Madaboutmusic

A beautiful album.

Reading the love for I Run Away on here warms my heart and convinces me even further that Jive really messed up by not putting it (and Before The Goodbye) on the main album. Maybe they were too US-focused in their thinking and didn't see the broader and more long lasting impact the BT tracks could have had beyond what was hot at the time. But they are absolutely immaculate and two of her best ever songs. People would have been even more shook by the level-up in Britney's music after Oops; not only was she mastering the trendy 'urban' sound with Slave, Boys etc, she was also showcasing her ability to deliver fresh, edgy dance music with a more Euro-friendly sound.

Two gorgeous, pensive and introspective gems which didn't make the main album but were (and remain) highlights of their respective eras, and showcase the range in Britney's artistry. Which do you prefer and why?

The fact that she has like five #2 albums in the UK and is being painted as some sort of flop because they didn't chart one digit higher.

Gimme More, Get Naked and Get Back - the holy trinity of Blackout tracks (and all starting with "G").

I know she didn't write it, but it was ironic seeing her champion the message in Beautiful about not letting people's words get you down and trying to spread positivity, and also having 'women's empowerment' as her central message for that era, only for her to publicly badmouth her female peers at the same time. The attitude was so at odds from the purported message.

The Velvet Rope is so good that it's up there with Ray Of Light, which in itself is better than Erotica, so on that basis, Janet takes it.

I love How Did It End fromTortured Poets, but the line where she sings "..then feverishly calling their cousins" sounds so clunky to me, and almost ruins the smooth and relatable vibe of the song.

You said "Stripped had 5 singles in UK just like BOMT era had". I was correcting that false statement.

...Baby One More Time had four singles in the UK.

There's no need to touch a song as special and indispensable as Touch Of My Hand. But And Then We Kiss should have been added to the album for sure - but as that (an addition) rather than as a replacement for something, seeing as the entire album is flawless.

It would be such a privilege to be able to listen to all of this again for the very first time, and be completely blown away like I was in 1998.

It's literally incredible.

Literally how are we on the third page of this thread without this masterpiece having been posted. An absolute highlight from the debut and one of her best ever songs.

Love both, but Britney's catalogue showcased a clear artistic evolution over her first five albums (i.e. the period in which she had creative input into her career and before the conservatorship), starting with teenpop and then slowly but steadily bridging over into harder beats, urban and dance-influenced pop music. So I think her catalogue now stands as a more artistic body of work.

Madonna's Bedtime Stories. I feel like Sanctuary segueing into Bedtime Story is the perfect closer to the album, but then Take A Bow is actually the final track. I think it should have been moved up the tracklisting, allowing Bedtime Story to finish the album - particularly as her next release (Ray Of Light) would pick up on that triphop/electronica vibe and really go to town with it.

As people have said, she has spoken openly about how difficult the Erotica/Sex backlash was on her personally - see her Billboard speech: She talks about how she coped during that time and eventually pulled herself together, which thankfully allowed her to come back from it all.

Heartbeat is so melodically gorgeous.

Deserved! A beautiful song and a total highlight on the album. I've lost count of the number of times I've played it. And I sound like an infant Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen A greater woman stays cool But I howl like a wolf at the moon

The biggest mystery is why she had a song as amazing as this on her debut album, but never made it a single.