WEBVTT 00:00.411 --> 00:04.393 [SPEAKER_00]: November 2001, Britney Spears is 19 years old. 00:05.093 --> 00:14.018 [SPEAKER_00]: She has two albums behind her that sold in the tens of millions, a Pepsi deal, a movie on the way, and a world tour about to start. 00:14.918 --> 00:18.140 [SPEAKER_00]: She could have made another record that sounded exactly like the last two. 00:18.900 --> 00:19.860 [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody would have blamed her. 00:20.040 --> 00:21.721 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it would have worked. 00:21.861 --> 00:22.522 [SPEAKER_00]: It would have sold. 00:22.862 --> 00:29.245 [SPEAKER_00]: But instead, she walks into the studio with the Neptune's, with Rodney Jerkins, and she gets to work. 00:30.503 --> 00:37.867 [SPEAKER_00]: The result is a record that for a lot of fans is the moment that Britney Spears really grew into her own as an artist. 00:38.227 --> 00:41.669 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's 25 years old today, so we are going to talk all about it. 00:42.049 --> 00:45.851 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey everyone, welcome back to room for us, a space where queer voices thrive. 00:46.351 --> 00:52.034 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, P, and every single week I like to sit down, get vulnerable, and talk about all things queer with all of you. 00:52.614 --> 00:58.759 [SPEAKER_00]: But I also love to talk about my deep loves, and one of those is Britney Jean Spears. 00:59.019 --> 01:03.203 [SPEAKER_00]: We're celebrating the 25th anniversary of Britney Spears' self-titled album. 01:03.663 --> 01:13.811 [SPEAKER_00]: So I hope you have a little bevy with you to celebrate, or maybe you're listening to this in the car, and after I highly, highly recommend you stream this album. 01:14.192 --> 01:16.714 [SPEAKER_00]: The album came out in the US on November 6th, 2001. 01:18.435 --> 01:24.459 [SPEAKER_00]: It had come out a few days earlier in Japan in the UK, but November 6th is the date that most of us celebrate. 01:24.659 --> 01:29.942 [SPEAKER_00]: So for this episode, we are going to go track by track, all 12 songs on the standard edition. 01:30.362 --> 01:40.428 [SPEAKER_00]: For each one, I want to talk about what it is who made it, what it meant for where Brittany was in her career, and what it tells us about how much she was growing as an artist. 01:40.948 --> 01:41.909 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk sound. 01:42.449 --> 01:51.772 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk songwriting, we'll talk production, and we're going to talk about why, when you ask Britney fans to name their favorite era, this one comes up again and again. 01:52.292 --> 01:56.293 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you've been a long time fan of Britney, I want you to listen for your favorite deep cut. 01:56.834 --> 01:58.074 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to drop mine right here. 02:10.366 --> 02:15.873 [SPEAKER_00]: to understand why this album matters, we have to remember what Brittany had been up to at this point. 02:16.093 --> 02:20.158 [SPEAKER_00]: Baby, one more time arrived in 1999 and made her a global star at 17. 02:20.218 --> 02:25.565 [SPEAKER_00]: Oops, I did it again, followed in 2000 and was an even bigger statement of dominance. 02:26.086 --> 02:29.330 [SPEAKER_00]: And looking back, the album title was actually very fitting. 02:29.590 --> 02:34.716 [SPEAKER_00]: Both albums were built largely around the Swedish pop machine of Max Martin and Rami Yakub. 02:35.057 --> 02:38.381 [SPEAKER_00]: Huge hooks, big courses, teen pop at the top of its powers. 02:38.841 --> 02:40.143 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a sound and it worked. 02:40.944 --> 02:44.228 [SPEAKER_00]: But by 2001, two things were happening at the same time. 02:44.969 --> 02:47.232 [SPEAKER_00]: First, pop itself was changing. 02:47.912 --> 02:52.136 [SPEAKER_00]: R&B and hip-hop production was creeping into the center of the mainstream. 02:52.796 --> 02:57.780 [SPEAKER_00]: The Neptune's for all Williams and Chad Hugo, they'd go on to shape Justin Timberlake's solo debut. 02:58.100 --> 03:02.163 [SPEAKER_00]: Rodney Darktrial Jerkins was one of the first defining producers of that moment, too. 03:02.503 --> 03:05.706 [SPEAKER_00]: The sound of the radio was getting funcier, sparse, or more physical. 03:06.146 --> 03:10.727 [SPEAKER_00]: Second, Brittany herself was growing up and she was ready to be seen that way. 03:11.048 --> 03:18.030 [SPEAKER_00]: She was 19, she'd been in the spotlight for two years, and the school girl image that launched her with something she had outgrown. 