Britney Spears, 'Hold It Against Me': Review

She's tried her hardest to save it under wraps, but Britney Spears' comeback single has emerged online ahead of its official debut at midnight (EST) on January 11. Yep, Britney's back. Again. 'Hold It Against Me' is interpreted from Spears' as-yet-untitled seventh studio album, and sees her team up once again with long-time producers Max Martin and Dr. Luke.

(The other has been responsible for some of Spears' biggest hits. As a result, it's good to presume that 'Make It Against Me' is a piece of pop genius; a strain that reaffirms Spears as a genuine pop star, and one of the artists who set the foundations for the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. Or at least you would mean so. In reality, 'Hold It Against Me' is anything but, and instead it again finds Spears trending that now familiar path where she sounds like someone desperately trying to catch-up - and more alarmingly, simply remain relevant in an era where a horde of artists simply do it better than her. Sonically, over the form of about four minutes, we seem to be open to a little musical history of the final ten of dance music - from the sticky dancefloors of a euro trance club where the most imaginative thing on offer are the dodgy narcotics to a bastardised slice of dubstep. It's sounds like the event of mashing up Tiesto with Skream, and arguably the by-product isenough to promote the latter reaction. Britney Spears - 'Hold It Against Me':

Lyrically, Spears isn't exactly pushing the boundaries either. "If I said my eye was beating loud, if we could run the crowd somehow. If I said I wish your body now, would you hold it against me?" she asks amid a choir of auto-tune that shreds the singer's voice of any of her former distinguishable characteristics. Indeed, in point it's almost unrecognisable. From an artist who provided a true wake-up call in 1998 with '.Baby One More Time', and so went on to both alarm ('I'm A Slave 4 U', in 2001) and thrill ('Toxic', in 2004), 'Hold It Against Me' is a disappointing return, and a call that stirs little emotion or expectation for the balance of her new album. "You look like heaven and I want a vacation tonight," Spears sings at one spot on the song. On the force of this, you could indicate the singer has returned from her most recent musical holiday too early. Or at the very least, she's forgotten to unpack her creativity.