People seem to have to pick a side these days, when everything is a binary choice in a world that was never meant to be about binary choices. Case in point is Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. It feels like you have to be #TeamBritney or #TeamJustin with nary the room to be a fan of both. I’m not falling victim to making that choice, especially as neither has impressed me for years, but there were many former moments of love for both.
That said, I do love a bit of pop-star trolling, and watching the Brit Stans succeed in pushing her 13-year-old track ‘Selfish’ from the ‘Femme Fatale’ album above Timberlake’s own ‘Selfish’ attempt at a sort of comeback is as amusing as it is enlightening for me (never heard the track, as that’s about the time I started tuning her out – not from ill-will, just from other interests supplanting that brand of dance-pop). So here is her version of ‘Selfish’ from all those years ago.
When pop titans fight for their musical relevance, it’s always a sight to see, and the aural explosions are designed to devastate. As for Justin’s ‘Selfish’, it percolates along at a pleasant pace, but it’s not a banger like former glories such as ‘SexyBack‘. Perhaps he’s banking on this having longer legs and insinuating itself in our heads as an amuse bouche in preparation for when the full album arrives.
