more as I like get into this episode.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You could listen to that record now and it feels fresh.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like you're listening back to it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was almost 20 years ago.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't feel old.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's very much a song or a single could come out now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And you would feel like that just makes sense.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So the recording ran from around March 2006 to June 2007.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In studios across Stockholm, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, New York, and Las Vegas.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And here's some fun facts that I do love about this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She started with producer J.R. Rotem in early 2006, after hearing Brianna's SOS and wanting to chase something that fresh.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In July 2006, she started working with Danger, who pulled in songwriters including Carrie Hilsen and Jim Beans.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They recorded at the studio at the Poms in Vegas while Brittany was about eight months pregnant and kept going on her house three weeks after she gave birth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Carrie Hilsen's take on that was that she gave 150 percent.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She recorded Radar on November 8, 2006, the day after she filed for divorce.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The producers have said they had no idea what to expect and she walked in and was efficient and professional.

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[SPEAKER_00]: T-Pain, who worked with her in early 2007, said that when she met him, she just shook his hand, went straight to the booth, and one song was done in about an hour.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The tone dangerous as Brittany wanted, fun and danceable, and not necessarily too personal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to stay away from confessional songwriting, which actually makes it very interesting that a few songs like piece of me turned right around and almost feel very, very personal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's very cheeky, but she's very much naming

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[SPEAKER_00]: moments in her life and the media and things that she's struggling with directly in the song.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And you can tell she has this like sassy tone in it like she's angry.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Britney assembled a dream team and let two producers in particular danger and blood shine avant to find the sound.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually what makes the album hold together so well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go track by track because this is my favorite part about this breakdown as I love looking into each track on its own because everything was so intentional with blackout.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Fans all around say there are no filler songs here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Truly this is an album that has no skips and I might even have to do a whole other episode on potential unreleased tracks from blackout which didn't make the cut.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I know a lot of people are really hoping that when the 20th anniversary happens for this album, maybe we'll be blessed to actually get some of these unreleased tracks on a vinyl.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So track one opens up with Gimi Moore produced by Danger.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The lead single released August 31st, 2007 is the perfect opener.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You get the spoken line and then the slinky minimalist breathy beat.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Kerry Helson wrote that give me more hook after hearing dangers instrumental.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And here's a great backstory.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The iconic line, its Brittany Bich, intro, was reportedly a studio suggestion from Jim Beans.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't sure if she would be down to say it, but when he asked her, she did it and then dangerous that she instantly loved it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Lyrically, it sounds like a club song, but it is really about, you know, being watched when you think about the lyrics, cameras flashing, people staring at you while you're dancing, and they don't almost look at you as a human, they just want more and more from you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It went to number three on Billboard's Hot 100, her highest-peeking single there since her debut.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's the number I want you to remember because it happened with the VMA's performance hanging over it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned earlier in this episode, people viewed that VMA's performance is honestly just like this mess, but the song itself really, really outlived it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's still a staple of her live shows.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I miss his legs that will hurt you I miss his legs that will hurt you I miss his legs that will hurt you I miss his legs that will hurt you I miss his legs that will hurt you I miss his legs that will hurt you

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[SPEAKER_00]: So apparently, Britney Spears actually recorded peace of me in just half an hour.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The production is icy and glitchy with vocals that are so processed that sometimes you can't even tell which voice is hers, but it works because the glitch is the point.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is a woman just being chopped up and reassembled by the media and she's making it into a pop song.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The award's hall for peace of me is incredible.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The video won 3 MTV VMAs in 2008.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Video of the year best female video and best pop video.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her first VMA wins ever.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It hit number one in Ireland and the top 10 in a bunch of countries.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And Rolling Stone put it in their top 15 songs of 2007.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The independent later credited this song's glitchy sense with inspiring a generation of future leaning pop stars, and honestly you can definitely hear it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Track 3 is radar.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Produced by Bloodshine Abon with The Clutch.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the one she recorded the day after filing for divorce.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a playful, flurry, and them very, very pop-forward.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Pulsing, sonar pinks since that critics compared to Tainted Love.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her producers, I've said they weren't trying to make a song about her situation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted a record for the Brittany we know in love.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The story of the song is its journey.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was originally planned as a single from Blackout, got bumped for Break the Ice, then reappeared on her next album Circus, and finally came out as a single in June 2009.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and actually only peaked at 88 on the Hot 100, which is far too low for what the song deserves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now the next song is an absolute fan favorite.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think this comes up a lot when people are asked what is the most iconic song on Blackout and a lot of people think it's Break the Ice produced by Danger.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The third and final single, March 2008, opens with Brittany essentially reintroducing herself, saying it's been a while, she knows she kept you waiting.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's about as direct as the album goes about maybe her absence from the music industry since releasing in the zone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Carrie Hilson's backing vocals are also so prominent.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It could sound like a duet.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a choir in the mix, and Mitsong Britney says, I like this part.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A wink at Janna Jackson's nasty.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The video is anime style, bringing back the superhero in from the toxic video.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It peaked out 43 on the hot 100, but hit number one on the dance club chart.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her third in a row from this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Truck 5 is heaven on earth, with Frisha and Carol Dio

