Single Review: Britney Spears, “Work Bitch”

Britney Spears has dropped her new single, “Work Bitch,” a day early after the track leaked online over the weekend.

Single Review: Britney Spears, Work Bitch

Britney Spears has dropped her new single, “Work Bitch,” a day early after the track leaked online over the weekend. Co-written and produced by will.i.am, the song finds the singer vamping in the same faux-continental accent she dubiously employed on the pair’s recent Top 5 hit “Scream & Shout”—or is it just a ghastly attempt at British? “Work Bitch” follows the current EDM model of painfully aggressive, treble-heavy beats, harsh synths, and tuneless hooks, but makes even “Scream & Shout” sound like a melodic feast. At its best, that song plays like an homage to dance music’s recent past, with nods to Underworld’s “Born Slippy” and even Spears’s own “Gimme More”; “Work Bitch,” on the other hand, seems to aspire to classic bitch-queen anthems, but Spears’s repeated instructions to “work, work, work” (to reach, if the cover art is any indication, the desired Nomi Malone levels of success) feel mechanical and forced. But that’s no surprise coming from a pop icon whose longevity is largely due to her unwavering dedication to churning out maddeningly mindless and infectious tripe like “Work Bitch.”

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“Work Bitch,” the first single from Spears’s forthcoming eighth album, follows June’s “Ooh La La,” from the blockbuster drama Smurfs 2.

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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