Greatest Hits: My Prerogative

Britney Spears

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 9, 2004)
• Original Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jive
• ASIN: B0006FO8RA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,896 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In the six years since her debut CD ...Baby One More Time set Billboard charts a-trembling, Britney Spears has pried open pop music's rusty cage and sprinkled her sex-kittenish fairy dust around like long-overdue disinfectant. She has also arguably done more for the neglected navel than Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé have done for the derrière. But despite her well-earned reputation for boldness (to which releasing a greatest-hits package after just four discs can only add), Britney calls it quits at making claims about her vocal talent. And that works in her favor. Because while My Prerogative is an exciting and even at times superb record, its merits lie almost exclusively in each track's production. From the Abba-esque choruses of her earliest hits ("...Baby One More Time," "Crazy") to the twitching, pulsed-up grooves of 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U" to the technified bleeps and swizzles of 2003's self-skewering "Outrageous," the pop princess proves she's been largely content to let her in-studio performances take a back seat to the rhythm. With beats as consistently good as the ones she's managed to recruit, though, it's hard to blame her. "Toxic" and "Me Against the Music" mash trance and hip-hop into the mix, and the three previously unreleased joints don't shrink from sliding headfirst into new sound, either. The Bobby Brown cover and title track stomps and bomps to a bared-teeth backdrop, and "Do Somethin'" creates such dancefloor urgency it should come with a siren. "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)" treads two steps shy of crossing the Britney-bred boundary between sexy and raunchy, but fans will hope it's autobiographical anyway. For detractors the song--and the disc as a whole--should signal a long wait till the party's over. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music by the pop icon herself., March 23, 2005

By	Sarah Horowitz (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

I know her voice isn't the greatest but the mixing & production of these tunes is nothing short of outstanding. I also know there are detractors who say she just relies on her body to make money. Yet, they fail to mention that she did in just 6 years what no female solo artist since Madonna's heyday in the 1980s has done; that is go from a new artist with a great debut album to cultural superstar.
Her 3 new tunes are all great, My Prerogative is a great opener, I've Just Begun is a nice addition that holds its own against some of the legendary female artists around, & Do Somethin' is a great closer with a beat that is solid.
The real strength here is the material amassed in such a span
of time. Baby One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again, Stronger, Lucky & Everytime are all very solid tunes that're what carries the album & shows off her musical skills. The tracks aren't in chronological order, but that's okay because there's so many good tunes here that it doesn't matter that much to me. The musical quality of these tunes is nothing short of great on each one & the production & mixing are really solid & keep the album sounding so good.
I'd like to have seen Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know & From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart make the cut as well, but this is still a very solid & tight greatest hits package that I've not seen a female solo artist pull off since Maddona's wonderful The Immaculate Collection was done. I don't know about the quality of the 6 bonus tracks as I've only got the standard 17-track disc.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant pop from the teen queen herself, May 20, 2005

By	Chris Eberlein (USA) - See all my reviews

Enough is enough, folks. Sure, this girl ain't no Mariah Carey --though in her earliest works (such as "Soda Pop") she sounds quite Christinaish-- but she's got a unique enough sound to be distinguishable on the radio. Can this be said about all teen sensations? Let's talk about rappers: they don't EVEN sing. Can they still be categorized as "singers" for speaking with rhythm? Uh huh, thought so. Britney Spears, like her or not, has become one of pop music's biggest superstars - and most controversial. She's had a slew of No. 1's since her 1998 uber-smash "...Baby One More Time," and has finally garnered that Grammy that's eluded her since her first nominations. In the Zone shows us a more electrocized Spears but the latter ballads, should-be hit "Shadow" and Britney-composed "Everytime," show the public the real girl behind the facade. Greatest Hits can be called such because she has had enough hit-age to put one out ("greatest hits" doesn't mean "every single"). Congrats Britney. You've done a great job here.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All of your Britney favourites... on one CD, November 13, 2004

By	Saz (Canada) - See all my reviews

Britney's "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative" is exactly what it sounds like - it's all her greatest hits, although as the Amazon review stated, it's missing "From the bottom of my broken heart". However, Amazon also forgot (along with everyone else) about the second song it's missing: "I love rock and roll", from the album "Britney" and the Crossroads soundtrack- possibly because it was her only song not to make it up on the UK charts.

I personally like this album because while I am not a really big Britney fan and I don't buy her CDs, "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative" has all her dance tunes lined up in neat procession, without the unneeded accompaniment of fillers and sappy love songs.

Her three "previously unreleased" songs are alright - "My Perogative" 's tell-it-like-it-is lyrics are quite empowering and speak true to Britney's current tabloid-frenzied life, however, the album could probably due without track #16, "I've just begun (having my fun)". A thoroughly pointless song that isn't really catchy, I can't see why it went so high on the online download charts. Yet #17 is more promising; again, not one of her best songs and not single-worthy, it reminds me (slightly) of Gwen Stefani's new song "What you Waiting For?" - only without the sassiness of Ms. Stefani.

Overall, I think we finally have a Britney CD worthy buying, whether you're a casual fan or a die-hard Britaholic. My only gripe, other than tracks #16 and #17, is the album cover. Could Britney possibly look any more emaciated or gross? As a teenager myself, I speak from experience when I say it's pictures like that that make girls develop eating disorders.