03:18.730 --> 03:23.111 [SPEAKER_00]: She was also dating Justin Timberlake, who was stepping out of his group shadow and sink. 03:23.351 --> 03:29.273 [SPEAKER_00]: They were both hungry to prove they were more than the packaging that people kind of placed them to be. 03:29.533 --> 03:35.156 [SPEAKER_00]: So the sessions for this record, running roughly, February, through July of 2001, are different. 03:35.236 --> 03:36.937 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany takes a much more active role. 03:37.317 --> 03:40.359 [SPEAKER_00]: She co-writes 6 of the 12 tracks on the standard edition. 03:40.619 --> 03:46.122 [SPEAKER_00]: She works with the producers who define the old sound and she brings in new ones who could push her somewhere edgier. 03:46.462 --> 03:48.684 [SPEAKER_00]: And here's a detail I absolutely love. 03:48.804 --> 03:54.508 [SPEAKER_00]: She also did sessions with the electronic producer BT, whose tracks didn't make the standard edition at all. 03:54.768 --> 03:57.670 [SPEAKER_00]: That tells you how many directions she was willing to explore. 03:58.010 --> 04:01.693 [SPEAKER_00]: So, as we go through the songs, keep an eye out for three threads. 04:02.333 --> 04:08.217 [SPEAKER_00]: How far she moves from the bubblegum of the first two albums and how much of the old fun she keeps. 04:08.257 --> 04:08.497 [SPEAKER_00]: 2. 04:08.837 --> 04:09.298 [SPEAKER_00]: The Writing 04:09.898 --> 04:12.741 [SPEAKER_00]: Where her name shows up in the credits and what she's writing about. 04:13.501 --> 04:17.505 [SPEAKER_00]: Number 3, the persona, who she's presenting herself as an each track? 04:17.765 --> 04:20.547 [SPEAKER_00]: Because for me, that's the whole story of this album. 04:20.867 --> 04:25.451 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a young woman working out in public in real time, who she wants to be. 04:26.252 --> 04:27.553 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, track one. 04:44.245 --> 04:47.908 [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to understand this album's mission statement, it's right here. 04:48.548 --> 04:49.829 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the lead single. 04:50.229 --> 04:55.013 [SPEAKER_00]: The song was produced by the Neptune's, and it sounds nothing like she'd released before. 04:55.813 --> 05:03.258 [SPEAKER_00]: Strip it down, it's skeletal, clicks and claps, a baseline that wobbles instead of pounds, a lot of empty space. 05:03.939 --> 05:08.642 [SPEAKER_00]: And Brittany's vocal is breathy, close, almost whispered, sometimes panted. 05:09.222 --> 05:17.966 [SPEAKER_00]: She's not belting a chorus into the rafters, the voice is being used as texture, a rhythm instrument, something sensual and a little unnerving. 05:18.266 --> 05:19.527 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about how bold that is. 05:20.047 --> 05:27.170 [SPEAKER_00]: She's at the top of the pop world, and her first single of a new era is less obviously catchy than anything she's done. 05:27.670 --> 05:29.391 [SPEAKER_00]: It's slinky and weird and funky. 05:29.931 --> 05:32.912 [SPEAKER_00]: The hook is a feeling, not necessarily a melody. 05:33.333 --> 05:36.014 [SPEAKER_00]: A small piece of trivia worth mentioning with a caveat. 05:36.694 --> 05:41.158 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been widely reported that the song was originally imagined for Janet Jackson. 05:41.858 --> 05:44.741 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether or not that's the full story, you can hear the lineage. 05:45.561 --> 05:52.026 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the same sleek rhythmic, adult pop language Janet helped invent, and Brittany is claiming a place in it. 05:52.727 --> 05:57.090 [SPEAKER_00]: And Janet Jackson is also one of Brittany's biggest influences of all time. 05:57.711 --> 06:01.354 [SPEAKER_00]: And then there is the performance that still gets talked about today. 06:01.674 --> 06:05.337 [SPEAKER_00]: September 2001, the MTV Video Music Awards. 06:05.997 --> 06:11.505 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany opens the show with the song and she performs it with a live python draped around her shoulders. 06:12.346 --> 06:15.231 [SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the most talked about performances of her career. 06:15.771 --> 06:17.634 [SPEAKER_00]: It became shorthand for the whole era. 06:18.115 --> 06:21.420 [SPEAKER_00]: Bold, a little shocking, completely in command of the spectacle. 