Britney’s back, whether you like it or not.
Yes, it’s hard to believe Britney Spears had time to record her fifth studio album, “Blackout,” released Oct. 30, amidst rehab, divorce, child custody and drug- and alcohol-related drama, but she did it, and surprisingly, did it well.
Spears’s claim to fame began in 1998 with her hit single, “… Baby One More Time” from the album of the same name that has gone platinum 14 times in the U.S. alone. The success of “… Baby One More Time,” followed by her 2000 release “Oops! … I Did It Again,” which sold over 10 million copies, made it her second diamond-certified album. In 2001, Spears released “Britney” which sold over 4 million copies, followed by “In The Zone” in 2003, which went double platinum.
In 2004, after marrying Kevin Federline, Spears released a greatest hits album and a remix album (which had lukewarm success). But from that point on in her life, Spears bought a first class ticket to Crazytown, her bizarre antics upstaging her career and putting her music on the backburner.
But now she has returned, and with the help of producers Nate “Danja” Hills (Katherine McPhee, Timbaland), Sean Garrett (Usher, Beyonce), and The Neptunes (Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z), Spears trumps the haters and recorded a noteworthy compilation of dance and club tracks and booty-shaking anthems.
Despite her trainwreck of a performance at the 2007 Video Music Awards and the camera phone-quality music video of her current single “Gimme More,” the song is a club hit, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
The album includes a common theme of poking fun of her image and how the paparazzi characterizes her in the tabloids, most notably in “Piece of Me.” Spears cleverly declares no matter what she does, “they still goin’ to put pictures of my derriere in the magazines.” She challenges anyone who wants a piece of her to step off, though she knows she’ll always be known as “Ms. Lifestyles of the rich and famous” and “Ms. She’s too big, now she’s too thin.”
She even expresses her feelings toward her “baby-daddy” in the sing-along track “Toy Soldier.” Spears raps, “This time, I need a soldier that knows how to take care of me, I’m so damn glad that’s over, sick of toy soldiers, (I need a boy) that knows how to take care of me (and) won’t be just comin’ over.”
Also in the R&B influenced “Why Should I Be Sad?” Spears says, “They couldn’t believe I did it, but I was so committed, my life was so restricted for you, why should I be sad for the stupid freaking things you do.”
Of course, in true Britney fashion, she included sexy, look-at-my-body-and-want-me-because-I-want-you songs such as “Radar,” “Get Naked (I Got a Plan)” and “Freakshow,” which maybe indicates she’s already over K-Fed.
And perhaps she didn’t need Timbaland, the super-producer known for reviving the careers of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, after all because the “oohs and aahs” from “Break the Ice” sound similar to the “oohs and aahs” on Timbaland’s “Bombay” from his album “Shock Value.” Spears also channels the upbeat singing style of Kylie Minogue’s “Still Standing” on “Heaven on Earth.”
“Blackout,” however, is not without its faults. Once again, Britney doesn’t take her songwriting to the next level and sings artificial lyrics over heavy computer-synched beats and backing vocals.
“Hot as Ice,” “Ooh Ooh Baby” and “Perfect Stranger” are forgettable.
Otherwise, Spears’s new album has the potential to grow and help her take control of her life and career once again. Hopefully, having the No. 2 album in the country will spark old Brit-Brit to be the clean, happy, sexy and scantily-clad pop-tart the world once loved.
Contact info:Briana Prevost can be reached at [email protected].
