Britney Jean, The Legendary Miss Britney Spears’ Most Personal Album To Date, did not quite live up to everyone’s expectations.
From the overbearing influence of pop terrorist will.u.not to production glitches to misspelled titles to scrapped GRL demos to the, erm, questionable vocal contributions throughout the album, Brit Brit’s eighth studio album certainly has become iconic in its very own unique and messy way within the Spearitual catalogue — Indie Jean, as some call it.
As the Dustney settles just under a year later, we can begin to reflect on all of the “What if?” moments of the era.
For instance: What if Dev Hynes, also known as Blood Orange, did make it onto the album?
As we know, Hynes’ contributions to the project were repeatedly rejected. But over this past weekend, one of those demos surfaced out of nowhere on the Interwebz, as confirmed by Dev himself.
The minimal, disjointed R&B jam twinkles and trips along on spacey beats and ambient noise as Dev lightly coos and mumbles along in the distance. If anything, it actually sounds like a track from FKA Twigs‘ LP1! (Also, Hynes worked with Twigs on “Hours,” so that makes total sense.) It’s Twigsney, bitch.
The idea of Brit Brit’s vocals drifting along this ambient electro-gem is nearly impossible to imagine — and truly the definition of “artsy fartsy left-lane.” Pitchfork nerds would worship at the feet of Godney! Thanks for nothing, Will.
Things are much different now, though: There’s no rush to promote Piece Of Me, and Brit Brit’s in an especially creative mood. Perhaps Dev will get a second shot on this forthcoming LP? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Give us the goods, Pioneerney!