This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Britney Spears can’t get no satisfaction? Puh-leeze.
Then again, maybe the Louisiana Lolita has a point — even if it isn’t the same one Mick Jagger was making 35 years ago. Lately, being the reigning queen of teen-pop may not have been all it’s cracked up to be. At 18, Britney is already the old lady of the scene. Up-and-comers like Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson are breathing down her bustier — not to mention snatching Grammys right from under her nose. There’s no guarantee this album — the much-anticipated followup to last year’s … Baby, One More Time — is gonna do any better than, say, the new Hanson disc. And if it doesn’t — if she doesn’t move the mega-million units of ’N Sync or Backstreet Boys — she could find herself labelled a has-been before she turns 20.
So, maybe Britney’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction — a song nearly twice as old as she is — isn’t as out of place as it seems on Oops! … I Did it Again. Which is not to say that it’s good. Because frankly, it’s not. Mainly because all producer Rodney Jerkins has done is turn Mick and Keith’s timeless classic into a tacky piece of trendy teen-jack swing with all the syncopated beatboxes, punchy synth accents and bombastic, close-harmony choruses of Backstreet’s Back — a tune that is probably closer to Britney’s idea of classic rock.
Sadly, it’s also the template for more than half the tracks on this disappointingly predictable disc, including the opening title track and first single. Most of the rest of the tunes are — you guessed it — syrupy string-cheese ballads that all sound like they were written by Diane Warren. One, When Your Eyes Say It, actually was. Amazingly, it isn’t the hokiest track. That would be Dear Diary, a dollop of pianissimo fluff in which Britney confides in her journal about her crush on a cute boy who “smiled and I thought my heart could fly.” But even that pales next to the snippets of dialogue tossed into and between the songs. In one exchange, Britney’s boyfriend gives her the jeweled necklace from Titanic; in others, she chats on the phone with a girlfriend and dishes with friends about her last date. Too bad we don’t get to hear her talking about what she thinks of Christina and Jessica.
At times, Britney even seems to acknowledge the pressure she’s gotta be facing these days. First, in Lucky, she ponders the ironic loneliness of fame. Then there’s Can’t Make You Love Me, a Euro-tinged plea for love that’s sung to a boy but could just as easily be directed at her audience. “Tell me that you want me still,” she begs. “I have been through changes, but I’m still the girl you used to know.”
Britney might not be after the same thing Mick was talking about, but she’s desperate for satisfaction just the same. Whether she gets it or not, we’ll see.