06:22.080 --> 06:26.682 [SPEAKER_00]: But I want to pull focus from the snake whose name has actually been Anna, which I find really sweet. 06:27.302 --> 06:29.343 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the song deserves it. 06:29.864 --> 06:32.985 [SPEAKER_00]: What this single does is establish the album's thesis. 06:33.565 --> 06:37.827 [SPEAKER_00]: It was also notably her first lead single that didn't come from the Max Martin camp. 06:38.467 --> 06:41.589 [SPEAKER_00]: Her first two lead singles were written and produced in that world. 06:42.109 --> 06:43.089 [SPEAKER_00]: This one wasn't. 06:43.649 --> 06:46.591 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a deliberate break, and she and her team knew it. 06:47.451 --> 06:52.355 [SPEAKER_00]: And, literally, it's a common, a song about desire and wanting to lose yourself on the dance floor. 06:52.995 --> 07:00.340 [SPEAKER_00]: For a 19-year-old who'd spent years being marketed as the girl next door, singing about wanting to be taken over the rhythm was the point. 07:00.820 --> 07:03.242 [SPEAKER_00]: She wasn't asking permission to be an adult. 07:03.442 --> 07:04.423 [SPEAKER_00]: She was just doing it. 07:04.603 --> 07:09.886 [SPEAKER_00]: The single came out in late September 2001, and the album opened at number one on the Billboard 200. 07:10.927 --> 07:14.433 [SPEAKER_00]: The record also earned a Grammy nomination, so the bet paid off. 07:14.794 --> 07:18.280 [SPEAKER_00]: That's track one, a sparse, funky, risk-taking opener. 07:18.800 --> 07:23.148 [SPEAKER_00]: If you only know Brittany for the big pop courses, this is where the story gets interesting. 07:37.063 --> 07:38.884 [SPEAKER_00]: Trapped to brings back the old guard. 07:39.285 --> 07:45.109 [SPEAKER_00]: Overprotected was written and produced by Max Martin and Ronnie Yakub, the same team behind her biggest early hits. 07:45.529 --> 07:48.931 [SPEAKER_00]: But listen closely because this is not necessarily just repurposed. 07:49.271 --> 07:58.158 [SPEAKER_00]: Compared to the earlier Martin and Rami material, the production is slicker and more electronic with a sharper rhythmic bite and some guitar edge woven through it. 07:58.278 --> 08:04.262 [SPEAKER_00]: It still has a big chorus because it's Max Martin, but the chorus is a declaration rather than a daydream. 08:04.462 --> 08:05.603 [SPEAKER_00]: And the lyric is the point. 08:06.103 --> 08:10.166 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a song about a young woman tired of being sheltered, managed, and handled. 08:10.647 --> 08:13.869 [SPEAKER_00]: She's saying that she wants to make her own decisions in her own mistakes. 08:14.149 --> 08:17.652 [SPEAKER_00]: Taken as a mission statement for the album, it's a perfect soundtrack. 08:18.172 --> 08:21.495 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 1 says, I'm in control of my body and my sound. 08:21.995 --> 08:24.117 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 2 says, I'm in control of my life. 08:24.417 --> 08:26.038 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a nice bit of history here too. 08:26.259 --> 08:33.504 [SPEAKER_00]: Overprotected was the second single released, internationally in December, 2001, and came out later in the US as a single in April, 2002. 08:34.905 --> 08:40.267 [SPEAKER_00]: The dark child remix of it became a fan favorite, and it's worth seeking out if you've never heard it. 08:40.847 --> 08:45.009 [SPEAKER_00]: It titles the song toward R&B and shows just how flexible the track is. 08:45.709 --> 08:48.890 [SPEAKER_00]: For me, this is what makes the album feel so smart. 08:49.331 --> 08:51.792 [SPEAKER_00]: She didn't abandon the people who built her sound. 08:52.232 --> 08:54.853 [SPEAKER_00]: She brought them along, but she let them evolve with her. 08:55.773 --> 08:59.859 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, here's one of my favorite sequencing choices on the record. 09:00.280 --> 09:06.469 [SPEAKER_00]: We go from the huge anthem that is overprotected into lonely, which is quieter, moodier, and more R&B. 09:26.692 --> 09:28.153 [SPEAKER_00]: Lonely is a Brittany co-write. 09:28.613 --> 09:36.515 [SPEAKER_00]: The credits list Rodney Jerkins, Bryan Curl, Josh Schwartz and Brittany Spears, and that's an important name to see on a song like this. 09:37.136 --> 09:44.198 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a mid-tempo track about moving on from a troubled relationship and the tone is cool and a little wounded, rather than dramatic. 09:44.558 --> 09:47.360 [SPEAKER_00]: Sonically, this is where you hear dark child's influence. 