The word "club" is never sung (or sing-sung) in Britney Spears' new single "Hold It Against Me." That would be redundant. By now it is a given that if you are pushing a pulsating pop-house track to a contemporary audience, you (and your narrator) are doing it from the club. Britney watches her object of lust from across the room, her favorite song is on, but she's looking to escape the crowd (unlike her contemporaries, she's not about to stick around, toss off unspecific observations about it and call it a day). Brit's lyrics are not special from any poetic standpoint, but they are remarkable within the context of pop. I predict that "Against" is as close to cutting the crap as popular dance music will get all year.
Britney's no vocal interpreter (the most character we hear from her here comes when she intones "hayzayyyy!"), but there is something wonderfully synergistic about the way she's performing on this track. Her social aggression ("Hey! Over there! Please forgive me! If I'm coming on too strong!") is met by a backing track of appropriately aggressive mechanical pounding and grinding, and further confirmed by Brit's bellowing (or at least whatever she can muster that approximates bellowing). Bravado trumps melody until the chorus, where the beat falls out, Brit's doe eyes grow three sizes and the desperation at the heart of her boldness is revealed: "If I said my heart was beating loud / If we could escape the crowd somehow / If I said I want your body now / Would you hold it against me?" (She's a woman, but not yet not a girl, too.) The lines that follow are hilarious in that they make me wonder if Calgon would serve as a backup plan should this dude reject her ("‘Cause you feel like paradise / And I need a vacation tonight!”), but what fun would listening to Britney Spears be if it didn't involve laughing at her at some point?
Her purring and cooing during the mind-wobbling dubstep breakdown is no joke, though -- she injects this dabbling in that genre with a sexiness that is so foreign, it makes sense that it's coming from an American. The breakdown itself is a gutsy move, as it introduces an unfamiliar, lopsided rhythm to both the track itself and much of Britney's listening audience outside of the UK. It's just one of several thrilling dynamic shifts in this instant classic. I love the half-time beats that come after the dubstep. The chorus breakdowns, build-ups and Matrix-like segues of hang time are tried-and-true methods of manipulation, but that makes them no less thrilling, just as a roller coaster taking its time to climb to a peak makes the subsequent drop no less thrilling. When the song leaves the aforementioned half-time breakdown to come crashing back in for one last chorus, paradise is found.
Britney's songs usually take some listens to get used to -- they tend to be weirdly specific and thus anti-anthemic ("Womanizer" may be an exception, but it'd be more universal, for example, were it about womanizers). "Hold It Against Me" upholds this lyrical tendency (it's seriously about a dude she sees that she likes, the end) but everything besides the lyrics makes "Against" an epic anthem despite itself. There hasn't been a time since the disco era that dance songs have been as commercially viable (and thus abundant) as they are now, and yet there's come to be so much uniformity in lyrics and sound that the form has become about as boring as being in an actual club (I'm sorry, it's true!). "Hold It Against Me" is exciting within itself (I'd love to hear what twists and turns this endlessly changing thing would take were it extended by a few minutes) and within pop music, period. As long as we get a track like this here and there to break up the tedium, the Great Dance Music Renaissance lives. All hail the queen?
I made a passing comment to my co-worker once about how sick I was of music lately being about "in da club" when an eavesdropping customer chimed in with "Oh but isn't it great? It's like I'm in the club all the time!" without a trace of irony.
Really.
That being said I was just as surprised with the dubsetp coming into a Britney song. But I looooove it.
Posted by: Dru | January 12, 2011 at 01:50 PM
STANDING OVATION! I'm so glad you love this track. Another blogger described it as having an "ass-raping beat" - you were far more eloquent. :)
Posted by: Mikey | January 12, 2011 at 02:00 PM
Britney first used dubstep on Freakshow from Blackout. Oops, she did it again!
Posted by: RuBhatt | January 12, 2011 at 02:04 PM
very good review.. in my opinion a very risky dark different and perfect pop track that contains so many good elements!!
Posted by: david | January 12, 2011 at 02:22 PM
Britney can still entertain us when she wants to, and this is clearly her best lead-off single of an album since "Gimme More." (would "3" count since it was off of a compilation album?) In any event, this song is pure magic and I have to admit that I thought Britney's crew would be unable to make a lasting pop masterpiece, especially on the eve of Gaga's upcoming release, but they proved me wrong! Pure greatness and I'm ecstatic that you love it, Rich!
Posted by: Draylen R. | January 12, 2011 at 02:35 PM
Link?
Posted by: M | January 12, 2011 at 04:44 PM
What is wrong with pop music today? This song is TERRIBLE. I guess Britney could fart throughout the whole song and people would pay to dance to it.
Posted by: Jaime | January 12, 2011 at 05:55 PM
I LOVE this song — more than anything on Circus (excepting Womanizer, perhaps).
My favorite line is the one you laugh at: "Cause you feel like paradise / And I need a vacation tonight!” I love the double enjambment here: it could end after the simple simile ("You feel like paradise" — fair enough), but then we get the expansion of "his" paradise into a location to which she wants to travel ("And I need a vacation"), then —through a very subtle syncopation — we get the sharp "tonight" that re-grounds the expanded simile. Gives me chills!
