Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea’s Urban Bop “Pretty Girls” Debuts

by Mikey Xi • May 4, 2015 • Britney Spears, Entertainment, Female Celebs, Music, Reviews • Comments (750) • 61153

https://instagram.com/p/2PuZXpG8H7/

First things first, Britney Spears newest single, “Pretty Girls,” with ~~Igloo Australia~~ Iggy Azalea may not necessarily be her most upper echelon single, but it sure brings a great bit of ratchet yin to the caviar yang of her collaboration with Giorgio Moroder.

I’ll admit both singles worried me a little when I heard the premise of them both, but “Tom’s Diner” turned out better than expected for everyone, and “Pretty Girls” isn’t doing so bad either.

Right off the bat we’re getting punched in the face with that earworm of a chant: “All around the world / pretty girls / wipe the floor with all the boys,” the queen sneers. No one’s here for any toy soldiers today, it’s girl’s night and it’s time for a banger(z)! There’s no denying Brit Brit is drop dead beautiful, so it’s about time we got an anthem for all the pretty girls to bump to in the club, right?

But even more so than a song for the gorgeous women of the world, this is kind of a bad bitch bop. As we know there’s approximately two types of guys out there: ones that can hang with Brit, and the ones that are scared: she’s rolling her eyes at fuckboys left and right over a faux-DJ Mustard beat produced by The Invisible Men, Iggy’s frequent collaborators (but more importantly they co-wrote Girls Aloud’s “The Show). There’s snaps and trap influences and a bouncy elastic bass that’ll be sure to get you turnt in the club, and it’s sparse enough to make me brace myself for some epic remixes: Urbaney’s back y’all! Overall it sounds kind of like Fifth Harmony’s “Top Down” (good), with a bit of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” (good), and “Drop That Kitty” (well… Tinashe’s on it).

Funny enough, the best part about this song isn’t the trendy, current sound, it’s when we give that a break and suddenly get a vision of the 90’s on that bridge. As Iggy does her thing, there’s a great R&B throwback moment happening in all of that with Britney cooing some delicious harmonies and even giving some ad-libs! If you close your eyes you can even imagine it’s Eve rapping. Absolutely brilliant.

https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA/status/595089816657666048

To be honest I'm trying to get that rap down! You killed it girl!! So happy we did this!!! https://t.co/x31tcm9UFs

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) May 4, 2015

Overall, it’s not going to rank in the better half of Britney’s lead singles (and for the time being I’m going to envision this as a nice interim single, like J.Lo’s “Louboutins!”), but it’s actually better than anything I expected from this collaboration. It’s miles ahead of the bulk of Britney Jean, and it’s the most energetic Brit Brit has sounded in a while, featuring buckets of enthusiasm and energy throughout – this is gonna be a fun one to watch live. The verses could be stronger, but are anything but one-note or phoned-in, and actually sound barely processed: no way Myah Marie’s faking that iconic sultry voice here.

Listen to “Pretty Girls” below and tell us what you think in the comments!

“Pretty Girls” was released on May 4th (iTunes)

about the author: Mikey Xi

Mikey Xi, elusive bloguse with an unapologetic passion for all things pop and speaks of Britney Spears as if she is a close and intimate friend of his.