B in the Mix: The Remixes
Encyclopedia
B in the Mix: The Remixes is the first remix album
Remix album
A remix album is an album consisting mostly of remixes or re-recorded versions of a music artists' earlier released material.One of the earliest remix albums was 1971's Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nilsson, which was released by Nilsson after the successes of Everybody's Talkin and The Point!...

 by American recording artist Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...

, released on November 22, 2005, by Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...

. The album contains remixes of tracks from her first four studio albums—...Baby One More Time
...Baby One More Time
...Baby One More Time is the debut studio album of American recording artist Britney Spears, released on January 12, 1999, by Jive Records. In June 1997, while Spears was in a negotiation with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense, her mother asked family friend and entertainment...

(1999), Oops!... I Did It Again
Oops!... I Did It Again
Oops!...I Did It Again is the second studio album by American pop singer Britney Spears. The album was released on May 16, 2000 by Jive Records. The album became a commercial success after debuting at top position on the U.S. Billboard 200 selling over 1,319,193 units during its first week...

(2000), Britney (2001) and In the Zone
In the Zone
In the Zone is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, released on November 16, 2003, by Jive Records. Following the end of the Dream Within a Dream Tour in July 2002 and her break-up with Justin Timberlake, Spears announced she would take a six-month break from her...

(2003)—a remix of "Someday (I Will Understand)
Someday (I Will Understand)
"Someday " is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears, from the bonus CD of Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. It was released in Europe as a single on August 21, 2005, by Jive Records. In July 2004, Spears announced her engagement to American dancer Kevin Federline, later revealing she would be...

", and a new track, "And Then We Kiss
And Then We Kiss
"And Then We Kiss" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. The song was written by Spears, Mark Taylor and Paul Barry, while produced by Taylor for In the Zone. This version featured an electronica vibe and prominent vocals by Spears. The song was remixed by Junkie XL for the remix...

". The remixes were done by DJs such as Peter Rauhofer
Peter Rauhofer
Peter Rauhofer is a DJ, remixer and producer who formerly went under the moniker Club 69 as well as Size Queen. A native of Vienna, Austria, he is famous for his remixes of a number of Madonna's songs including "Nothing Really Matters", "American Life", "Nothing Fails, "Nobody Knows Me", "Get...

 and Stuart Price
Stuart Price
Stuart Price is a three time Grammy-winning British electronic musician, songwriter, and record producer whose remixing and production skills are in demand by artists including New Order, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Take That, Missy Elliott, Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Pet Shop Boys, Brandon...

. The music was influenced by various genres of electronic music, such as ambient and techno.

Critics gave mixed reviews to the album. Some reviewers called B in the Mix: The Remixes a good remix compilation, while others argued that the album was conceived as a product and also criticized what they perceived as weak vocals. B in the Mix: The Remixes charted in countries such as Belgium, Japan, Italy and the United States, where it peaked at number four on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s Dance/Electronic Albums. As of November 2007, the album had sold 1 million copies worldwide, making it the ninth best selling remix album of all time. It received minimal promotion by Spears' standards. "And Then We Kiss
And Then We Kiss
"And Then We Kiss" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. The song was written by Spears, Mark Taylor and Paul Barry, while produced by Taylor for In the Zone. This version featured an electronica vibe and prominent vocals by Spears. The song was remixed by Junkie XL for the remix...

" was released as the only single from the album in Australia and New Zealand.

Background

On September 28, 2005, Jive Records announced through a press release that Spears would release a remix album titled Remixed. However, on November 8, 2005, it was reported by Jennifer Vineyard of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 that the album was actually titled
B in the Mix: The Remixes, and was going to be released on November 22, 2005. The album includes songs from her previous albums remixed by DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

s such as Peter Rauhofer
Peter Rauhofer
Peter Rauhofer is a DJ, remixer and producer who formerly went under the moniker Club 69 as well as Size Queen. A native of Vienna, Austria, he is famous for his remixes of a number of Madonna's songs including "Nothing Really Matters", "American Life", "Nothing Fails, "Nobody Knows Me", "Get...

 and Stuart Price
Stuart Price
Stuart Price is a three time Grammy-winning British electronic musician, songwriter, and record producer whose remixing and production skills are in demand by artists including New Order, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Take That, Missy Elliott, Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Pet Shop Boys, Brandon...

. Price had previously remixed "Breathe on Me" from
In the Zone
In the Zone
In the Zone is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, released on November 16, 2003, by Jive Records. Following the end of the Dream Within a Dream Tour in July 2002 and her break-up with Justin Timberlake, Spears announced she would take a six-month break from her...

for a limited edition bonus disc of Spears' 2004 compilation, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative
Greatest Hits: My Prerogative
Greatest Hits: My Prerogative is the first greatest hits album from American singer Britney Spears, released on November 1, 2004 by Jive Records. The compilation was released in two different formats, a standard edition and a limited edition containing a bonus disc with remixes. A compilation DVD...