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[SPEAKER_00]: I have an honor, I think, might actually be my favorite on the album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I would say it's the emotional center, and it sounds very, very, very dreamy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Almost very, very European.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It has these like new wave edges inspired by Donna Summers, I feel the love, and there are several vocal lines layered over the beat.

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[SPEAKER_00]: songwriter Nicole Morier has said it came from a very vulnerable place.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone who feels flawed and needs a person to feel safe and bringing names at her favorite song on the album at the time it came out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that really tells you something because on a record that she

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[SPEAKER_00]: designed to be about fun and, you know, danceable and like these, almost not two personal moments.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her favorite song from Blackout at the time was the one that's the most honest.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Traxxx is GetNaked.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got a plan produced by, of course, Danger.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is definitely the sexiest, most hypnotic track and pitchforks, Tom Ewing called it the centerpiece of the album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Danger sings the chorus himself in a distorted, almost decaying voice.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Brittany offers like these sides and these chants and her voice is also very, very strong in it and does suit this entire record 100% of course, it's like a classic Brittany album, but I feel like it really, really shines and get naked, I got a plan.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And also, I have to mention that it's just proof that how timeless this album is.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Victoria Secret Fashion Show of this year opened up with a remix of this song.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And get naked who was never a single, and that's what makes it even cooler that it was picked to be featured in a very recent fashion show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, now we're going to get into freak show, produced by Bloodshy and Avon's and the clutch.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is like the dubstep moment I want to talk about.

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[SPEAKER_01]: At two minutes, 55 seconds, it's the shortest song on the standard album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Blachine, Abon, and the clutch built it, Brittany has writing credit, and it's reportedly a song that came together quite fast.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The whole track is built around a wobble base.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That warbling, rubbery, low-end sound, that's the signature of dubstep.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her vocals drop away down in the bridge, so she sounds almost like.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's like her soul tree like deeper tone that we all know and love and we've seen that, especially from more tracks like in the zone, I would even say like early morning, that kind of reminds me of that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of attitude in the song.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And here's why the song is so important for this album.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Dupstep in 2007 was London Underground Music.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It came out of

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[SPEAKER_00]: and lived in warehouse parties, pirate radio, and niche forums.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was definitely not on American pop radio.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Producers hadn't really smuggled it into a mainstream pop album before.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then, blackout leaks and pitchfork reported that a dubstep forum thread about freak show ran to seven pages and 24 hours.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The scene was shook.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There were some mixed reactions, some excited,

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, is it fair to say that freak show was the introduction of dubstep to pop?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, with an honest, asterisk.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Multiple writers have called it the first merging of dubstep and mainstream pop, and the album as a whole is widely credited with bringing electro pop EDM and dubstep towards the mainstream.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But where I can get a little tricky is that of course, dubstep had already existed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and Frickshaw was an album track never a single.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Most of America really heard dubstep for real with Rianna's G4L in 2009, Scrillicks around 2011, and then Brittany single hold it against me in 2011, which put a dubstep break down into a number one hit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So definitely the cleanest way to put this is that Frickshaw is the earliest

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[SPEAKER_00]: and Brittany herself named it one of her favorite non-single tracks calling it very sassy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Track number eight, I think is an underrated song, toy soldier produced by Bloodshine Avant with Sean Garrett.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This one is very, very, I would even say sassy, toy soldier.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The lyrics are very like you almost can't understand them, but she's saying them like so, so quickly, and it just matches together so well, and her voice sounds amazing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a marching band meets club track with a military snare roll, and some sound reviewers actually compare this.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Destiny's Childs lose my breath.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's co-produced by Sean Garrett, the songwriter behind a pile of 2,000's R&B hits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the song, she's basically looking for a new lover, and the vibe is very playful and bossy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Next, we have Hot as Ice with Danger.

20:49.094 --> 20:51.076
[SPEAKER_00]: This one has a T-Pane connection.

20:51.496 --> 20:54.620
[SPEAKER_00]: He co-wrote it and did the arrangement and some backing vocals.

20:55.180 --> 20:59.725
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the album's most playful track with Brittany moving into a higher register.

21:00.265 --> 21:05.210
[SPEAKER_00]: T-Pane recorded three songs with her in like about an hour-ish stretch.

