...Baby One More Time

Oh, how I loved hearing a song about heartbreak via email. Remember when we used to use email to write each other? Does anyone want to bring that back for a bit out of pure nostalgia alone? Anyway, this was alright. While I think the overall sound is consistent with the time it was produced in, it does kind of feel a bit scattered. Expected, but scattered. Not bad.

Hade nog kunnat bjuda på en tvåa om det inte varit för den där stones-covern som kan varit det sämsta jag hört

Lite patriotism känner man ändå över Max Martin och cheiron! Småstark 2a ska hon ha, brittan, trots de hårresande vidriga texterna och hennes bitvis skitfula röst. Hitsen är fortfarande bangers!

Sjuk lyssning, men jag är typ redo att ge det en tvåa ändå

det var inte så dåligt??

Au bäjbä bäjbä. .. Bättre än förväntat. Trodde Max Martin var mer involverad än bara två låtar.

Lotta Britney haters out there even 30+ years later. She was a cultural force in the 2000s and this is the album that started it all.

Enjoyed, pure pop!

I expected a fun album but it was sad to listen to.

I guess you just had to be there? I do appreciate the last half of the album more than the first though.

Once was probably enough.

Hit me baby!

Wow, a huge nostalgic pop music, on the top of the late 90's-early 2000's pop era. The album is a banger (from that genre and era), and I was amazed to hear some surprises in that album ("Soda Pop" and the cover for "The Beat Goes On"), and I really enjoyed it. It a solid 3.8 record.

I'd largely avoided Britney Spears over the years as this genre is far from my thing. Listening today, and knowing what I know about Spears, I can't help but think of the sheer exploitation she faced throughout the process of recording and promoting this album. She's talented, which I'll give her points for, but it doesn't feel right.

Some good songs. Some meh songs.

It's pop. That's all. Although I am incredibly discomfited by the album cover.

Music albums were always a product of an industry, marketed to groups of people but never has there been a better start to that conversation than this album. The production and songs come from a swedish mercenary writer and it shows. Only one song passes the Bechdel test, most of it is four chords, key changes make it sound like a mid eurovision song contest, entry and somehow it all sounds muted, as if played through cheap speakers. But still it sold better than anything at the time. It's sad though, sad that the face of the product was exploited, like so many before her and still to this day. I guess it was also never quite as blatant that this is show business. +1 for providing a chance to explore that perspective.

Vaca catch up

This album and the Britney Spears saga is a perfect example of why child pop stars is not really a good idea. I'm not going to bash on the lyrics or anything but I wonder if this might have been the start of what we say end up with her later in life.

I do already like a lot of Britney Spears songs (mostly her later stuff, like "Toxic" and many of the songs on her "Blackout" album, but never a full album). This, her debut, is full of ballads, manufactured beats, and bubblegum pop. Lyrically (and I could tell this about the song titles straight off, too), the songs are about wanting to make someone else happy and pining after romantic relationships. I understand this album changed the pop landscape at the time, but I find it juvenile at my current age (32). I was a young child when this came out, like 5, so this wasn't music that defined my childhood, because I was still listening to what my parents were listening to (Nirvana and 80s stuff, for example). I did like "The Beat Goes On".

The album tracks on this didn’t do anything for me but it’s hard to fault the singles if you’re looking for great pop music. I do massively prefer the Travis cover of Baby One More time. Top Track - You Drive Me Crazy

What does this sound like many years after the hype? Turns out it’s mostly… quite unremarkable. Britney Spears is a capable singer with a warm voice, but this mostly industrial scale 90s pop music. That’s all. And then there are the smash hits that lead the album off, which are very representative of the beat-forward sound of the early 00s - in part because the title track was a template for that sound. But it was they hype that carried the music, rather than the music earning the hype.

