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Finally, a good week for Britney Spears? Just as we were getting to think that a lunar eclipse might come sooner, here’s some tentative cause for celebration.
In the space of 24 hours, the woman who yields roughly 82,000 results if you Google her name along with the phrase “troubled singer”, has been granted temporary visitation rights to her children and seen her new single Gimme More leap into the British chart's top three.
Now, if Britney’s record company is to be believed, a good week just got better. Apparently, “unprecedented popular demand” has prompted SonyBMG to bring the release date of her comeback album Blackout forward by three weeks.
Cynics might point out that, one way or another, they would have been compelled to do so. MP3s of songs from the album have been circulating among fans over the last few weeks. That they have been moved to do so, does at least, serve reminder of the very thing that is perhaps most easily forgotten among her recent roll-call of infamy.
She is first and foremost a pop star. In a life not exactly saturated with joy, she should take a certain amount of pleasure in the fact that Blackout coheres far better than sprawling recent sets by her fellow Mickey Mouse Club alumni Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.
Far from apologising for a roll-call of adversity that takes in custody battles, hit-and-run offences, extreme hairdressing, sudden lingerie loss and umbrella-on-pap savagery – she comes out fighting on the utterly wonderful Piece Of Me.
“I’m Miss bad media karma/Another day another drama/Guess I can’t see no harm in working and being a mama,” she declaims over an adhesively catchy chorus.
Britney may have grown up in front of MTV, perfecting Madonna’s dance routines, but she isn’t the self-determining control-freak that her heroine turned into. Neither, it should be added, does she need to be. Her recent mishaps have only compounded her status as muse of choice to top-notch writer producers such as Swedish hitmakers Bloodshy & Avant, Timbaland protégé Danja and The Neptunes.
On the Pharrell Williams-written Why Should I Be Sad and, indeed, most of what precedes it, Britney is a strangely disembodied presence – her heavily treated voice suspended amid an icy fug of minor chords and brittle synthetic beats.
If truth be told, certain songs wouldn’t have sounded too different if her vocal were totally erased. On Get Naked (I Got A Plan) and Radar her voice is a piece that slots tidily into a finely sculpted piece of burnished future-pop.
But when the whole works so well, it makes no sense to mind. Perfect Lover and Toy Soldier are quite simply two of the most strangely wonderful tunes to emerge on any record this year – exercises in sonic risk-taking that, until this point, have never hitched themselves to a Britney Spears record.
So why now, then? Well, perhaps it was in the spirit of having nothing to lose that someone suggested Britney try her hand at a marching-pace sex-fantasy about a soldier which pitched itself somewhere between Prince’s female alter-ago Camille and the sensation of watching Full Metal Jacket as ten Glade Plug-Ins infuse the air with amyl nitrate. Who knows?
Furthermore, does this stuff work on any profound level? Well, ever since she appeared in 1999 with Hit Me Baby One More Time, Britney has enjoyed a certain status as metatextual plaything of Late Review guests and chin-stroking post-ironics (no mean feat, this – Kylie and Madonna had to ensure years of highbrow snobbery to get to the same point). When it comes down to it though, the answer is no, not really. A gaggle of schoolchildren exchanging ringtones on the top deck of the bus will just as easily tell you why these songs work. They tick almost every box in the checklist of great pop, period.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be so surprising. After all, Britney Spears learned to be a pop star way before she learned to be an adult. In a sense then, it’s fitting that her facility for great pop moments is the very last facet of her to shut down.
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I like Britney, but I just couldn't get the album because all the research I did said it was explicitly about sex, and I just won't buy that kind of thing. I wish she would do some more songs like Everytime - her unadulterated voice plus piano can work wonders.
Lissy, Minneapolis,
If we take all of the rumors and media buzz about her personal life aside, her new album "Blackout" is actually exactly what electro-dance music is and it is done well.
I must admit that I have never been a fan of her or her music. I was never impressed by her until now. I downloaded her album out of sheer curiosity because I do that kind of thing once in while since I am a music lover.
Anyhow, I have listened to it several times and I must say that it truly is her strongest arrangement of tunes thus far. Congrats on a hard and well-earned piece of work!
