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Originally written November 15, 2005.
When Your Eyes Say It is an unobtrusive, gentle little track near the end of the Oops album, but it has a significance far beyond the obvious – which I will come to later.
The song was written by Diane Warren, one of America’s greatest living songwriters. "Because You Loved Me", "Can't Fight the Moonlight", "How Do I Live?" "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", "I Turn to You", "If I Could Turn Back Time", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", "Rhythm of the Night", "Un-Break My Heart", and "Too Lost In You" are just some of the great songs that have flowed from her prolific pen.
When Your Eyes Say It seems to have been the product of protracted negotiations, since Britney remarks “To Diane Warren – we finally got one!” in the album credits. Diane works in a different way from many independent songwriters, in that she conceives a song specifically for a particular artist and voice before she approaches their management with a proposal. She then gets involved with the whole A&R process, right through to recording. She got the opportunity to see Britney at work and commented that she was a good singer, and an underrated one.
Having said all this, When Your Eyes Say It is far from being one of her greatest compositions. Just as we saw with R. Kelly and Diddy, it would appear that established songwriters have a tendency to patronise Britney – or her young audience, perhaps? So this is a simple but very charming song, a ballad with a beat for those who don’t require drama or vocal pyrotechnics.
The track was produced by Jive A&R supremo Steve Lunt and Robert Jazayeri. There is a proper live string section, Paul Mettam plays acoustic guitar and Paul Umbach acoustic guitar, and Robert Jazayeri and "Kent Wood" (who can that be?) feature on keyboards. The bass and drum tracks are synth-generated. Backing vocals are by Britney, Audrey Martells, Paul Umbach and Nikki Gregoroff.
Here are the words (checked for accuracy):
I love to hear you say that you love me
With words so sweet
And I love the way with just one whisper
You tell me everything
And when you say those words
It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard
[CHORUS]
But when your eyes say it
That's when I know that it's true
I feel it
I feel the love coming through
I know it
I know that you truly care for me
'Cause it's there to see
When your eyes say it
I love all the ways that you show me
You'll never leave
And the way your kisses, they always convince me
Your feelings run so deep
I love the things you say
And I love the love your touch conveys
But when your eyes say it
That's when I know that it's true
I feel it
I feel the love coming through
I know it
I know that you truly care for me
'Cause it's there to see
When your eyes tell me
I know they're not tellin' lies
They tell me
All that you're feelin' inside
And it sounds so right
When your eyes say it, say it
And the words they say take my breath away
No song ever sounded so sweet
I love every word that they say to me
But when your eyes say it
That's when I know that it's true
I feel it
I feel the love coming through
I know it
I know that you truly care for me
'Cause it's there to see
When your eyes tell me
I know they're not tellin' lies
They tell me
All that you're feelin' inside
And it sounds so right
When your eyes say it
The song begins with a calm synth background on to which deep synth-bass thumps and notes are added, then Britney begins with a spoken section, followed by a sung chorus. During the spoken section, she's supported by a backing vocal of multi-tracked Britneys but during the choruses the other backing vocalists lend additional color and subtlety. Subtlety is indeed the name of the game, since the guitars credited are barely noticeable and once the song gets under way the keyboards only serve to add a chord or two at suitable moments. The strings are effective but not particularly memorable.
No, the production is all about showcasing the vocals and it's Britney's approach to them that makes the track noteworthy. It's often claimed that her voice has shown a steady deterioration down the years, and that her currently favored approach of talking and whispering is something forced upon her by that deterioration. However, I have always maintained that Britney's approach to singing over the course of the years has been a matter of artistic choice. And here, despite the more robust armory available to her (as shown in Where Are You Now for example), we see her make that choice and deliver a vocal - away back in 2000 - which is entirely consistent with her work from ITZ to the present day.
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