Until about five minutes ago I would've sworn that the "...Baby One More Time" video came out when I was in high school. I think that speaks to the power of the music video for that lead single. Whether teen-pop was your thing or not, you couldn't escape that video. Not that a teenaged boy would want to.... Anyways! The first three tracks here are quintessential 90s pop, with the title track being one of the best debut singles of all time. Instantly recognizable, dramatic, catchy.... it apes the boy-band production style that was all the rage in the late 90s, and seems to signal something new. The rest of the songs don't quite live up to that promise, instead sounding like warmed-over adult contemporary to my ears now. The singles here are incredible, the rest is pretty meh. A solid THREE STARS

This album makes me sad. It's a product, a very carefully designed package as the ultimate teen pop hit record or the late 90s. Britney Spears was still a kid, and we know how much she was being directed by adults who didn't have her best interests at heart. The vocal fry, the mildly suggestive title and album artwork, the songs themselves were all choices made by other people. I won't say the album ISN'T art, but I'm not sure there were many artists behind it. IT was a product. A heavily marketed product where every beat, every note was specifically placed. And it was effective! But I have trouble ignoring the ways this poor child was exploited for monied interests. There's no denying the cultural impact—it deserves a place on this list. But it's a problematic record, and not a particularly good one at that.

Sophie is such a contrarian on Britney - can't get enough of her - that I really tried here. First track is good. After that it falls off fast. 2.5

There is no substance here. Absolute pop crap. And what is up with that affected weird voice she does...the way she says "baby" infuriates me. What is that pronunciation.

it probably sounded better in the original Swedish. (According to Wikipedia, Britney cites Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Whitney Houston as influences, but to me it sounds more like Paula Abdul and late Michael Jackson.)

2.5

lol. Not being pretentious, this is a fun album of boppy upbeat music. I’d say like 3.5/5 for iconic nostalgia. This was definitely she really found her own style, sometimes barely sounds like her (sounds surprisingly like Mandy Moore from the 90s too)

Is this one of the best albums of all time? Of course not. It is occasionally great pop, which is really well made and enjoyable to listen to, sung by one of the most popular performers who is hugely respected and influential by the current crop of pop women who rule 2020s music. I own her later album "Blackout" on vinyl and would defend it to anyone and listen to it regularly. This one won't go on rotation and I would struggle to defend it to others, apart from a few tracks on the A side. Unfortunately much of the rest (and all the B side) is cloying, irritating and painful teeny bop, for which I am not the audience.

Ugh. I know this is “1001 albums you must hear before you die”, not necessarily the “1001 best albums of all time”. I guess, this album is culturally important because it launched Britney Spears into the world. In fact, it turned her into such a known and talked-about figure that when I type “Britney” into my phone, the next suggested word is “Spears”, even though I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever typed her name out. Which, I suppose, is the logic behind why Robert Dimery thinks we must hear it. But still… ugh. My main gripe is that this isn't music as an art form. This is manufactured nonsense created by executives trying to make themselves even richer. They collect songs written by “smelly cats”, those poor faceless songwriters who give their music up to be paraded around by a young pretty face (in somewhat problematic ways at times). It’s all controlled and orchestrated by A&R folk, not by the artist. Sure, this sort of practice has been going on for years and years in pop, and my beef isn’t with Spears herself. Not my cup of tea, but she’s grand. The songs are catchy pop nonsense, and don’t cause my ears too much distress. Saying that, I found getting through the album an endurance test, and I listened on headphones out of embarrassment. But seeing this album listed here among classics from Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and The Beatles, all I can say is… ugh.

Formulaic, shlocky... I certainly wasn't the target demographic for this music back in 1999. But if it got a generation of young people to love music, I'm all for it. This won't get a one from me -- Rod Stewart will always hold a higher level of disdain from me.

The iconic title track is an all-time chart topper and for good reason. It’s so catchy and a blast to listen to, making it one of those pop songs everyone knows and will always know. Admittedly, I didn’t know Britney was so young when this album was released and that makes it both impressive but it contributes to a few moments feeling cheesy, certainly. Once you get past the opener and (You Drive Me) Crazy it starts to sound too polished and a bit soulless in the production. Soda Pop is an awkward fit and the last four tracks are an understandable product of their time but are formulaic and uninteresting to the point that I can’t imagine I’d return to the full record. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: …Baby One More Time, (You Drive Me) Crazy

I expected this to be so much better.

