Remembering the Golden Era of Britney, Brian and Josh

Amidst all the excitement and controversy over Dr Luke’s work with Britney on “Femme Fatale”, Max Martin’s massive contribution to her career, Bloodshy & Avant’s career-saving success with “Toxic” and their continuing innovation, and the nostalgic appreciation for Danja’s high-quality contributions to “Blackout” and “Circus”, it’s easy to neglect some of her past collaborators.

With the fuzziness of 12 years of hindsight, we may tend to forget that most of Britney’s first album was written and produced by Eric Foster White, not by Max Martin. We have possibly forgotten that famous people rushed to work with her. “When your eyes say it” was written specially for Britney by the doyenne of adult-oriented songwriters, Diane Warren. “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” was penned for her by Dido and reclusive country megastar Shania Twain wrote “Don’t let me be the last to know”.

At the other end of the fame scale, “One Kiss From You” was written and produced by her then A&R manager, Steve Lunt, a much more hands-on studio animal than his successor, Teresa LaBarbera Whites. He was also the producer on “You got it all” and “Heart”, and co-arranged “Me Against The Music”, “Showdown”, “Toxic”, and “The Hook Up”.

It’s interesting, with the benefit of hindsight, to note the huge importance of Steve Lunt’s realisation that he needed to move Britney’s recorded repertoire away from her earlier teenage-angst-laden “MOR” territory to the spacy, saucy electro-pop of “In The Zone”, effectively creating (as Dr Luke recently pointed out) Britney’s own genre.

When the original tapes for “In The Zone” were reworked to create a Super Audio CD, the engineer responsible commented that Steve had an exceptional understanding of Britney’s voice. There was nothing robotic, whiny or nasal about her vocals on HIS watch. In the credits for “In The Zone”, Britney thanks “Steve Lunt - the greatest A&R guy in the world! Thanks for having my back and being on the same page.” Yet to many fans he remains a shadowy, almost unknown and definitely unacknowledged influence on her career.

Also from the obscure end of the spectrum of those who have played a major part in Britney’s career are two remarkable but greatly underestimated writer-producers brought in by Steve Lunt to work with her. Their names are Josh Schwartz and Brian Kierulf, and the tracks they made together represent the high-watermark of Britney’s personal involvement in her own music. She co-wrote songs with them, saying (in the credits on “Britney”) “Thanx for making me feel so comfy writing with you guys” and was deeply involved in bringing each track to completion, always singing her own backing tracks.

And look at the quality of the songs Schwartz and Kierulf brought to the table! Some of these are among the finest and most beloved in her repertoire -

Lonely
Anticipating
Let me be
That’s where you take me
Brave New Girl
Don’t Hang Up
My Only Wish This Year
I Run Away
When I Say So

In contrast to these days of repetitious, two-note tunes, all of those songs are fully-formed and properly constructed, with intriguing verse melodies and memorable choruses. Each seems perfectly adapted to illustrate the many attractive qualities in Britney’s personality, and each draws from her a strong, characteristic vocal treatment.

Brian and Josh also provided vocal production for Britney, and it would be true to say that her vocals have never been better recorded. They didn’t use the current fashion for splitting the lead vocal in a narrow “V” between left and right channels, blurring the boundaries with the backing vocals. And (with the exception of “Brave New Girl”) they didn’t put her voice through a vocoder, or overlay it with the kind of electronic “fuzz” we find on tracks like “Piece of Me”. On Brian and Josh’s tracks, Britney’s lead vocal is crystal clear and placed centrally, and is given its space and separation from her backing vocals which are placed widely in the stereo mix at left and right. Her diction, often criticized, is perfect on every one of their songs.

They didn’t shy away from using real musical instruments either, preferring a proper drum kit and a proper bass melody played on a bass guitar to the ill-defined, ear-numbing, one-note electronic thumping we get these days. On “Anticipating” they add a whole new, unexpected dimension of poignancy by using a real acoustic string section.

They show a mastery of the stereo soundstage too (as perceived by the listener wearing good quality headphones) - and that’s something you won’t find on any of Britney’s albums from “Blackout” onwards. Listen, for example, to how Britney’s little-girlish “la la la la” on “That’s Where You Take Me” appears at about 90 degrees from center on the right-hand channel and is then echoed on the left-hand channel. Or check out the amazing three-dimensional mix on “Don’t Hang Up” where (again on good headphones) Britney’s words “Dont hang up!” seem to come from an actual phone located somewhere behind your left ear.

And consider the range of Brian’s and Josh’s work - from the vigorous, assertive dance beats of “Lonely” and “Let Me Be” through the majestic melodies of “I Run Away” and “Anticipating” to the gentle, wispy, ethereal dreaminess of “That’s Where You Take Me” and “Don’t Hang Up”. And let us not forget that “My Only Wish This Year” is one of the best Christmas pop songs ever made.

I think that with Dr Luke we’re in an age of corporate, rather mechanically created music now. Britney sounds less like a person, less like a featured star with a complex, adorable character, and more like one electronic effect among many. The mix is busy and the elements lack space. Everything is muddled and huddled together and it’s all one big bang-bang wall of sound. Britney doesn’t bother with vocal subtlety any more and her shimmering vibrato only makes an appearance on Rodney Jerkins’ “He About To Lose Me”.

I’d love to see Schwartz and Kierulf make a reappearance on Britney’s next album. I’d love to see her writing with them again. I’d love to hear her rather touching voice properly framed and displayed again. It’s not as if they’re yesterday’s men and no longer relevant - Lady Gaga used them on “The Fame”. I guess they were forgotten in the post-Steve Lunt era but I say “Bring ‘em back!”