. B in the Mix: The Remixes also includes one new song, "And Then We Kiss"; the song had previously been set to be included on a bonus disc of her 2005 DVD Britney & Kevin: Chaotic
Britney & Kevin: Chaotic
Britney & Kevin: Chaotic is an American reality television series, which aired on UPN from May 17, 2005 to June 14, 2005, starring American recording artist Britney Spears and her then husband, Kevin Federline. It was created by Anthony E. Zuiker, while Spears and Federline served as the executive...

, but was left out for unknown reasons. B in the Mix: The Remixes had two covers. In the American edition, Spears does not appear on the cover; there is a butterfly instead. Vineyard noted this saying, "[the album] is being marketed in a more underground way than usually associated with a superstar act". In the international edition, Spears appears behind the butterfly.

Composition

The Bill Hamel remix of "Touch of My Hand" is a trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...

 track with elements of ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

. Spears' voice has been described as "chopped up into skittering syllables and [...] becomes part of the beat". The album's fourth track, the Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix of "Breathe on Me" slows the beat from the original track making the song "darker and dirtier". The remix style was compared to songs by Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

 and Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

. Dave Audé Slave Driver Mix of "I'm a Slave 4 U
I'm a Slave 4 U
"I'm a Slave 4 U" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. The song was written and produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, for Spears' third studio album, Britney . It was released on September 24, 2001 by Jive Records, as the first single from the album...

" consists of a guitar track and "quirky analog touches", according to Kurt Kirton of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....

. "And Then We Kiss" contains influences of euro-trance
Euro-trance
The term Euro-trance describes all "trance"-like European imports into the American dance music market, especially those recorded in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.-Dream house:...

, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 and usage of synthesizers. The song blends dance-rock
Dance-rock
Dance-rock is a post-disco movement connected with post-punk/no wave genres with fewer R&B/funk influences. An example of this "post-disco" is Gina X's "No G.D.M." and artists like Liquid Liquid, Polyrock, Dinosaur L, and Disco Not Disco [2000] compilation album...

 guitars and symphonic strings and closes with an orchestral overtone. Its lyrics talk about a kiss and the different sensations that the protagonist experiences, including trembling, crying and moaning. At the beginning she sings the lines "Lying alone / touching my skin" which suggest that the whole song may actually be a fantasy. The album's seventh track, the Valentin remix of "Everytime
Everytime
"Everytime" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears from her fourth album, In the Zone. It was released on May 17, 2004, by Jive Records as the third single from the album. After Spears ended her relationship with pop singer Justin Timberlake, she made friends with her backing...

" contains a serious groove and pounding percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

, with usage of synthesizers. The Jason Nevins remix of "Early Mornin'" is considered the only hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 song of B in the Mix: The Remixes.

Critical response

Kurt Kirton of About.com highlighted the remixes of "Everytime" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know
Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know
"Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears, taken from her second studio album, Oops!... I Did It Again . It was released on January 17, 2001, by Jive Records as the fourth and final single from the album...

", adding that the album would be better if it included more tracks. He summarized his review saying, "this is a decent release that should please any Britney fan and most club music fanatics". Barry Walters of
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

said the album was "even more redundant" than Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, but added that with the exception of "Toxic
Toxic (song)
"Toxic" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears, co-written and produced by Bloodshy & Avant, from her fourth album, In the Zone. It was released on January 12, 2004, by Jive Records as the second single from the album. After trying to choose between " Boom Boom" and "Outrageous" to...

", "just about every original track is bettered here". Spence D. of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 said, "If you had the choice to purchase only one Britney Spears' album, then this would be the one to spend your money on." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic commented that "
B in the Mix doesn't exactly erase the impression that Spears isn't in tune with her recording career". He also stated that on tracks such as "Toxic", "her flaws stand out just a bit too much [...] the instrumental hooks have been removed from the record, leaving Spears to carry the day—which she can't really do. [...] Overall this album sounds and feels like what it really is: a piece of product". MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 writer Bradley Stern praised the album, saying it "featured loads of excellent remixes stretching from '...Baby One More Time' to 'Toxic', but nothing shined quite as bright as the album's undeniable highlight: 'And Then We Kiss (Junkie XL Remix)'."

Gregg Shapiro of the Bay Area Reporter
Bay Area Reporter
The Bay Area Reporter is a free weekly newspaper serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities in the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the oldest-continuously published, and one of the largest LGBT newspapers in the United States....

 gave the album a mostly negative review, calling it "hazardous waste". He also noted that Spears's voice was "reedy, cold and mechanical" when stripped from the original mixes. However, he highlighted two tracks, saying, "Spears come closest to achieving dance-diva status on the Valentin remix of 'Everytime', while the Davidson Ospina 2005 remix of 'Baby One More Time
...Baby One More Time (song)
"...Baby One More Time" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. It served as Spears' debut single from her debut studio album, ...Baby One More Time . Written by Max Martin and produced by Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, "...Baby One More Time" was released on September 30, 1998,...