21:05.591 --> 21:08.534
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was around the time, like I said, people in the magazines.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Media, they were so brutal, just claiming like she's not working.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She was always working, Brittany was in the studio.

21:16.079 --> 21:21.961
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have Trakten, U-U-Baby, which is with Fred, Rek, and Cara, Dio Gardi.

21:40.980 --> 21:47.524
[SPEAKER_00]: This one's a very, very interesting track, and I feel like it's the one song that opens up when you first start hearing the instrumental.

21:48.045 --> 21:55.670
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the most different because it has like the flamenco gatorre in a very, very bouncy beat.

21:55.690 --> 21:59.012
[SPEAKER_00]: And Brittany also has a song writing credit on oobaby.

21:59.212 --> 22:05.316
[SPEAKER_00]: It borrows the melody of the turtles happy together, and Cara Diogardi said she wrote it with

22:10.579 --> 22:13.340
[SPEAKER_00]: Track 11, Perfect Lover with Danger.

22:29.586 --> 22:30.407
[SPEAKER_00]: So Danger again.

22:30.587 --> 22:33.988
[SPEAKER_00]: As you can see, he's a very, very prominent producer on this album.

22:34.348 --> 22:35.949
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like that's what I love.

22:36.049 --> 22:38.970
[SPEAKER_00]: I really, really hope if Brittany is to come out with new music.

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[SPEAKER_00]: post-glory.

22:40.530 --> 22:42.991
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's been 10 years since she's released an album.

22:43.431 --> 22:49.013
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be amazing to see her in danger, collaborate again, because I feel like they work so well together.

22:49.033 --> 22:52.334
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a producer, he really understands her voice.

22:52.794 --> 22:56.895
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll select that dark electoral pop that just suits Brittany so well.

22:57.895 --> 23:07.623
[SPEAKER_00]: So, perfect lover has this clattery belly dance rhythm and, you know, this like ticking clock hook.

23:08.083 --> 23:14.048
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the last of the dangerous songs on the standard addition of the album and it keeps the energy up before the finale.

23:14.568 --> 23:17.771
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think perfect lover is a deep cut that fans love.

23:18.111 --> 23:19.192
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very, very unique.

23:19.552 --> 23:20.332
[SPEAKER_00]: Track 12.

23:20.953 --> 23:22.074
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should I be sad?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Produce by the Neptunes.

23:25.588 --> 23:27.760
[SPEAKER_01]: My love's been pretty close to you

23:43.095 --> 23:46.737
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a widely understood to be directed at Kevin Fetterline.

23:47.337 --> 23:55.581
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a midtempo cooler down track and it's the one place on the album where the mood shifts from like partying to, you know, something to like close the album with.

23:56.061 --> 24:00.223
[SPEAKER_00]: Ferrell has said that given everything going on in her life.

24:00.723 --> 24:05.185
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact she kept the music first was a huge accomplishment.

24:05.545 --> 24:11.133
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, we have some bonus tracks, and these songs kind of only appear on special editions.

24:11.634 --> 24:12.816
[SPEAKER_00]: There's out of this world.

24:13.296 --> 24:18.744
[SPEAKER_00]: We have everybody, which is a track that samples the arithmetic sweet dreams and get back.

24:20.085 --> 24:23.508
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's something that blows my mind when it comes to blackout.

24:24.428 --> 24:26.810
[SPEAKER_00]: There was like no promotion at all.

24:27.651 --> 24:30.973
[SPEAKER_00]: The album leaked, so Jive moved the release up.

24:31.574 --> 24:37.238
[SPEAKER_00]: It came out on October 25th, 2007 internationally, and October 30th in the US.

24:37.659 --> 24:45.084
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to verify if this is 100% true, but I believe the label even sued Perez Hilton over the leaked tracks.

24:46.005 --> 24:48.467
[SPEAKER_00]: Promotion was almost non-existent.

24:49.067 --> 24:52.208
[SPEAKER_00]: Her one televised performance for the album was the VMAs.

24:52.908 --> 24:54.689
[SPEAKER_00]: She basically gave one interview for it.

24:54.749 --> 25:05.131
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a short radio chat with Ryan C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C.C

25:11.973 --> 25:27.616
[SPEAKER_00]: The first time one of her studio albums didn't really open at number one, it topped the charts in Canada and Ireland and sold about 3.1 million copies worldwide by the end of 2008, and then it also won best album at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards.

25:28.877 --> 25:32.739
[SPEAKER_00]: But then there was this like reception and the re-evaluation.

25:33.239 --> 25:35.040
[SPEAKER_00]: So critics at the time were split.