Culturally significant but has the depth of a kiddie pool

Yea that's fckn awesome

I would love to hear an oral history of how 'Email My Heart' came to be

classic

seems more important to pop-culture than music It's just. . . like in a movie about an alien coming to earth, the alien would fall in love with this album and the family would be like: oh, boy you're not a-sposed to like this so much! as the songs play over a montage of them driving to the california or whatever

It was not nearly as obnoxious as I was afraid it would be. I'm not sure that it belongs on a list of things to do before you die. It feels like an album that was put on the list mostly due to flipping a 'statistic for the sake of having a statistic' switch. Musically it doesn't bring anything to the table that artists like Janet Jackson, Madonna, and Whitney Houston had already brought. Which means the reason the album is on the list is because she was younger than those women were, which seems to diminish the album more than it lifts it up.

This album reeks of gonorrhea.

2 good songs in the whole album

Would not have listened this on my own and I was pleasantly surprised. It is a great example of this kind of music.

Listened to this shit in the privacy in my home because I couldn’t dare be caught bumping this in the headphones on the metro… album wasn’t terrible but it didn’t move me either.

This is exceptionally bad. Brit was 16. This music is trash, unlistenable.

I mean really. I get it was a cultural moment - I was there - but this is not one of the 1000 albums you must hear before you die. It’s light hearted pop which is fine, it has its audience, but my life has not been enriched by hearing it again. I’ll give it an extra star because the title track still sounds pretty good years later. Also, what was with the 90s obsession with wah wah guitar licks randomly in pop tracks?

Iconic album of an era. The epitome of late 90s-early 00s bubblegum pop. This was not my favorite of the time, or even of hers, but can’t deny the impact. It’s still a good pop album, even if I personally have grown away from it. 4/5

Not something i would listen to daily, but it was good music. Pretty jolly :P (2.7/5)

Banger🔥

I’m embarrassed to say that I actually quite liked this! The best tracks were definitely the singles and popular tracks, and there were evidently weaker tracks that didn’t stand up to the rest of the album, but as a whole, this is a really solid Pop album. There’s nothing that significant about this album, it was just another generic Pop record of the late 90s, but something about it feels slightly more impactful and unique than some of the other worse albums at the time.

Yes, yes, I couldn't escape Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" either. Britney was everywhere. Did I like the music or the video? No, not really. Sure, it's all probably well-made dance-pop, but I'm not a fan of dance-pop. So how do you rate something like that? If I were a fan, I'd say it's great, but I'm not. Is the album, the music, outstanding? I don't know. "Baby One More Time" is definitely a classic and probably will remain one. Two stars for that, but I didn't know the rest, or maybe I did, but not consciously. Enough said about an album that many people will wonder if it even belongs here.

The hits hit hard, but the rest of the album is super boring. Lots of filler padding around pop classics.

This was great. I already knew the hits (Baby One More Time, Crazy, Sometimes), but the other songs on the album were almost as good, if not better. I could definitely feel a difference between some of the songs, and after looking at the Wikipedia page for this album I learned why: The songs written and produced by Max Martin and the Swedish crew were clearly head and shoulders above the rest (which I guess explains why those songs were the hits...). But that said, I still enjoyed the rest of the album too. Most of the non-Swedish songs had a very different musical feel and even vocal quality from Britney -- one I hardly recognized. I had to keep looking to make sure I was still listening to Britney Spears because she sounded like a completely different person on some of them. All told, excellent album and I would totally listen again. Docking one star for the less-than-stellar quality of the non-Swedish songs, I give it four stars.

Сара 4,5 Марко 4,5

E-Mail My Heart… hahahahahahaha

It is always a bad sign when I keep checking the playlist to see how many songs I have left on the album. This kind of pop is definitely not my thing. The title track is okay, but it was so overplayed in public spaces that it reminds me of shopping and I really dont like shopping either. "Baby One More Time..." was a major sensation and unfortunately--not just because of the music but because it is exploitive in the worst way possible-- inspired a new teen pop movement, so guess I can see why it is here. However, I'm not sure that being a sensation is sufficient to make something essential listening.

Britney's voice is actually really great

The first couple songs are catchy bubblegum pop, a real late 90s time capsule. The rest of the album is terrible, soulless filler that sounds like it was written by committee.

Wow a blast from the past. Pop not talk my scene but listening to it now 27 years later memories come flooding back. This came out the year my daughter was born and so many of these tracks were MTV and VH1 staples at the time. I would not consider myself a fan of this 'bubblegum pop' but the sheer power of memory and the fact that placing this next to today's pop offerings makes this a retrospectively significant album.

