The horn line on “Darkest Light,” the 1975 jam from French funk act Lafayette Afro Rock Band — you’d know it if you heard it — is one of those timeless hip-hop samples, and appears as the centerpiece of Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got,” Public Enemy’s “Show ‘Em Whatcha Got,” and Wreckx-N-Effect’s “Rump Shaker” (along with tracks from a whole bunch of other people). Also, now, on a song by Britney Spears! A new batch of outtakes (coming hot on the heels of the serendipitous release of her “Telephone” demo) has surfaced, and it includes “Mad Love,” a flirty slow jam built around the familiar Lafayette riff. Otherwise, not much to say here: Whoever made the call to leave these tracks on the studio floor — there’s also the stern “Am I a Sinner” and the anti-monogamy “When I Say So,” which features the lyrics “you’re feeling me, my jeans, my baby tee” — did the right thing (by the way, Spears was supposedly recording a new album for this summer, but Idolator theorizes these particular tracks are leftovers from 2001’s Britney). Still, it is nice that we’ve gotten to the point where we’re willing to trudge through random Britney demos as if they were unmarked tapes from the Sgt. Pepper sessions or something.
“Mad Love”