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Originally written February 18, 2006.
As time goes by, I find myself increasingly drawn to the “Britney” album. Unlike some critics, I don’t think her voice deteriorated noticeably after OIDIA, and on “Britney” her vocals show growing experience, maturity and interpretative ability. Cinderella is without doubt one of Britney’s greatest songs. The grandiloquent melody is a credit to Max Martin and Rami, who wrote and produced. No additional musicians are credited, so we can safely assume that the instrumental sounds are also down to Max and Rami and computer-generated. Backing vocals are by Britney and Jeannette Olsson.
These are the words, checked and corrected as necessary:
I used to be your girlfriend and I know I did it well
Oh yes you know it’s true
You’d call me Cinderella
All you had to do was yell
And I’d be there for you
Here I am
Try to forgive me
I don’t believe in fairy tales
Here we are
With nothing but honesty
I’ve had enough
I’m not gonna stay
I’m sorry for running away like this
And I’m sorry I’ve already made my wish
Ah, but Cinderella’s got to go
From time to time I’d try to tell just what was
On my mind.
You’d tell me not today.
Come back, do that.
Well, Cinderella... that
Was all you had to say
Here I am
So try to forgive me
I don’t believe in fairy tales
Here we are
With nothing but honesty
I’ve had enough
I’m not gonna stay
I’m sorry for running away like this
And I’m sorry I’ve already made my wish
Ah, but Cinderella’s got to go
I’m sorry, just trying to live my life
Don’t worry, you’re gonna be alright
But Cinderella’s got to go
(spoken)
I used to say I want you
You cast me in your spell
I did everything you wanted me to
But now I shall
Break free from all your lies
I won’t be blind, you see
My love, it can’t be sacrificed
I won’t return to thee
I’m so sorry, I’ve already made up my mind
I won’t return to thee
I’m sorry to say, I’m running away now
Don’t worry, you will be alright
I’m running away
I’ve made up my mind now
You’re gonna have to let me go
I’m sorry, for running away like this
And I’m sorry, I’ve already made my wish
Ah, but Cinderella’s got to go
I’m sorry, just trying to live my life
Don’t worry, you’re gonna be alright
But Cinderella’s got to go
Cinderella is very much more than the sum of its parts. If we analyse the synthesized instrumental support, we find there’s not really all that much to it. There’s no evidence of guitar at all, and the bassline amounts to little more than one-note grunting and three or four subdued notes at 2.33.
Max’s synthesizer has some work to do, providing a memorable riff that recurs to drive the melody throughout, and there’s a rather beautiful synth string part accompanying Britney from 0.28 and elsewhere. There are also some delicate keyboard ripples at 1.07 and a few windrushes. But in all honesty most of the song is merely vocal and percussion.
However, the percussion track does little more than keep time, consisting as it does of indeterminate whacking noises alternating with particularly unrealistic synth cymbal splashes. So we should really just be honest about it and give the vocals all the credit they’re due. The lyrics may seem a little odd and clumsy on the printed page but in Britney’s hands they become intriguing and resonant.
There are a lot of vocal lines, but it would scarcely be appropriate to talk about “backing vocals”, since what we are hearing 90% of the time is Britney solo, double tracked or as a trio, sometimes in unison and sometimes echoing her own lead track. All the action takes place on a very narrow soundstage, with extremely limited stereo separation. Jeanette Olsson weighs in with a beautiful vocal figure under the spoken section and contributes an extra ethereal dimension to the choral effects from 3.20, but in truth Cinderella is a Britney tour-de-force.
She begins by singing in a young, rather innocent voice in the first verse, and to some extent also in the second, but becomes ever more powerful and assertive as the song proceeds. She manages almost entirely without her trademark growls, croaks and whispers, sings absolutely straight and simply knocks our socks off with an incredible display of intensity, bite and pure Britneyness. The louder you play it, the more impressive it becomes.
Although Max Martin makes the most of the resources available to him, what he creates here is a series of effects rather than accompanying music. It’s surprising and a little annoying that Britney’s recordings have so often received such cheapskate production values compared to those of almost any other major artist. Yet she scarcely seems to need them. In a way it’s a backhanded compliment to her uniqueness and charisma that Jive sent her into the studio to take a bunch of material by the scruff of the neck and own it completely with very little help. She makes mediocre songs sound better than they really are - but when, as with Cinderella, she has great material to work on, the result is pure magic.
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