09:47.820 --> 09:52.642 [SPEAKER_00]: The groove is smooth, the vocal is restrained, and there's a gentle ache running under the whole thing. 09:53.183 --> 10:00.607 [SPEAKER_00]: For an artist who'd made her name on hype energy pop, this is a sign she could sit in the pocket of an R&B groove and be convincing. 10:01.267 --> 10:04.350 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also a deep cut that a lot of fans single out. 10:04.930 --> 10:11.816 [SPEAKER_00]: It never got the single treatment, but if you ask people to name their underrated favorites from this album, lonely comes up often. 10:12.257 --> 10:17.762 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's because it feels the most personal, a song that's less about image and more about your feeling. 10:18.362 --> 10:22.624 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the first of several moments where you can see what co-writing meant for Brittany. 10:23.045 --> 10:31.009 [SPEAKER_00]: The song she had a hand in ten to be the ones with a more specific and emotional point of view of course because she is bringing herself into it. 10:31.629 --> 10:36.052 [SPEAKER_00]: Track four is the ballad and it's the one that gets the whole world to sing along. 10:59.750 --> 11:07.253 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a girl and I get a woman, was written by Dido Max Martin and Rami Yakub and it was the album's third single arriving in January 2002. 11:07.973 --> 11:13.396 [SPEAKER_00]: If you remember what Dido was doing in 2001, her voice and writing were everywhere. 11:13.556 --> 11:14.936 [SPEAKER_00]: So it was a very great match. 11:15.497 --> 11:20.639 [SPEAKER_00]: A soft, introspective, slightly bokey sensibility delivered by the biggest pop star in the world. 11:20.999 --> 11:27.501 [SPEAKER_00]: This title might actually be the most important one on the album because it says out loud with the whole record is about. 11:28.021 --> 11:36.083 [SPEAKER_00]: She's copped between two identities and instead of pretending otherwise, she sits in that in-between space and sings about it with a lot of tenderness. 11:36.703 --> 11:38.504 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's the vocal that sells it. 11:38.744 --> 11:41.264 [SPEAKER_00]: She sings its straight and sincere with no tricks. 11:41.565 --> 11:49.967 [SPEAKER_00]: After the breathy rhythmic delivery of track 1, hearing her go to this open plain spoken ballad, shows the range she was working on with this record. 11:50.727 --> 12:07.975 [SPEAKER_00]: The song also tied directly into her film debut, tracks from the album appeared in Crossroads, which came out in early 2002, and this ballad became closely associated with that moment in her career, Brittany as a pop star stepping into movies and into a more grown-up phase of her public life. 12:08.335 --> 12:16.218 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever else you say about the album's edge, this track reminds you that the emotional core is still a very young woman figuring out who she is. 12:16.838 --> 12:18.059 [SPEAKER_00]: And just like that, we're back 12:20.661 --> 12:23.396 [SPEAKER_00]: You're sexy girl I'm a nice boy 12:35.493 --> 12:39.175 [SPEAKER_00]: The second Neptune's production on the record and its pure struts. 12:39.695 --> 12:41.856 [SPEAKER_00]: Where I'm a slave for you is Slinky and Sparse. 12:42.296 --> 12:45.417 [SPEAKER_00]: Boys is playful and swaggering with a bright funky bounce. 12:45.898 --> 12:49.979 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a track about attraction and flirtation and the attitude is competent and teasing. 12:50.460 --> 12:53.341 [SPEAKER_00]: She isn't the one being chased in the song, she's calling the shots. 12:53.921 --> 12:58.083 [SPEAKER_00]: The Neptune's were having a huge moment at this time and having two of their tracks on a 13:02.945 --> 13:06.486 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also one of the clearest examples of how much her sound had grown. 13:07.026 --> 13:12.147 [SPEAKER_00]: If you play boys right after something like Upsided it again, you can hear how different the DNA is. 13:12.587 --> 13:14.088 [SPEAKER_00]: The rhythm is the star here. 13:14.828 --> 13:24.990 [SPEAKER_00]: Boys came out as a single in mid-2002 and had a second life when a remix, the co-ed remix featuring Farrell, landed on the soundtrack to Austin Powers in Gold member. 13:25.530 --> 13:29.771 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany also made a cameo in that film, which is a fun reminder of how she was blending 13:33.092 --> 13:37.635 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think the reason boys holds up is that it doesn't feel desperate to be a hit. 13:38.156 --> 13:39.296 [SPEAKER_00]: It feels relaxed. 