Oops!...She Did it Again

Reviewer: CHESTER CHIN

Femme Fatale - Britney Spears

There is something deliciously decadent about Britney Spears' seventh studio album. From the shameless Euro pop beats of the opening track to playing Fergie on the will.i.am produced Big Fat Bass, Femme Fatale plays out like the aftermath of a self-pleasuring session. The high is ecstatic, but you're left despising yourself after the whole ordeal.

But just like how any teenagers with raging hormones who went through that self-exploratory period will tell you, Spears' Femme Fatale is so worth the high. Surrender yourself to the sinful bliss of auto-tune and dance away. A little pleasure now and then wouldn't hurt nobody. In fact, you might just discover something good that no other individual can provide. Only in Britney's music people, only in her music can you talk of sexual innuendos without being judged too harshly.

Goobye Lullaby  - Avril Lavigne

It's laughable the way celebrities "integrate" music with business. The most apparent would probably be Hilary Duff's 3 minutes track With Love back in 2007. The song was used in an elaborate marketing for her fragrance called (wait for it) "With Love...Hilary Duff". Fast forward four years later, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne is doing the same thing. Lavigne launched a perfume called "Black Star", and incidentally the opening track of her fourth studio album is also called Black Star. Pfft.

My contempt for the "business" of music aside, Goodbye Lullaby is a mediocre offering by the punk princess who brought us Complicated, the teenage anthem of 2002. With the exception of a couple of tracks, most of the album's 52 minutes sound so alike that you're left wondering if Lavigne is making any effort at improving her song craft. There is a glimmer of that angsty singer we love in her rendition of Joan Jett's classic Bad Reputation but that only came about towards the end of the album. By then, it was just too little, too late.

As If! - Sky Ferreira

"Why do some need to be masters? Why do some want to be slaves?" 18-year old singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira asked in the song Sex Rules. Oh boy, here we go again...another photocopy version of Britney Spears, you'd say. But hold it, there is just something refreshing about Ferreira's song on the need for the physical touch. Instead of beating around the bushes and singing things like "I want to take a ride on your disco stick", Ferreira ought to be commended for her bold statement. 

My only qualm here is that it is hard to pigeonhole her into a specific genre. While it seemed that the songs are tailor made for the masses, there is some serious lyrical intensity going on here. She is not mainstream enough but neither is she indie enough. Now there are only five tracks on this EP, with Ferreira singing about an ancient lover in the last track. A case of Twilight frenzy or an emulation of Lolita, I've yet to discern. But here is to hoping that this brilliant singer don't fall into a state of oblivion.