The sex bomb and the songbird
Britney Spears – Glory (RCA)
Britney’s been marketed as a sex object since her days as a Disney wunderkind because cheap thrills are the lifeblood for a depraved industry desperate for every penny it can muster. No wonder she made it to album number nine. They need her more than she needs them. Each new record is a good excuse to cash in. She’s stupid rich, sober and the primary caretaker of two children. But Britney — like all everlasting icons — knows how to stay on message. Instead of sunny-side-up ballads, an assembly line of songwriters (32!) and producers (17!) help construct her most consistent set of bedroom jams to date. The beats pulse and sweat with a kind of club fatalism that would be pretentious to deny, and a digitized soprano plays up the pleasure aesthetic of her porno-pop fantasies. Her pillow talk ranges from aggressive trysts that put holes in the wall to late-night cuddles that never seem to last long enough. I fancy “Do You Wanna Come Over?” for its jaunty rhythm and admission that sometimes a good tease is better than the dirty deed itself. “Nobody should be alone if they don’t have to be,” she declares. I agree. Don’t be a prude. Indulge yourself. Chances are there’s something here for you, too. GRADE: A-
Key Tracks: “Do You Wanna Come Over?” / “Clumsy” / “Man on the Moon”
Margo Price – Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (Third Man)
On first listen, she comes off as another geetar-pickin’ starlet brushed aside by a corporate country machine that’s hungry for bombast and TNA. Instead Price offers ol’ fashion storytelling told in plain rhyme and delivered in a Midwestern drawl that can take a good melody anywhere — be it the Tennessee woods or the nearest watering hole. With a voice that recalls Tammy and an eager-to-roughhouse disposition that mimics Loretta, she follows the grand tradition of women who yearn to make daddy proud while breaking all the rules he instilled. Her Christian upbringing is drowned in tequila on the second number, and whiskey makes her regret four years wasted with Mr. Unrepentant Two-Timer near the end. But grief hits closer to home on the opening track. After the family farm goes under, the old man works odd jobs and struggles to put food on the table. Parental anguish comes full circle a few verses later when her infant son dies from a genetic disorder. Given such tremendous heartache, the subsequent booze hounding becomes a means of escape more than an excuse for a good time. That such a bummer of an autobiography kicks-off an otherwise upbeat affair is obvious — family comes first. GRADE: A-
Key Tracks: “Hands of Time” / “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)” / “About to Find Out”
Sound 'Round 