Then again, it's just a joy to hear her voice — to hear her singing confidently / sounding not-crazy. She's like an old friend to all of us who were 13 when "Baby One More Time" came out.
Posted by: tuppy | January 12, 2011 at 06:39 PM
LOVE it! Waiting anxiously for my radio station to begin overplaying it ASAP.
Posted by: CP | January 12, 2011 at 07:35 PM
Great review Rich!
Posted by: LP | January 12, 2011 at 08:49 PM
Fabulous review. When you think about how great her great singles truly are--"Baby One More Time," "Toxic," "Gimme More," "Womanizer," and now this--she's a more respectable pop star than you might think. It's a bit weird that her recent work is even better than her earlier stuff, considering how checked out she has clearly been for as many years now.
Posted by: Brit-Brit | January 12, 2011 at 11:34 PM
I've seriously been playing this on repeat nonstop since Monday. It's incredible. And I think the parts of the chorus where the beat drops out entirely are the secret weapon, because it gives you a break from what could be monotony while simultaneously making you crave the beat that much more. And there's a real sense of drama when it goes from that into the dubstep breakdown into the half-time buildup into the final chorus stomp.
Glad you love it too!
Posted by: Golden J | January 13, 2011 at 12:52 AM
Rich, ever heard of Girls Aloud? They're from the UK, definitely manufactured in that they were put together on TV in in Idol-like way (Popstars: The Rivals). They've far outlasted any usual time constraints on this type of group (2002-2009, they're on a much-deserved hiatus, since they released singles, albums and toured non-stop). Anyway, point is, and you touched on this, they've been making the music that Circus and this new album will likely sound like. Perhaps, they're more "Electro-Pop" and less dub-step, but they've put out some tracks that sound like the ancestor's of "Womanizer" and "Against". I'd suggest listening to "Something Kinda Ooooh" and "Sexy? No no no..." - they work, I believe, exclusively with Xenomania as their producers and writers. They're lyrics are almost always cheeky and nonsensical fun, but I look for that in pop music, I know not everyone does. Anyway - just wanted to drop a suggestion if you were looking for one, and I think Girls Aloud are pretty deserving of the title of hardest working girl group of the last decade.
Posted by: Michael | January 13, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Forgot to add that what I like about GA is most of their work forgoes that usual Verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus setup, and they're producers really mix it up, and also that I think "Pop" music has been shit in the US for a long time now, and that the UK has done it better since the late 90's. Only perhaps Britney & Gaga have put out decent pop.
Oh, and embarrassingly enough, I still think Hilary Duff's "Dignity" album is all sorts of perfection. (but feels far more British than American.
Posted by: Michael | January 13, 2011 at 11:55 AM
Personally, I think this song sounds like a club version of one of her earlier songs, "Born to Make You Happy", especially with the rhythm of the chorus. Not my favorite, but eh, it's ok.
Posted by: Tati | January 13, 2011 at 03:35 PM
ALL HAIL GODNEY! SHAKING, CRYING, SPINNING SLOWLY IN A CIRCLE DYING AS MY WET PANTIES FALL TO THE GROUND.
Posted by: goney | January 14, 2011 at 07:00 AM
I find the intro/post chorus verses intriguing, the chorus is ok, and the bridge is a real buzzkill. There are multiple versions of this track, I like her on this best though, her voice is cute. I find the song disposable.
Posted by: John | January 14, 2011 at 11:40 AM
@Michael...You have perfectly described the brilliance of Girls Aloud. I think that they are pure POP perfection in every sense of the word. Any Pop fan should expose themselves to Girls Aloud. I LOVE them!!!Britney is the American equivelent of Pop Perfection. It's nice to see her trying new things. This review of her song, definetly made made me appreciate "Hold it Against Me" a lot more.
Posted by: Danny | January 14, 2011 at 12:43 PM
I hadn't heard this until reading the review - I love it!! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Posted by: M | January 15, 2011 at 07:54 AM
I think you are right when you say this. Hats off man, what a superlative knowledge you have on this subject…hope to see more work of yours.
Posted by: Health Blog | January 26, 2011 at 05:55 AM
This may seem like a "stupid" question but, Does the human body have any kind of self defense of an oncoming strike or hit to the head?
HCG Activator
Posted by: elvaldoerr | January 28, 2011 at 11:03 PM
I don't mind this song and find it quite listenable, but the praise is a bit heavy here, sorry.
It's got a good beat and throws a few unexpected twists and turns in for us. That's it. We can all agree the lyrics are ridiculous (although after a month I still get a good chuckle out of the vacation/paradise lines, not that it would have been intended that way), and her not mentioning the word "club" does not in fact earn her extra points.
Certainly doesn't compare to "Baby One More Time" or "Toxic" in terms of attaining 'classic' status. I'd even take "Gimme More" over this.
Posted by: Zander | February 24, 2011 at 07:08 PM
Great, great, great! What more can I say?
Posted by: kate welsh | April 06, 2011 at 11:03 PM