' elevates the original bubblegum track to club classic". Mike Daniel of The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...

called the Justice remix of "Me Against the Music" the best track of the album, but said it "has the feel of a hastily executed stopgap measure with almost no marketing-related thought behind it except to fulfill the once-every-two-years release cycle that's been established for Britney material." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

 writer Leah Greenblatt noted the remixes "amps already-aggressive singles like 'Toxic' and 'Me Against the Music' to brain-popping levels of synth spiraling", and transforms "sad-eyed slow jams like 'Everytime' and 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know' into Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...

 bursts. This party is BYORB (Bring Your Own Red Bull
Red Bull
Red Bull is an energy drink sold by the Austrian Red Bull GmbH, created in 1987 by the Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz. In terms of market share, Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 3 billion cans sold each year. Dietrich Mateschitz was inspired by an already...

); without it, you might not be able to keep up."

Chart performance

In the United States, B in the Mix: The Remixes debuted at number one hundred thirty-four on the Billboard 200, selling 14,000 copies in its first week. The album also peaked at number four on Billboards Dance/Electronic Albums, making it the first top four title on the chart since July 2002 that had more than 10,000 units sold. The album spent a total of twenty-one weeks on the chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...

, B in the Mix: The Remixes has sold over 123,000 copies in the United States. The album also debuted on Belgium charts at number ninety-nine on the dated week of December 17, 2005, and also debuted at number fifty-nine on the Italian chart on the dated week of November 25, 2005. The album peaked at twenty-five in Japan, where it stayed eight weeks in that chart. As of November 2007, B in the Mix: The Remixes had sold 1 million copies worldwide, becoming the ninth best selling remix album of all time.

Promotion

B in the Mix: The Remixes received little promotion compared to Spears' standards. A promotional 12-inch single
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 titled Key Cuts from Remixed with five of the album's remixes was leaked more than two weeks before the album was released. A contest was launched on Spears' paid fan site for those who pre-ordered the album. The winner received a copy of Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, a bottle of Fantasy
Fantasy (fragrance)
Fantasy is a women's fragrance from Elizabeth Arden, and is the second perfume to be endorsed by Britney Spears. The ad's tagline is "Everybody has one"....

with an additional lotion and make-up kit and a personalized autographed picture of Spears. On November 22, 2005, a release party was held at an unspecified club in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, organized by Spears' management and the webmaster of the fansite WorldOfBritney.com. It was a limited event to 500 people, including members of the fansite or her official fan club. Spears commented, "I just wanted to say that I love the idea of all my fans getting together to celebrate the release of my new album. I was happy to help! I hope you have a great night out at the club and dance all night long!".

Singles

Before being included on B in the Mix: The Remixes, "And Then We Kiss" was initially produced by Mark Taylor for Spears' fourth studio album, In the Zone
In the Zone
In the Zone is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, released on November 16, 2003, by Jive Records. Following the end of the Dream Within a Dream Tour in July 2002 and her break-up with Justin Timberlake, Spears announced she would take a six-month break from her...

(2003). It failed to be included on the album; however, after being remixed by Junkie XL
Junkie XL
Tom Holkenborg , better known as Junkie XL or JXL, is a Dutch musician. He uses the name JXL in cases where the term "Junkie" might cause offense. XL is for "Xpanding Limits"....

 for the remix album, it was released as the only single from the album in Australia and New Zealand. A promotional 12-inch single featuring a new version of the remix was also released. The remix received mostly positive reviews from music critics, with some noticing its potential to be a radio or club hit. "And Then We Kiss" failed to appear on any major charts. However, it peaked at number fifteen on the US Billboard Hot Dance Airplay
Hot Dance Airplay
Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it...

. The version of the song produced by Taylor remained unreleased for years, until a new mix of the song labeled as the original version leaked online on September 2, 2011. After suggestions that it may be a fake, Taylor confirmed its authenticity to Bradley Stern of Muumuse.com on September 5, 2011.

Track listing

(*) denotes co-producer

(^) denotes remixer and additional producer

Personnel

  • Audio mastering
    Audio mastering
    Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

    : Chaz Harper
  • A&R: Steve Lunt, David Stamm
  • Management: Dan Dymtrow
  • Design: Jackie Murphy
  • Photography
    Photography
    Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

    : Anthony Carlucci

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
Belgium Albums Chart
Ultratop 50
Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995...

99
Italian Albums Chart 59
Japanese Albums Chart
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

25
US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

134
US Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums 4
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