25:35.960 --> 25:39.321
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people call it her most progressive and consistent album yet.

25:40.162 --> 25:42.863
[SPEAKER_00]: Others really dismissed it because of her public image.

25:42.983 --> 25:50.646
[SPEAKER_00]: Hitch 4 gave it an 8.1 and described it as a superb modern pop that could only have come from this star at this moment.

25:51.746 --> 25:55.188
[SPEAKER_00]: The Guardian's Alexis Petretis called it bold and exciting.

25:56.188 --> 25:59.251
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the re-evaluation happened over the next decade.

25:59.851 --> 26:05.075
[SPEAKER_00]: Rob Sheffields at the Rolling Stone wrote that for years after it came out.

26:05.676 --> 26:08.138
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything on pop radio sounded like blackout.

26:08.638 --> 26:12.661
[SPEAKER_00]: The album was added to the rock and roll Hall of Fame's library in 2012.

26:13.862 --> 26:19.804
[SPEAKER_00]: In Rolling Stone's 2025 list of greatest albums of the 21st century so far, they landed at number 80.

26:20.285 --> 26:23.786
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could definitely hear Black Oads DNA in the pop that followed.

26:24.326 --> 26:27.867
[SPEAKER_00]: The glitchy vocal process, club ready, electro pop of Lady Gaga.

26:28.288 --> 26:36.631
[SPEAKER_00]: You could hear it in Kesha's albums and I actually see a lot of similarities between Brat and Black Oad and I believe Brat came out in 2024.

26:37.171 --> 26:41.953
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is time for my own take and why I think Black Oad has aged so well.

26:42.933 --> 26:45.795
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single track is a potential single.

26:46.496 --> 26:56.803
[SPEAKER_00]: Pitch forks uing even pointed out in the era of digital downloads, a pop album where every track is good, makes more sense than ever, and that's exactly what this is.

26:57.284 --> 27:01.707
[SPEAKER_00]: I truly mean it when I say there are no filler songs on blackout.

27:02.468 --> 27:07.872
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single song is a banger in any single one of those tracks could have been a single.

27:08.792 --> 27:12.014
[SPEAKER_00]: It's timeless because it was never trying to be topical.

27:12.555 --> 27:16.517
[SPEAKER_00]: Brittany wanted fun and danceable, so it sounds like a record from any year.

27:16.537 --> 27:29.786
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I mentioned, like Chanel played Gimmie Moore at their fashion show, SS27, and then Victoria Secret opened up with GetNaked, I got a plan on the runway, which is a deep cut.

27:30.207 --> 27:33.369
[SPEAKER_00]: I think in my opinion, it Gimmie Moore is very well known.

27:34.010 --> 27:36.033
[SPEAKER_00]: by many, many people all over the world.

27:36.113 --> 27:38.677
[SPEAKER_00]: But, Gennie, could I go to plan as a bit of a deep cut?

27:39.358 --> 27:48.191
[SPEAKER_00]: And the context around this album and how she came out with it during the most awful, like, gut-wrenching year of her life.

27:49.152 --> 27:51.494
[SPEAKER_00]: is what makes it really really powerful.

27:52.154 --> 27:57.158
[SPEAKER_00]: Brittany was being mocked and written off like made out to be this joke, which is so, so sad.

27:57.538 --> 28:05.303
[SPEAKER_00]: But then she comes out with this album, which is full of like the shameless glittery, defiant pop that the industry spent years imitating.

28:06.064 --> 28:11.227
[SPEAKER_00]: If you only know the tabloid version of 2007, blackout is the correction.

28:12.825 --> 28:13.846
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's blackout.

28:14.306 --> 28:26.152
[SPEAKER_00]: On the standard album, there's 12 tracks, two producers who worked so, so well with Brittany and really, really understood her vocals, her sound, her vision.

28:27.192 --> 28:30.574
[SPEAKER_00]: And she was working under the biggest spotlight.

28:31.474 --> 28:31.734
[SPEAKER_00]: ever.

28:32.395 --> 28:40.903
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love how this album has become the pop blueprint of so many other albums to follow.

28:40.923 --> 28:45.046
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even want to just limit it to pop because there has so many other sounds.

28:45.087 --> 28:49.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I think just in general as an album, it's probably one of the best albums.

28:49.771 --> 28:51.933
[SPEAKER_00]: I've ever heard of all time and I still listen to it.

28:52.553 --> 29:18.625
[SPEAKER_00]: Like now and come back to it with a different mindset as I'm like hearing a little bit more of the production and everything It took to make it sound so fresh and so so timeless So next October as this album turns 20 if you haven't listened to it front-to-back and a while Definitely try it out and then let me know what you think Thank you so much for listening and I will see you all next week