Chris DeLine

While the release of Britney Spears‘ as-yet-untitled seventh studio album is still tentatively two months out, the now-29 year old singer has just dropped what’s expected to be the first single from the project: “Hold It Against Me.” Produced by Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, who was behind a trio of songs from Spears’ 2008 album, Circus, the track is exactly as advertised: “grimier.” Yes, grimier. Explaining the upcoming album to Billboard recently, Gottwald (who is also the co-executive producer of the project) revealed his intentions with the album, “I want to do what we’ve done that works, but I also want to make sure that it sounds a little different.” “I want to get more harder, in some ways” he continued, “and maybe a little more deep into electronic, and grimier.”

Not to perpetuate the never-ending comparison between Spears and Christina Aguilera, but if “Hold It Against Me” is an honest example of what’s to come, I can easily see it landing as a commercial (if not critical) success relative to the latter’s swing-and-miss Bionic which dropped last year. Lyrically “Hold It Against Me” is full of overly romanticized wordplay, but it’s still refreshing compared to Spears’ last tasteless attempt at a single (“3“) which capped off her 2009 greatest hits album, The Singles Collection. In a pop landscape which is currently being ruled by the likes of Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, this drive towards modern electronic might be enough to help put Britney back on top of the charts. Or maybe, it’s too little too late… We’ll likely find out which of those options will prove true in the coming months.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]