13:39.476 --> 13:42.318 [SPEAKER_00]: She's in her element and the production has room to breathe. 13:43.819 --> 13:52.705 [SPEAKER_00]: Five tracks in and we've already had a daring lead single, a defiant anthem, an R&B slow burn, a classic ballad and a funky strut. 13:53.465 --> 13:56.887 [SPEAKER_00]: That is the range of this record and we're not even halfway through. 13:57.067 --> 13:59.709 [SPEAKER_00]: There's the joy of this album and might be this one. 14:11.370 --> 14:17.798 [SPEAKER_00]: Anticipating is a Brittany Co. Wright credited to her alongside the producer's Brian Curilth and Josh Schwartz. 14:18.279 --> 14:23.845 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a bright bouncy disco-inflected pop song with a distinctly 70s feel. 14:24.486 --> 14:27.490 [SPEAKER_00]: And Brittany herself described it as a fun song she wrote. 14:27.830 --> 14:28.271 [SPEAKER_00]: That's it. 14:28.791 --> 14:29.452 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the pitch. 14:29.512 --> 14:31.294 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just fun and it's wonderful. 14:32.015 --> 14:39.345 [SPEAKER_00]: Critics at the time compared it to the kind of glittery disco pop you associate with Madonna's holiday or Kylie in her dance floor mode. 14:39.405 --> 14:41.347 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's exactly what it is. 14:41.427 --> 14:44.391 [SPEAKER_00]: It's sparkly and light and it doesn't take itself too seriously. 14:44.671 --> 14:46.111 [SPEAKER_00]: But here's why I think it matters though. 14:46.732 --> 14:53.854 [SPEAKER_00]: After tracks like I'm a slave for you and lonely, it would have been easy for the album to tilt into a serious artistic statement. 14:54.474 --> 14:56.155 [SPEAKER_00]: Anticipating makes sure it doesn't. 14:56.535 --> 14:57.915 [SPEAKER_00]: It keeps the fun on the record. 14:58.395 --> 15:01.136 [SPEAKER_00]: It's proof that growing up it didn't mean losing joy. 15:01.516 --> 15:04.417 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's one of the big reasons this era is beloved. 15:04.957 --> 15:07.018 [SPEAKER_00]: The album has edge and sparkle. 15:07.558 --> 15:16.543 [SPEAKER_00]: A fun piece of trivia, this one was released as a single only in France, rather than Isle of Rock and Roll, which was chosen as the single elsewhere. 15:16.883 --> 15:22.486 [SPEAKER_00]: There was an Allen Brax remix, that's worth tracking down if you love a French house take on pop. 15:22.806 --> 15:27.148 [SPEAKER_00]: One review at the time called at the strongest track on the album and plenty of fans would back that up. 15:27.608 --> 15:30.370 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a joyful deep cut that deserves to be on more playlists. 15:45.623 --> 15:47.103 [SPEAKER_00]: Next track is Track 7. 15:47.423 --> 15:50.664 [SPEAKER_00]: It's Isle of Rock and Roll, and I'm sure all of you know that this is a cover. 15:51.184 --> 15:55.485 [SPEAKER_00]: And Joan Jett and the black hearts turned it into a monster rocket in the early 80s. 15:56.185 --> 16:03.167 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany's version was produced by Rodney Jerkins, and it reimagines the classic with the sleek dance pop R&B tingeed sheen. 16:03.767 --> 16:07.908 [SPEAKER_00]: It was released as a single in May 2002, and it appears in Crossroads. 16:08.208 --> 16:09.369 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's divisive. 16:09.589 --> 16:12.672 [SPEAKER_00]: Some people hear a pop star flattening or raw classic. 16:13.192 --> 16:20.358 [SPEAKER_00]: Others hear a bold can be extremely 2001 reinvention that is aged into a total guilty pleasure. 16:20.378 --> 16:24.301 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, listen, I love it and I love how Brittany makes it her own. 16:24.521 --> 16:29.085 [SPEAKER_00]: Covering a song, this iconic is a choice only an artist with real confidence makes. 16:29.625 --> 16:32.227 [SPEAKER_00]: She is definitely not trying to replicate Joan Jett. 16:32.688 --> 16:37.894 [SPEAKER_00]: She turned it into a Britney song with her attitude and her swagger on top of Dark Child's production. 16:38.495 --> 16:42.419 [SPEAKER_00]: And as a piece of the album story, it adds another flavor to the mix. 16:42.900 --> 16:48.667 [SPEAKER_00]: We've had Neptune's funk, Max Martin pop, R&B, Ballads disco, and now a rock and roll cover. 16:49.168 --> 16:51.711 [SPEAKER_00]: This record was not afraid to be eclectic. 