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Originally written July 25, 2005. Jive used to pair Britney up with a producer like Eric Foster White or Max Martin, and try to develop some magic over weeks spent in the studio, but in more recent years they have tried to surf the wave of current musical fashion – with decidedly mixed results at times.
The simplest way to do that is to invite producers to send demo tapes of tracks, often to a certain general specification. For example, earlier this year they requested tracks “similar to Toxic”.
Back in late 2002, The Matrix was one of the hottest teams in the business, fresh from their massive success with Avril Lavigne and “Let Go”. Needless to say, Jive wanted some of the action for Britney and were delighted when The Matrix submitted a demo or two. Even if they were somewhat off-topic for the kind of album Britney, Larry Rudolph and Steve Lunt had in their heads, the collaboration was commercially irresistible.
And so it came about that Britney went into the studio with Scott Spock and husband and wife team Lauren Christy and Graham Edwards. It’s said that the collaboration may have produced as many as 3 tracks, but only “Shadow” has seen the light of day so far. The Matrix presented Britney with songs already written for her, as they did with Avril, but she tailored them to suit herself, especially the words.
The Matrix certainly enjoyed working with Britney. Lauren Christy enthused "She’s very professional, totally unaffected by her fame—really a great girl, down to earth...Good voice. She’s underrated, I think, as a singer. And the song we’ve done with her is super-cool!"
Christy was particularly excited about "Shadow." "She just kills it," she said. "It's amazing. I was really impressed with her vocal ability on it." Britney loved the song too, and it was intended that it would be the first single off of her new album, and was originally scheduled for release in August 2003. But in the end, Shadow was never released as a single.
Britney showed her love of the song by selecting it as one of only two she would sing live on the Onyx tour. But, in practice, even that became difficult for her. While up on the hoist for the Shadow sequence she often found herself so overheated and breathless she could barely breathe, never mind sing.
Britney’s performance of Shadow on the Showtime broadcast remains extremely controversial. Many listeners found it awful. Others were quite content with it. To my ears what happened was this: at the outset, the balance was wrong and Britney’s voice sounded unexpectedly loud. But she was not off-key as many have claimed. When the backing singers joined in for the chorus, THEY – for some reason – were off key and it sounds as if she is following them. But after that, the engineers got the balance right and everything proceeded normally till the end.
Shadow – the album track – is a beautiful thing, sultry, sexy and mysterious. It’s like stepping into a warm Jacuzzi in the dark. Its magic embraces you from the opening notes, and the production is luxurious, full of swirling sounds and a whole range of brief and varied instrumental figures. If you listen on high-quality headphones (the little in-ear jobbies won't do it) you can hear that the tracks are laid out like a multi-dimensional soundstage, with Britney’s lead vocal easily distinguishable in the mix – which it isn’t when you listen on speakers. During the chorus, the effect is of Britney standing front center, with a group of backing singers arranged in a semi-circle behind her. In the last 2 lines of each verse and during the bridge, three Britneys sing, one left, one right, one center. But strangely, later in the bridge the centre Britney sings the harmony part, not the lead. No wonder it was hard to do it live! There are various ambient effects. For example, during the first part of each verse, a kind of breathing sound can be heard on the left channel. At other points there’s a distant wind effect on the right channel. And all is underpinned by a tremendously deep and sumptuous bass track, which can best be appreciated with either good ‘phones or a subwoofer.
The words are allusive and impressionistic, and Britney renders them with all her usual hallmark sounds but also sings remarkably smoothly and sweetly in some passages. Most notable, though, is the way she pronounces the word “shadow” – on every occasion she invests it with drama and emotion and shows that as a singer alone she’s worth her money, and is indeed underrated.
Overall this is one of my very favourite Britney songs and one of my favourite songs by any artist. A little masterpiece.
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