The Good: Does not waste time or space with album version.
The Bad: Short, Uninspired remixes, Better versions exist, Sounds like several other Spears songs.
The Basics: A banal to begin with single, "Gimme More's" radio remixes are just awful and not worth hunting the two-track single down for.
There comes a time in virtually every musical artist or performers lifetime when they either pioneer off in a new direction or they begin to release works which sound a lot like their prior works. In the case of Britney Spears, by the time she got to her album Blackout, she was already creating songs which sounded like one another, so it is unsurprising that she presented the bland pop-dance track "Gimme More" as the album's first single. The song sounds a lot like "Womanizer," which came after and "Toxic," which came before. Either way, the single version of "Gimme More" is not at all original music.
The two-track version "Gimme More" does, however, appear to be an anomaly that was presented more as a promotional device than anything else. There were at least eight versions of the "Gimme More" single and the one which features only the "Paul Oakenfold Radio Mix" and the "Kaskade Radio Mix" appears to have been created solely as a promotional unit for dance-pop radio stations and has since filtered into the marketplace as a collectible. That said, it is not worth picking up even now. The reason for that is simple, both mixes, plus an additional three were part of a "Gimme More" maxi single (EP) of remixes, so one can usually find that album less expensively and get more for their money with it.
With only two tracks, occupying a little over seven minutes of the c.d.'s capacity, "Gimme More" is a very obvious Britney Spears single which illustrates none of her already arguable talent. Spears was not involved in the writing, instrumental accompaniment, production or remixing of this song. Instead, she provides the lead vocals and it was passed off to others to make a hit single from and they did. The thing is, these two tracks don't even have the hit single version, they have dance remixes which are just terrible, making Spears sound even more manufactured and assembled than she already did.
Both the Oakenfold and Kaskade mixes feature louder bass, more rhythm machine accompaniment and have produced the vocals so "Gimme more" (the line) is repeated even more than it was in the original. The clear intent of this synth-driven song is to get people to dance and move and it might be marginally successful for that.
Sadly, Spears' vocals are so mechanized they might as well be coming from a computer on "Gimme More." This single is so overproduced that any hint of Spears' natural voice has been lost and dubbed and overdubbed over. The result is that after her initial spoken word statement, the song degenerates into a vocal presentation more worthy of a Macintosh Computer impersonating Alvin and the Chipmunks than a female pop diva.
"Gimme More" is even pretty lyrically uninspired. Spears is singing about her own celebrity, yet cannot even muster up the enthusiasm to write her own song about herself. The result is a pretty bland celebrity song with lines like "We can get down like there's no one around / We keep on rocking, we keep on rockin' /Cameras are flashing while we're dirty dancing / They keep watching, keep watchin' / Feels like the the crowd was saying / Gimme more." This is not at all the most inspired celebrity-based pop-dance song and the whole thing has a remarkably skanky sound and feel to it.
Ultimately, neither remix is better than the original and they take a dance-pop song that was overproduced and manage to make it less listenable. And even for those who like that sort of thing, there is a better version on the market.
For other reviews of Britney Spears music, please check out my reviews of:
. . . Baby One More Time (single)
From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart (single)
Stronger (single)
Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know (single)
Britney
I'm A Slave 4 U (single)
Overprotected (single)
Me Against The Music (single with Madonna)
Toxic (single)
Blackout
Circus
The Singles Collection
The Singles Collection (2-disc CD/DVD with videos)
0/10
For other music reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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