 Kyle Anderson of MTV said he " was surprised in more ways than one " with his first listening of ... Baby One More Time , commenting he " expected there to be a lot of filler ( there sort of is ) , though I didn 't expect it to be as odd ( at least sonically ) as it ended up being . There has never been any mystery to why Spears became such a superstar , but these songs probably would have been huge even if Britney wore burlap sacks in all of her videos . " Barry Walters of Rolling Stone gave the album two stars out of five , and compared the album 's sound to early hits of Debbie Gibson , Mariah Carey , and Samantha Fox . Walters also said that " while several <unk> @-@ crafted kiddie @-@ funk jams serve up beefy hooks , shameless schlock slowies , like ' E @-@ Mail My Heart ' , are pure spam . " A NME reviewer rated ... Baby One More Time 1 out of 10 , saying that " we seem to have reached crisis point : pubescent pop is now so rife that 17 @-@ year @-@ old Britney ' lizard @-@ lounge ' Spears is already halfway through her lucrative showbiz career " . He also found the album premature , commenting , " hopefully , if she starts to live the wretched life that we all eventually do , her voice will show the scars , she 'll stop looking so fucking smug , she 'll find solace in drugs and we 'll be all the more happier for it . Now grow up , girl . Quick ! " Amanda Murray of Sputnikmusic felt that , " with the exception of the terrific title track , ... Baby One More Time is a collection of either competent pop songs <unk> executed or <unk> written pop songs competently executed . " 
