Britney Spears has dropped her new single, "Work Bitch," a day early after the track leaked online over the weekend. Co-written and produced by will.i.am, the song finds the singer vamping in the same faux-continental accent she dubiously employed on the pair's recent Top 5 hit "Scream & Shout"—or is it just a ghastly attempt at British? "Work Bitch" follows the current EDM model of painfully aggressive, treble-heavy beats, harsh synths, and tuneless hooks, but makes even "Scream & Shout" sound like a melodic feast. At its best, that song plays like an homage to dance music's recent past, with nods to Underworld's "Born Slippy" and even Spears's own "Gimme More"; "Work Bitch," on the other hand, seems to aspire to classic bitch-queen anthems, but Spears's repeated instructions to "work, work, work" (to achieve "a hot body" and a Bugatti, natch) feel mechanical and forced. But that's no surprise coming from a pop icon whose longevity is largely due to her unwavering dedication to churning out maddeningly mindless and infectious tripe like "Work Bitch."
TNC will be a really good album.