RCA
Pop, 2016

For better or worse, Glory follows Britney Jean in terms of presenting a more mellow Britney Spears. There are still some high-energy pop tunes (If I’m Dancing) but the songs are for the most part ballads to mid-tempo tunes. The lead single is Make Me…, which is all about her asking her beau to make her “ooh” like “you got a job to do”. Private Show sees her trying to sound like an Aretha Franklin-like diva belting out instructions for her lover in their, er, private show. Man on the Moon is a bit more downcast, as it’s about her wondering rather pathetically whether there is any way she can get back the guy who walked out on her.

The thing is, there is no Perfume here – there are a varied range of musical styles in the songs here, but too many of them expose Ms Spears’s vocal inadequacies. Even when they increase the volume of the background vocalists, there is no masking the fact that the star of the show is barely hanging on in there with them. It is only on the more generic tunes like Just Luv Me, the too-catchy Do You Wanna Come Over?, and Coupure Électrique tracks on which she can get away with her whispery-coo and speak-sing acts – that she doesn’t sound half bad.

Just like the story with Britney Spears’s last few albums, the songs here have good production values, but the vocals rarely do these songs justice. Either they are skimping on studio magic to polish up the vocals, or things have gone so far that there is nothing much that can be done to hide the vocal woes anymore. At any rate, this one is hardly any crowning Glory for anyone.