Posted by Maura Johnston on 03/03/2011 at 4:00 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: britney spears, ke$ha

No, Britney Spears doesn’t rap on the Ke$ha-penned second single from Femme Fatale, “‘Til The World Ends.” Actually, the song—which is produced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin—sounds kind of like an inverted version of Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R,” only with robo-Brit-Brit over the very au courant Eurodance-inspired beat, a chant-along chorus that seems tailor-made for some teen movie’s giant party scene, and lyrics that go absolutely nowhere near the “It Gets Better” campaign.

It’s fine! It’s not “Toxic,” but expecting “Toxic” at this point is like expecting a unicorn to show up (for real, not just in a video). It’s very of the moment and while it doesn’t have anything resembling the next-wave breakdown that elevated “Hold It Against Me” above its banal verses and chorus, it’s overall a much more energetic, peppy song.

Now, given that there have been a ton of fake Britney leaks in addition to the officially sanctioned snippets put out into the world by Dr. Luke and will.i.am as of late, the idea that this song is actually a huge fake-out for the purposes of making the Internet go nuts is definitely real. But last night a snippet of the track leaked on Amazon.de, which one could think is a reliable source for previews of songs hitting retail in the coming days and weeks, and this song definitely has that bit. Would a crazed Britney fan go so far as to craft her own version of the track around that 15-second piece? Even Britney herself doesn’t seem so sure of the likelihood of that happening, according to her interview with V Magazine:

V When did you first realize you were famous?
BS Am I famous?

Ha. Ha?

POPDUST SAYS:
[starreview tpl=16]
3 BOLTS