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Elton John & Britney Spears - "Hold Me Closer"


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Posted

Is this the music she was forbidden from doing for decades? Yet another Britney stans lie debunked :sistrens: jokes aside, this can be a dud (and I betcha, with Elton's croaking vocals) as long as her own material will slap :cm:

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Posted

Great song! Could be a hit with some promo, 

Posted

Tik tok will eat this up i fear

Posted

so boring and disjointed. sounds like it was created years ago :deadbanana2:

Posted

I refrained from listening the leaked version, and I have finally heard it now.

I truly love it. The breezy production and retouched vocals give the song the fresh feeling and the perfect end-of-summer energy.

Also, the piano closure. :jonny5:

And the boy, have I missed Britney's voice in songs. :alexz3:

 

Posted

Yeah this has to smash, what a bop :jonny5:

Posted

Indeed a little disappointed since Britney really shined on the demo. Like many have previously spoken about the demo, it was like Britney‘s song. But she really like a background singer now as Britney herself said. I’m starting to believe that it was shade and there’s something brewing in the background and a reason why she deleted Instagram. 
 

Still a great song, just left a bad taste!

Posted
5 minutes ago, pimmelfratze said:

Indeed a little disappointed since Britney really shined on the demo. Like many have previously spoken about the demo, it was like Britney‘s song. But she really like a background singer now as Britney herself said. I’m starting to believe that it was shade and there’s something brewing in the background and a reason why she deleted Instagram. 
 

Still a great song, just left a bad taste!

this is literally Elton's song and they *duet* on the entire track. no one is a background singer for anyone else. my god this needs to stop. 

 

if anything, she's the more prominent voice on almost all the parts they're both on. 

Posted

Guardian review - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/26/britney-spears-and-elton-john-hold-me-closer-review

 

Quote

Britney Spears and Elton John: Hold Me Closer review – a star is reborn
4 out 5 stars


Spears’ first recording since 2016 is a reworking of two pop classics but filled with a power and poignancy of its own.

On paper, yet another svelte, disco-tinged reworking of an Elton John classic is nothing to get too excited about. Last year the Dua Lipa-assisted Cold Heart fused Rocket Man, Sacrifice, Kiss the Bride and Where’s the Shoorah? Here, it’s Tiny Dancer mixed with The One and a dash of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. Still, Hold Me Closer skips along nicely, a chunky bassline gliding through the song like a train of sequin-clad revellers at a 70s roller-disco. There are even some jazzy piano flourishes at the end for the Bösendorfer fetishists.

But this is no ordinary streaming-friendly curio from a legend looking to fluff their back catalogue. Marking the return of Britney Spears on her first recording since the termination of her almost 14-year conservatorship last year, it comes tinged with something close to bittersweet; an example of what could have been if Spears’ megawatt pop-superstar shine hadn’t been dimmed all those years ago.

For diehard Spears fans, or indeed anyone with a passing knowledge of one of the most distinctive pop vocalists of all time, hearing her sing again feels like a real moment (her last album was 2016’s Glory). As John’s heavily filtered vocals emerge from the fog, Spears unfurls a classic “ooh baby”, each crystal-clear syllable given the full quivering treatment. Throughout the song, her lively vocal trills and ad libs recall her full-bodied musical performances on Instagram, a place of refuge where she has been attempting to reclaim her public image and undo learned behaviours from years of control. On Hold Me Closer she seems keen to remind people she was a singer first: before pop fame, before controversy, before near-annihilation.

Sensibly, she’s pushed to the fore in the mix, her engaged delivery coating the ghostly shimmers of John’s original vocals. It doesn’t seem accidental that she sings the line “drunken nights in dark hotels” solo in the second verse, the sadness in her voice quickly shaken off by another “baby”, the two lines’ close proximity nodding to both shiny past glories and their blackout consequences. She even throws in a few playful “yeahs”, ad libs that feel like actual yelps of joy rather than the robotic manoeuvres of someone being shuttled from studio to waiting car.

Both The One, which makes up the verses, and Tiny Dancer evoke a sense of having found someone, or something, with the power to transform a life. A totem to hold on to and believe in. On Hold Me Closer, Spears seems to hint at finding that for herself again in music. Even if this is a one-off – and who can blame her if she doesn’t want to return to pop full-time – that feels like enough.

 

Posted
6 minutes ago, pimmelfratze said:

Indeed a little disappointed since Britney really shined on the demo. Like many have previously spoken about the demo, it was like Britney‘s song. But she really like a background singer now as Britney herself said. I’m starting to believe that it was shade and there’s something brewing in the background and a reason why she deleted Instagram. 
 

Still a great song, just left a bad taste!

Oh god, ya'll starting to sound like BANON...

 

if anything, Britney is the one who wanted to dial it back... the song is essentially the same. Stop trying to speak for Britney... 

 

Enjoy the song and stop trying to stir up random conspiracies

Posted

#8 on UK iTunes

Posted

Elton ruins it :pig: Britney sounds great though!

Posted
8 minutes ago, BreakinTheIce said:

this is literally Elton's song and they *duet* on the entire track. no one is a background singer for anyone else. my god this needs to stop. 

 

if anything, she's the more prominent voice on almost all the parts they're both on. 

This is a duet. Even on Cold Heart Dua had her own verse. Britney‘s voice is mixed into the background. 
 

5 minutes ago, CarCAL22 said:

Oh god, ya'll starting to sound like BANON...

 

if anything, Britney is the one who wanted to dial it back... the song is essentially the same. Stop trying to speak for Britney... 

 

Enjoy the song and stop trying to stir up random conspiracies

How do you know it was her who wants to dial it back?

Posted

iTunes UK

#2 Hold Me Closer

 

iTunes France

#3 Hold Me Closer

 

:gaycatney2:

Posted

UK #2 :WAP:

 

 

 

Time goes by sooo sloowly I need it now in my country

 

Posted

I wanna listen to it so bad

Posted

3 hours and 23 minutes Easter time for us American sistrens!

 

:falcon:
 

 

Posted

I know some of us aren’t pleased that Britney’s major comeback ended up being… a mashup of old Elton John songs and a feature at that… but however this songs does, or however much you like it, one thing is for sure: this is an incredibly important part of Britney’s history. Her first release as a free woman since Blackout. We are experiencing history tonight ladies. I can’t wait to listen for the first time (I avoided the leaks) and I definitely will cry :chick3: I’ve been stanning this woman since 2008 

Posted

That’s such a nice, happy song. 
I love the fact that her comeback is a duet with Elton and at this type of song. Great vibes! 
I love that Britney sings most parts with her lower pitch voice and not the regular high pitch girly like that it’s rumored the label forced her to use so many years now. Also that’s called a duet as both are singing together all along the entire song. It’s not a feature after all and that somehow is great for her comeback. Hope she comes back soon with an album she will enjoy a lot. 

Posted

Perhaps they’ll surprise us with a remix featuring Britney’s lead vocals.

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