Album Review: Britney Spears - Blackout (Times Review)
(Blackout Cover That Could’ve Been)
(WHAT?! REALLY?!)
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. (Times)
Key Tracks:
MP3 | Britney Spears - Piece Of Me
MP3 | Britney Spears - Toy Soldier (Did you know K-Fed was a Toy Soldier?)
MP3 | Britney Spears - Radar
MP3 | Britney Spears - Break The Ice
MP3 | Britney Spears - Hot As Ice
MP3 | Britney Spears - Ooh Ooh Baby
PMA: 80%
Blackout Promo. So Jive does read blogs…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev6rK7tZi-c]
UPDATE:
Whether you looking for diamonds, rubies, wholesale handbags or those special wedding rings for your beloved, all can be ordered online. From the therapeutic magnetic bracelet to women’s bras, all sorts of commodities undergo the fashion bug and hence you need binoculars the size of a house to keep a check on all that is happening.
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This cd is so good!!! Potential singles all over!!!
This is the best pop album of the year. I’m very impressed
OMG! One of the bests albums of the year! i luv it! big return brit! i can wait to see her next single! it seems like every song had a potential to be one! thanks ali! you’re the best! xoxo *—-*
I would imagine that one of the most famous people in the world would get a lot more results on Google than 82,000…
i have no doubt that it will be fabulous.
so, are the majority of the reviews positive?
I think so
I think so
You go BritBrit! I knew you could do it bb.
four stars? jesus almighty.
WWWOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
I don’t know how I feel about my popstars being fat and disgusting. Is she going to usher in a whole new era?
this is the best cd of 2007 from the artist who was expected to have the worst, how ironic? she will def. shut up the haters with this cd. AMAZING!!!!
AMAZING album!
Congrats Britney…you’ve got another #1 
Fuck yeah this album is > than JT’s.
i’m pretty sure you just said her album is greater than than JT’s
I’m pretty sure she just said that Britney’s album is greater than Justin’s.
love ur perspective on the album
finally here
i must admit, it’s one very good album !!
I wanna maim whoever wrote this article for being so freaking pretentious. “Chin-stroking post-ironics”? STFU.
Love it, love it, love it!!! Thank you so much for this. =)
Even though I got most of the leaked tracks thanks to PMA, I am going to buy the album and support her starbucks habit.
four stars. so yeah, this album will be amazing.
4/5?
generous
That made me sad.
i loathe double negatives. for realz.
metatextual
WTF? is that a typo? how do you even SAY that? and what the hell does it mean? O.o
I LOVED In the Zone and I was a huge Britney hater for years. I’m sure I’ll download this one. Nope, not going to buy it. She doesn’t need any more party money. Nope.
4 out of 5? Not bad.
Her new album Blackout is actually very good!
I truly recommend it!
Especially Piece of Me and Ooh Ooh Baby
Lmfao @ that picture.
Well shit! This is a positive review?
“self-determining control-freak”
I like those qualities about Madonna.
Either way… she still sucks. And most people will get it when it leaks, rather than buy it.
4/5?
wow, that’s music nowadays.
what the fuck????! i can’t understand a goddamn word of this review. whoever wrote it is a fucking pedantic moron.
Her “music” is shit.
She’s still a waste of DNA.
AHAHHA! Honestly this album is fucking hot. Every song is good and i’ve only heard the demos - Can’t wait to hear more of the finished songs.
This album is so, so GREAT!!!!!!!!!! Hope she promotes it well!
from what i’ve heard, i love this album! can’t wait to buy it
Ha ha ha … awesome! I’ve been wanting to hear some songs from the CD, but all I could seem to find were the previously leaked tracks that aren’t really on the album. Thanks! Great blog, by the way.
from what i’ve heard, i love this album! can’t wait to buy it
I only like one song on the album :/ Toy Soldier, and really. And if it bombs I wouldn’t be surprised, but with her being a media-whore she really knows how to sell herself out to get her album out there.
“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.”
Translation: The music may be good, but Britney is still a bratty, unwashed mess.
Im not gonna lie, Im going to buy myself a copy.
THIS ALBUM IS FUCKING AWESOME!
I admit, I was a Britney basher and laughed when she made a fool of herself on tv, but… this cd is truly addicting!
I pre-ordered the cd and can’t wait to get it! YAY! lol. I’ve heard most of it already but I want to OWN it!! lol- it’s a little unhealthy but yeah…
blackout > 2007 in pop music.
Britney is always gonna be the Queen of Pop. Even if half the album sold are to people wanting to see how bad it is, they’ll listen to it and realize she still great at what she does.
All she needs to do now is get that 2001 VMAs body back!
TOY SOLDIER has to be single!
one of the best album in 2007 !
Go to http://www.muchmusic.com and listen to the WHOLE album, it really is great, listen to it a few times! GO BRIT!
[...] blogs (I can’t torrent at work) but you can find bits and pieces. Listen to the tracks from Pretty Much Amazing. Blackout is actually GOOD. It’s produced and designed for the dance floor but [...]
I love this record, she’s still got it!
Fuckin mad awesome CHEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
THIS ALBUM IS FUCKIN SICK!!!!!
TOY SOLDIER AND WHY SHOULD I BE SAD ARE A MUST HEAR!
HOTTEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR BY FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 OUT OF 5!! This isn’t a COMEBACK - because Britney never left B*TCHES!! Awesome, hot, record. That’s me driving bobbin my head to the jamz!!
The album is simply amazing. Every track is fresh but familiar at the same time. The production is off the charts and I’m not a Britney fan. White people dance music is back!!!
Wooh! This album kicks ass. Hell yeah! Great 4 liftin ur spirit`s! I like ALL her albums
i just want sum My Chemical Romance gig tickets now!!! Lol