On “Break The Ice,” a cut from her fifth studio album Blackout, Britney Spears apologizes to listeners. “It’s been a while. I know I shouldn’t have kept you waiting, but I’m here now.” Hey, at least she entertained us while we waited by flashing her nether regions all over town.
Blackout, in stores next Tuesday, isn’t the most appropriate title for the temporarily childless popstar. After all, it was probably being in the aforementioned state one too many times that left Britney with an empty crib at home. Title aside, it’s the music that matters. And Spears has always been about the music, right?
Surprisingly, the album proves to be a cohesive, urban-electro-pop affair. It’s as if Spears’ year long bout of insanity inspired Blackout’s slew of A-list writers and producers to come up with some of the best pop anthems of 2007.
After the now-notorious lead single “Gimme More,” Spears heads into experimental territories — experimental for a one-time manufactured teen starlet, at least.
“Piece of Me,” for example, which teams Spears with Swedish pop extraordinaires Bloodshy ‘ Avant (also responsible for “Toxic”), could easily pass for a Daft Punk track if it weren’t for the lyrics.
An extremely vocodered Britney declares, “I’m Miss Bad Media Karma, another day, another drama, guess I can’t see the harm in working and being a mama.” And even though she isn’t quite a full-time “mama” at the moment, the lyrics work to her advantage.
The rest of the album is a nonstop risqu’eacute; romp that ignores all of Spears’ hijinks since the addled post-Federline era.
On the tongue-in-cheek “Hot As Ice,” a helium-induced Spears praises herself (“Living legend, you can look but don’t touch”), while producer T-Pain provides quirky Outkast-esque backing vocals that bring the song to life.
With talk of peep shows on the bass-heavy “Freakshow,” and demands for a bad-boy soldier on the infectious, frenetic drum based “Toy Soldier,” Blackout proves to be the perfect companion in accomplishing what its title promises.
Spears’ 50-minute dance party comes to an end with the personal “Why Should I Be Sad,” the closest thing on the album to a ballad. With a little help from Pharrell, Britney earnestly croons about life, her kids and K-Fed’s cheating ways. “I thought, ‘What could separate us?’ But it turned out that Vegas only brought the player outta you.”
It’s this last song that brings Britney fans back to reality. Although the slick Blackout successfully makes her sound sexy, and even sane, her personal life still overshadows her musical efforts. And with minimal effort on Spears’ part to promote her music and entertain the way she used to, it’s unlikely the album will have the sole strength to provide her with the career comeback it was designed to accomplish.
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