17:08.423 --> 17:11.726 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 8 is Cinderella, another one of the songs that Brittany co-wrote. 17:11.886 --> 17:14.728 [SPEAKER_00]: This is where we start to move into the album's back half. 17:15.088 --> 17:20.112 [SPEAKER_00]: On a lot of pop albums from this era, the second half is where the filler hides. 17:20.732 --> 17:24.756 [SPEAKER_00]: On Brittany, the second half is where a lot of the personality lives. 17:25.896 --> 17:36.043 [SPEAKER_00]: One retrospective on the album group Cinderella together with lonely and let me be as signs of a more dynamic, more cohesive aesthetic, taking shape across the record. 17:36.443 --> 17:38.004 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's a good way to hear it. 17:38.604 --> 17:45.649 [SPEAKER_00]: These are songs where Britney's pen is in the credits and the writing leans more personal and more specific than just pure pop hits. 17:46.249 --> 17:48.150 [SPEAKER_00]: The big takeaway for this track is simple. 17:48.590 --> 17:49.410 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a co-write. 17:49.450 --> 18:05.557 [SPEAKER_00]: It comes from the album's more personal side and it shows how many of the strongest songs on Britney are the ones she had a direct hand in and I really really want to give Britney so much credit because honestly she is a really great storyteller and I think she's a musical genius. 18:06.017 --> 18:07.658 [SPEAKER_00]: She knows what works and she's the 18:28.369 --> 18:32.272 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 9 is let me be, and the title alone tells you where Britney's head is. 18:32.812 --> 18:37.136 [SPEAKER_00]: This is another coat right, and it's another one that lines up with the album's central theme. 18:37.736 --> 18:39.237 [SPEAKER_00]: Wanting room to be herself. 18:39.617 --> 18:47.243 [SPEAKER_00]: The production here of reunites are with the Max Martin and Rami Sound, but the shape is looser and more album oriented than the singles that made their name. 18:47.443 --> 18:51.226 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a mid-tempo groove driven track that lets her sit comfortably in the melody. 18:51.686 --> 18:58.948 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the kind of song that doesn't get a music video or radio push yet it becomes the one fans talk about in comment sections years later. 18:59.668 --> 19:04.929 [SPEAKER_00]: If overprotected is the loud version of this idea, let me be as the quieter version. 19:05.429 --> 19:07.750 [SPEAKER_00]: It's less a protest than a plea for space. 19:24.395 --> 19:32.139 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 10 Bombastic Love is another Brittany co-write and it's a nice reminder that the album still has a foot in the playful pop of her earlier records. 19:32.519 --> 19:40.763 [SPEAKER_00]: The same retrospective I mentioned earlier lumps this one in with anticipating and that's where you take me as breezy callbacks to her first two albums. 19:41.363 --> 19:44.505 [SPEAKER_00]: I love that framing because it captures the balance she was striking. 19:45.085 --> 19:46.966 [SPEAKER_00]: The record is in a hard reinvention. 19:47.066 --> 19:48.367 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just an expansion. 19:48.827 --> 19:52.489 [SPEAKER_00]: She's adding new colors without throwing away the ones that made her a star. 19:53.130 --> 19:54.971 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a bright, high-energy track. 19:55.331 --> 19:58.793 [SPEAKER_00]: The kind of song that makes a great mid-record energy lift. 19:59.273 --> 20:03.756 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a deep cut, but it's the kind of deep cut that sounds great in a car with the windows down. 20:04.236 --> 20:10.480 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's another example of how many of the album's most distinctive moments carry her name in the writing credits. 20:11.685 --> 20:30.953 [SPEAKER_01]: Baby, I saw your smile, I stayed with me a while I've been scrolling to place, my heart didn't feel so safe You are my melody, that's what you take me 20:32.860 --> 20:36.345 [SPEAKER_00]: Track 11, that's where you take me and another one that Brittany coat wrote. 20:36.986 --> 20:39.830 [SPEAKER_00]: The song is a love song, a tender one, a happy one. 20:40.251 --> 20:44.938 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany sings about being in a deep connection with a soulmate who feels like a reflection of herself. 20:45.198 --> 20:47.381 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd say it's a very warm and romantic track. 