For anyone out there who likes electro-dance-pop-club-big bass- 2step-loud rumbling beats. You will like this.
Have fun and enjoy!
BB, Quebec, Canada
Actually Blackout really proved out to be one of her best works.I love this CD and i know that she is BACK!
maria, islamabad,
actually, I haven't listened to her latest CD, but I WILL...
I luv Britney...
she is awesome
and she will always be...
Lynn, Jogja, Ina
Britney is the queen of pop and her new CD BLACKOUT is her best in case of funky sound,great vocal ability and dance-pop background. This album is way better than Madonna's albums and Britney is a better performer than Madonna. Britney is the biggest superstar of today with unbreakable records and mindblowing popularity and she will always be.. Go Britney, Go Blackout..
Gorkem, Istanbul, Turkey
This is the best one yet!!! I love it!! Piece of Me is a song that describes her to a tee!
If you buy one CD this year this is it! The songs get better as you listen. :)
Lindsay, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Your the best Britney. Don't let the negative media hype get you down. Love Black Out. Will support you forever. Best C.D. yet . Fabulous album cover. Make the money BABY! You showed them. Amazing music.
Susan, Blackwood, N.J. U.S.A.
Susan DeSimone, Blackwood, NJ. U.S.A.
this album is her best yet!! shes just amazing!! every1 shud buy it... they wont know what hit then!!
Nadine, dublin,
the album is amazing people really need to go out and get it. the music is so different from anything she has done before and I am not that big a fan of her other stuff but this is good music..... this album will get you up and dancing .......
go buy it now you won't regret it!!!!!!!!!
lesley, manchester, uk
After all the media has done to try and bring Britney down, she will still make millions with her new CD. She will be laughing all the way to the bank, so in your face....HATERS!!!!
EMILY, QUEENS, USA/NY
People think just because Britney's life is a bit messy right now that her music will automatically be bad. HELLO, this is the same Britney Spears that has sold 90 million records. The same Britney Spears that is the 8th biggest popstar of ALL TIME. The same Britney Spears that is the only female artist to have four consecutive albums debut at #1; come October 30th she will have breaken her own record.
Blackout is THE ALBUM OF 2007. I've heard clips of it and it's definately Britney's strongest material to date, if you love great pop music you'll like this album. People are WAY too hard on this girl, she's been in the industry since she was 16, she never had a proper adolescence, she's just trying to live her life and people are critisizing every moment of her life. If she ends up the next Anna Nicole Smith the media and news outlets just like THIS ONE will be like "OHYMYGOD WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?" when they've been the ones driving Britney crazy and tipping her over the edge.
Music Insider, GA,
everyone is saying britney is gonna suck but HELLO, she is everywhere,3 out of 5 articles on peoples main articles are britney, on perez hilton, everyother article is britney, she is back, the MTV video music awards we watched this year more than any other year, and even thought britney sucked she was still idolized by so many, This album is greeeeeeeat, every single song is good, she is a new generation of maddona, i mean look at everything maddona did when she was younger, GO BRITNEY, YOU RULE
Steve, olean, new york
The best Britney album by far in her musical career. This is the album which will give her what she needs to start her comeback. It's full of songs which are hits and radio friendly. Standout tracks are Piece of Me, Break the Ice, Toy Soldier
Dennis, Madison, NJ
Britney Spears may have a trouble-filled personal life right now, but there's no denying that Blackout (from what I've heard so far) sounds like a great piece of dance pop. Sure, some tracks are awkward, but "Break the Ice" is brilliant, lead hit single "Gimme More" has gotten people around the globe begging for just that, sunny "Heaven on Earth" is light and fluffy (a la Paris Hilton), "Pieces of Me" has gotten people talking and "Radar" is just great.
Chris E, Boston, USA
britney is smarter than we think. this album is NOT going to flop (i mean we are talking about the same girl whose last 4 albums in a row have debuted at #1 on the billboard charts) her life may be in pieces at the moment, but this pop star knows how to sell an album...
i know im gonna be at Walmart at 12am Oct30th to get it.
I LOVE YOU BRITNEY.
doug, columbia, sc
Britney is the best.she's good at what she does.This will be the best album she has made.BRITNEY IS BACK.
kimmy, b'ham,
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