Very dated and cheesy, although it is really interesting to hear this album front to back for the first time ever. Well polished mediocre music that was composed by a very talented team, of which Brittany was an important part, even though she was easily replaceable.

I recognise the pop brilliance but do not approve one iota. Derivative as fuck. What Cowell spent every Saturday night for 25 years looking for

Honestly? Great album. Did not expect to like it this much. Only knew one song, but really enjoyed the rest. Not sure I'll be taking any away, but it was awesome. 4.25

AI, maak een late nineties pop album

Ja, dit is giga achterhaalde laboratorium-gekweekte pop, maar ik zou liegen als ik zou ontkennen dat er knallers van reffreintjes te horen zijn op deze plaat. We kennen natuurlijk allemaal de singles, maar vooral bonus track 'Autumn Goodbye' is echt een bop.

No. Just no.

Great album. Loved it. Britney is great

Ick

My sister played this album non-stop when we were kids. Didn't realize how much of this I knew by heart without even trying lol.

The gay panic in the reviews here for this album was cracking me up man. I really don’t think I’d heard more than two songs from this, but somehow they all felt familiar. Lyndsie informed me that this is the equivalent of Justified by JT being on the list instead of an album of hers that’s considered 10/10. No surprise there.

This was shockingly and surprisingly bad. We all know the one song and it would have best for us to never know the other 13 or whatever on this album.

Very catchy. Also very sugary in places. Fun enough though.

I really appreciate the extremely tight songwriting and hooks here. Performances are great and the songs are excellent. Its a little much for a full album listen though.

I don't think selling a million albums means I have to listen to it. I was there when it came out. It sucked then, it sucks now.

3.5 There's no doubt that the good songs are ICONIC however the bad ones...are bad.... Not really a 4 but whatever i'm giving it because you guys are too mean to Britney.

Iconic. I can’t imagine being a teen when this came out and thinking this will shape the future landscape of the pop genre into the 2000s.

A wonderfully vapid example of bubblegum pop, devoid of any deep meaning. She's in love, or she's got a broken heart. Nothing complicated, completely trivial. BUT! A masterclass in the form, putting bubblegum pop back on the charts. Is it deep? No. It most absolutely is not. It does make bubblegum matter again, and puts a new spin on it. And major key changes! Come on, why did we throw those away? I know this carries a lot of baggage, because Brittney was the girl we were all allowed to lust after, but also not. Way over-manufactured, but innocent and organic at the same time. And we wonder why she went off the rails. She went from the Mickey Mouse club to this to "wholesome trollop" in a very short amount of time. The industry built a paradox around her, and she paid the price for it. My Rating: 4/5

Ah the 90s, when teams of corporate music producers would pluck a child star from their innocent disney role, give them everything they wanted, then ruin their lives forever by exposing them to the horrors of fame with no guardrails. I guess that still happens, but Britney Spears was the first. I think this album makes me sad more than anything else. Sure these guys can write decent pop music, and the style is certainly influential. The title track is iconic. It's a reluctant 2 stars. Probably deserves more.

formulaic in the sense that it has distilled the chart topper into its base chemical components and is delivering that formula in several marketable flavors. that being said, using Baby One More Time as the starting gun to this album just isn't fair, because all the pop spectacle doesn't come close to reaching that height again. would score higher if i was currently drunk at a karaoke bar. also loved Thinkin' About You and Born to Make You Happy. soft 4

Rating: 4/10 I really hate to give her a 2. Britney, to her credit, went on to release six better albums than her debut, some much better, in her stretch of being the biggest popstar of the 21st century. Yeah I've listened to them all. This one isn't even her most popular or iconic, at least Oops...I Did It Again could have been here instead for being a step up and literally being the biggest most inescapable force in America at the time. It fits the list much better. To write about the debut, it's some immature 90's teen pop that is hard to get through in full. It starts strong, its first two tracks are some great songwriting, of course they're the ones written by Max Martin; he really worked his magic there. Sometimes is a good Britney track too, but the album goes on to be mostly bad after that good start. Soda Pop and the Don Philip collab are unlistenable, E-mail my Heart is terrible, songs go on way too long, it's not great. I kept going with the deluxe to listen to the two bonus tracks and they're a good improvement and addition, Autumn Goodbye is honestly quite a decent song. Sad for me because any of her iconic albums after this would have gotten a way higher score

Three hits and some fillers, which describes the album too.