20:47.962 --> 20:54.404 [SPEAKER_00]: It sits in a really smart spot on the album, after all the shredding and swagger and the push and pull of the earlier tracks. 20:54.724 --> 20:56.384 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a moment of common affection. 20:56.825 --> 21:01.866 [SPEAKER_00]: It shows you a softer, more content version of the persona we've been building all episode. 21:02.346 --> 21:05.187 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a good example of why the writing credits matter. 21:05.667 --> 21:13.790 [SPEAKER_00]: When you hear a song like this on a pop album, it's easy to assume it's just like this pleasant filler ballad, but when you remember she helped write it, 21:17.826 --> 21:22.149 [SPEAKER_01]: Baby, back to mom and my shoes Do me right, oh, I'm through Can't you see that? 21:22.369 --> 21:38.078 [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't wanna say you're wrong That's a good thing I'm beyond Boy, take your time for your moves This is my game, my rules But I can't see it I think it's real Baby, you don't know what it's like to be me You know what? 21:42.157 --> 21:46.620 [SPEAKER_00]: The album closes with what it's like to be me, and this one has a story. 21:47.140 --> 21:52.024 [SPEAKER_00]: It was co-written and co-produced by Justin Timberlake, and he also sings backing vocals on it. 21:52.384 --> 21:59.850 [SPEAKER_00]: At the time of the recording, he and Brittany were still together, so you're hearing two young superstars collaborating at a very particular moment. 22:00.510 --> 22:02.632 [SPEAKER_00]: their relationship ended in 2002. 22:03.172 --> 22:07.836 [SPEAKER_00]: But this track is a snapshot of the period where they were still creatively intertwined. 22:08.437 --> 22:16.043 [SPEAKER_00]: Sonically, it's a groove driven closer, more rhythmic than the typical ballad closer and it doesn't wrap the album up with the bow. 22:16.543 --> 22:18.365 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, it leaves you in the middle of the vibe. 22:18.605 --> 22:19.526 [SPEAKER_00]: I love that choice. 22:20.086 --> 22:23.029 [SPEAKER_00]: It feels like an artist who's still moving, still curious, 22:25.931 --> 22:29.034 [SPEAKER_00]: and the title itself is the perfect last line for this record. 22:29.574 --> 22:30.635 [SPEAKER_00]: What it's like to be me. 22:31.416 --> 22:34.719 [SPEAKER_00]: Across 12 tracks, she's been showing us different sides of herself. 22:35.299 --> 22:39.103 [SPEAKER_00]: The sensual one, the rebellious one, the vulnerable one, the playful one. 22:39.423 --> 22:40.684 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the closing question. 22:41.124 --> 22:47.610 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also a nice tie into something we're about to discuss, because Justin Timberlake shows up again in the Anniversary Edition story. 22:47.930 --> 23:01.188 [SPEAKER_00]: The 25th anniversary edition of Brittany arrives today, November 6, 2026, and apparently it expands the album to reported 23 tracks, including five that have never been officially released before. 23:01.789 --> 23:03.691 [SPEAKER_00]: The first of them landed on October 9th. 23:04.112 --> 23:04.833 [SPEAKER_00]: She'll never be me. 23:19.048 --> 23:24.834 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the first new Britney music in three years since her 2023 collaboration with Will I Am, mind your business. 23:25.075 --> 23:35.666 [SPEAKER_00]: The song was recorded for this album back in 2001, and co-written by Brittany, Justin Timberlake, Bradley Damon, and Alex Greggs, with production from Riprock and Alex G. 23:36.487 --> 23:41.589 [SPEAKER_00]: Press coverage describes it as a breakup song about watching an ex move on with someone who resembles you. 23:41.909 --> 23:44.269 [SPEAKER_00]: The other unreleased tracks are Am I a sinner? 23:44.549 --> 23:46.950 [SPEAKER_00]: When I say so, and my big secret. 23:47.410 --> 23:56.433 [SPEAKER_00]: The fifth is the full version of right now, Taste the Victory, the song from her 2000 to Pepsi commercial, which fans have only heard in snippets until now. 23:56.673 --> 23:58.694 [SPEAKER_00]: Here is what I find so fascinating about a 24:00.534 --> 24:05.440 [SPEAKER_00]: Part of what makes the original era feel so rich is how many directions Brittany was exploring. 24:06.040 --> 24:08.723 [SPEAKER_00]: We already know about the BT sessions that never made the cut. 24:08.863 --> 24:12.667 [SPEAKER_00]: Every vault track is another window into what else she was trying out. 24:13.228 --> 24:15.851 [SPEAKER_00]: It makes the era feel bigger than 12 songs. 