Britney rocked us with this album in Januray 1999, and it's far from a disappointment, I'll be taking an in depth look at each track and Britney's overall efforts - "Baby One More Time" includes the massively successful "...One More Time" single, a pop-tastic track sung with Britney's trademark husky vocals, which made 1999 for thousands of fans, this song is an innocent journey of love and loneliness, and highly addictive, this is very typical of Pop in this era, and rather achingly cheesy when you look back.
However, with all that in mind, still one of Britney's best tracks ever, and an amazing breakthrough debut.
Other singles on this album include the equally as catchy, "Crazy", which is another pop classic from Britney, in which she sings about how frustrated and smitten she was with a certain love.
Then we come to the ballads - "Sometimes", "From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart" and "Born To Make You Happy". These singles all follow the pattern set by the previous singles, and focus yet again on unsuccessful love. They are song well with passion by Britney, and all appear rather similar.
"Born To Make You Happy" takes on a slightly poppier feel towards the end, but is still a lovely tune, and perfect for some easy listening.
"Sometimes" is a sweet, angelic ballad from Britney, very easy listening and sugar for the ears. Albeit a little cheesy.
"From The Bottom of my Broken Heart" is another similar ballad, sweet and innocent, although it was only released in the USA.
Moving on from the singles, are the songs "E-mail My Heart" and "I Will Still Love You", which are both unusual in which they seem like a crossbred from a typical Britney ballad, and a typical Britney pop song. I'm personally not that fond of "I Will Still Love You", in which she duets with an unknown male. I feel his voice is carrying her through, and she could of certainly tried alot harder.
However, "E-mail My Heart" is one of my personal favourites, with it's catchy chorus, it comes across as pop music, but the constant piano riff in the background reminds us that this is still a very meaningful song. Britney's voice is in it's usual sweet prime, but she did attempt to bring on a bit more power towards the end, which works out well.
"Thinkin' About You" is another song similar to "E-Mail My Heart", the one crucial difference being quite a bit of vocal range from Britney, who seems to shift a gear every other line, and it turns out to be a pleasant, catchy number, which is very 1990's in style.
"I Will Be There" is a lovely pop track on this album, which seems to have "innocent" printed across it, which is no surprise when you bear in mind that Britney was only 15 or 16 when she recorded this.
"Deep In My Heart" is a gorgeous pop number from Britney, which easily could of made a single, her voice is it's usual husky self, and this is certainly a track for dancing to. The backing track is fast and repeative, and Britney's vocals follow a similar pattern, however, she doesn't seem to push herself to the limits seen on "Born To Make You Happy", perhaps this is best though - people don't want a dance track with overpowering range.
One of the tracks to avoid on this album has to be "Soda Pop", which seems very afro-carribean influenced, with a male singer single handedly taking over the chorus. Britney has little input to this shockingly cheesy effort. This track is definetly all filler, no killer.
To end the album, there is a cover of Cher's classic - "Beat Goes On" - in which Britney does it justice, with her typical cheesy pop inspired style.
Although, one massive let down is at the end of this track, when it fades into Britney thanking her fans and then making the mistake of playing a few tracks from "my friends the Backstreet Boys, I know they're gonna be massive!" - So cringeworthy.
A sad loss from this version of the album is the outstanding "Autumn Goodbye" which appeared on the "...One More Time" single as a B-Side, and it later featured on some versions of the album. If you can get the chance, I'd recommend it, the track is very similar to an "Oops! I Did It Again" era.
Overall, pop and dance mixed together well.
My personal favourite tracks on this album (and one's I insist you listen to) are -
* ...One More Time
* Crazy
* Born To Make You Happy
* Deep In My Heart
* E-Mail My Heart
* Beat Goes On
Overall, a catchy album of middling pop tunes and a few nice ballads. The entire album focuses around unhappy love, but is done in an extremely cheesy way. Cringeworthy indeed.
If you can, check out some of Britney's more recent material, and you'll clearly see the change - from a sugarcoated princess into a international sex icon.
Enjoy the ride on one of histry's great - the super clean debut from Britney Spears, fabulous!