Mocne 2,5. Das pop

Nope. The production was crap and Britney Spears had too much vocal fry.

https://youtu.be/lVQOLX1wDAc?is=o3nGztZcjiYyO0J6

1.42

Just not very good

title track is an all-time classic, a couple other kinda fun ones like beat goes on and deep in my heart but otherwise we can let this stay in the 90s

The cool thing with music, is that you can often pinpoint a certain time period with a sound or album. And I don't think you can get more late 20th century, 1999 feel, than young Brittany Spears. Pop music can often be a mixed bag, especially within the last 30 years. But the consensus for a good amount is that the quality drops in favor of quick radio hit-like songs for obvious reasons. I don't necessarily qualify this album's hit songs under that umbrella, entirely. Sure the hit songs are absolutely wretched at this point from overplay and just the overall catchiness that we either love, or love to hate. But through the lens of 1999, it absolutely deserved the mostly polarizing, yet understanding talent that Brittany possessed. That said, the back half of this album..... kind of left a lot to be desired. Also, its pretty dated.... cant exactly see "Email my heart" get airplay on the radio now can you? That will ultimately stop it from getting a 4 or 5 for me, But the highs are pretty solid and overall was a cool listen for me. 3/5

I'm not one to shy away from pop, but this just has very few good songs on it, and most are downright bad Favorite Song: ... Baby One More Time, The Beat Goes On

LO MEJOR DEL POP DE LOS 2000

I was surprised to see this making the list, but it is an incredibly influential pop album, both in terms of spearheading (lol) the sound of 2000's pop music, but also the revival of it in later years. And it is much more enjoyable than you would expect. Every track here has glimmers of absolute pop brilliance and also batshit creative decisions, and it is really a lot of fun. Somehow it's kinda brilliant, often it's bad in the best way possible, and sometimes genuinely great. Britney also delivers some pretty good vocal performances with a genuineness in the corniness that only a very young singer at the turn of the millenium can produce. But yeah, surprising listen overall. Solid 6/10

If "basic bitch" had a sound...

I'll never listen to that again 1/5

The first few tracks brought back teenage memories. Don't think I'll need to listen to the album again.

ooooof

I was surprised how few songs off this album I knew given where I was when I was released. Also how few songs aside from the hits were pop-y like her later hits, which in turn meant that I didn’t really enjoy the majority of it.

This one lacks everything I found in Madonna's Like a Prayer. It's all a sale of slightly catchy beats which try to sound interesting but feel more like a neon sign than a painting. The sexuality and message is top to bottom transparent and was a huge part of what took off. It's as hollow and soul crushing as pop had found at that point and continued music onto a trend that lost a lot of art and humanity. Catchy, relevant, should be on the list, inherently depressing that it exists

This feels like the height of the plasticization of pop music in North America. They had almost gone too far making a product and taking the humanity out of it. South Korea took the ball and ran with it now. I wanted to find something in this, I tried. I felt like I was falling into a deep dark pit.

Some of the worst people I've ever met in my life loved this music. The meanest bullies, the angriest most spiteful teachers, the brattiest most self-entitled teens, the most hateful parents, the most narcissistic peacocking alcoholics, they all loved this shit. Because of that I cannot appreciate or respect anything presented on this album. I started having memories repressed for over 25 years start bubbling up into my memory and actually had to stop listening because it was pushing me into what I believe to be my first ever panic attack. I hate it with my whole heart. 0/10.

Far from a top 1,000. Was it a top selling album and a pop monster with millios of copies sold yes is it great no, not at all. 3-4 good singles and a one that made her a super star overnight. But not really a great album although I cant deny the importance of the album for that era

Britney's shaped like a boomerang in my mind. And I suppose that's similarly reflected in her debut album. Starts off with some of her most indelible work and ends with a fantastic cover of Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On", but when the middle dips, it DIPS. When examining the trajectory of Britney's life, it's easy to judge the highs and the lows. I wonder if at age 17, when this album hit #1, were she to see how her boomerang was tossed about by the industry, if she'd have ever thrown it in the first place. 3/5