After a six-year hiatus, Britney Spears made her musical comeback on Friday with the discharge of “Maintain Me Nearer,” her collaboration with Elton John.
The music, which is an EDM reimagining of John’s 1971 hit “Tiny Dancer,” marks Spears’ first new launch because the authorized victory final November that freed her from the 13-year conservatorship that managed her profession and private life.
Final yr, Spears revealed she stepped away from music and performing after the conservatorship “killed my goals.” Her final album, “Glory,” arrived in 2016.
Earlier than the discharge of “Maintain Me Nearer,”
Spears tweeted that she’s studying “on a regular basis is a clear slate to attempt to be a greater individual and do what makes me glad.”
She added that she needed to be “fearless like after I was youthful.”
John stated he was impressed to hitch forces with Spears by his husband, David Furnish, including that he believes their duet will give her a much-needed confidence enhance after such a “traumatic time.”
“I am so excited to have the ability to do it together with her as a result of if it’s a huge hit, and I believe it could be, it is going to give her a lot extra confidence than she’s obtained already and she is going to understand that folks really love her and look after her and wish her to be glad,” he stated in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.
A fast scan of social media and it appears to be like like followers are delighted by the joint launch.
“Such a cool, stunning music, you guys make an exquisite group! We’ve got missed you a lot Brit, you possibly can’t think about how glad it makes me to listen to you singing once more,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
One other stated: “welcome again!!!! Maintain me nearer is freaking unbelievable! You sound so good!”
Amongst music critics, nonetheless, opinion was extra divided.
Awarding the music a four-star score, the Guardian’s Michael Cragg notes that Spears “throws in a couple of playful ‘yeahs’, advert libs that really feel like precise yelps of pleasure slightly than the robotic manoeuvres of somebody being shuttled from studio to ready automotive.”
He provides that “Spears appears to trace at discovering that for herself once more in music. Even when this can be a one-off — and who can blame her if she does not wish to return to pop full-time — that looks like sufficient.”
In response to Vogue’s Christian Allaire, “There’s one thing about Britney’s voice and a dance monitor that simply go extraordinarily properly collectively — like crimson wine and a basket of bread. She does issues together with her vocal tone that every one the opposite pop girlies merely cannot. That is why she’s the true princess of pop.”
Writing within the UK’s Occasions, nonetheless, reviewer Will Hodgkinson was not as enthusiastic. Whereas saying “the return of Britney Spears must be welcomed with open arms,” he described “Maintain Me Nearer” as a “cold remix” that “offers no area for Spears to shine whereas additionally killing the magic of the unique.”