24:16.151 --> 24:17.493 [SPEAKER_00]: So, let's zoom out. 24:18.033 --> 24:21.177 [SPEAKER_00]: Why do so many fans point to this era as their favorite? 24:22.078 --> 24:22.218 [SPEAKER_00]: 1. 24:22.678 --> 24:25.061 [SPEAKER_00]: The sound grew and it grew with confidence. 24:25.622 --> 24:33.430 [SPEAKER_00]: She moved from the polished pop of the first two albums into funk, R&B, disco and rock, without ever losing the pop instincts. 24:33.971 --> 24:40.318 [SPEAKER_00]: And she did it with the Neptune's Dark Child Max Maran and Rami all in the same room in the same project. 24:40.979 --> 24:49.909 [SPEAKER_00]: Her next album in the Zone, in 2003, would push even further into electronic territory, but Brittany is where the door's swung open. 24:50.569 --> 24:53.332 [SPEAKER_00]: Brittany walked so in the zone could run, too. 24:53.753 --> 24:54.814 [SPEAKER_00]: She had her hands on it. 24:55.555 --> 25:00.621 [SPEAKER_00]: Six co-rites on the standard edition, credits on some of the most beloved deep cuts. 25:01.321 --> 25:10.126 [SPEAKER_00]: For a lot of fans, that matters, and means that when you hear the playfulness of anticipating or the warmth of that's where you take me, you're hearing Britney's point of view. 25:10.627 --> 25:11.247 [SPEAKER_00]: Number 3. 25:11.587 --> 25:13.128 [SPEAKER_00]: The arrow was a spectacle. 25:13.248 --> 25:19.672 [SPEAKER_00]: The VMA's performance, the dream with an adream tour, which ran from late 2001 into the summer of 2002. 25:20.332 --> 25:29.457 [SPEAKER_00]: The film Crossroads, the commercials, the fashion, it's the whole visual world, and fans of the arrow love it as much for the full package as for its songs. 25:30.618 --> 25:32.660 [SPEAKER_00]: For, it balances Edge and Joy. 25:32.960 --> 25:34.942 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not too serious and not too frivolous. 25:35.382 --> 25:41.667 [SPEAKER_00]: It has the nasty funky swagger of I'm Asleep for you, and it also has that pure disco sparkle of anticipating. 25:42.108 --> 25:47.933 [SPEAKER_00]: That balance honestly is really really hard to pull off, and I think Brittany is one of the only stars that can really do that. 25:48.293 --> 25:50.615 [SPEAKER_00]: She really really did pull it off, and five. 25:51.055 --> 25:51.696 [SPEAKER_00]: Perspective. 25:52.216 --> 25:52.997 [SPEAKER_00]: Looking back from 2026. 25:54.378 --> 26:05.369 [SPEAKER_00]: Knowing everything that came after, including the years when she was under a conservatorship, that began in 2008 and ended in 2021, there's something poignant about this period. 26:05.629 --> 26:10.053 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a time when a young woman was stepping into her own voice and being heard as an artist. 26:10.574 --> 26:13.977 [SPEAKER_00]: Many fans listened to this album now and feel that tenderness. 26:14.958 --> 26:16.159 [SPEAKER_00]: The album was a hit too. 26:16.179 --> 26:18.221 [SPEAKER_00]: It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, 26:19.142 --> 26:26.030 [SPEAKER_00]: It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and it's gone on to some more than 10 million copies worldwide. 26:27.031 --> 26:29.053 [SPEAKER_00]: But the numbers only tell part of the story. 26:29.514 --> 26:31.876 [SPEAKER_00]: What actually leaves a mark is how it feels. 26:32.317 --> 26:36.341 [SPEAKER_00]: So, that's Brittany, track by track, now at 25 years old. 26:37.622 --> 26:41.603 [SPEAKER_00]: And album that took the biggest teen pop star in the world and let her stretch. 26:42.144 --> 26:52.867 [SPEAKER_00]: That brought in sounds without abandoning the old ones that gave us a daring lead single, a defiant anthem, a handful of beloved deep cuts, and a closing question that still lingers. 26:53.407 --> 26:54.428 [SPEAKER_00]: What's it like to be her? 26:55.348 --> 27:01.794 [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to keep the conversation going, I'd love to hear your favorite track from this album and what era you'd like for me to cover next. 27:02.274 --> 27:14.905 [SPEAKER_00]: You can DM me on Instagram and if you did enjoy this episode, please share it with a fellow Britney fan and if you're also a new Britney fan, I hope this is helping you really appreciate her artistry because she is one talented lady. 27:15.186 --> 27:16.967 [SPEAKER_00]: I will never stop talking her up. 27:17.868 --> 27:19.309 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's it for today's episode. 27:19.369 --> 27:21.911 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoyed and I will see you all next week.