Britney Spears

Circus

Jive Records

I love an underdog. And I was genuinely rooting for Britney when this, her sixth full length album of previously unreleased material, recently hit store shelves. In fact, I was so hooked by the record’s catchy lead off single, “Womanizer,” and seduced by its accompanying soft-core video that I actually journeyed through the freezing cold streets of Nashville to purchase the record on its first day of release.

And it’s everything I expected it to be – another well-crafted collection of perfectly written and slickly produced, soulless and uninspired, three-and-a-half minute, high-tech, modern pop, weak-ass dance tracks.

Britney Spears has (somehow) enjoyed such tremendous success over the last decade peddling this predictable type of electronic drivel that to the untrained eye (or ear) she can actually appear (at times) to (almost) be an artist. However, any current female “pop-tart” (or even Justin Timberlake) could have probably had her face airbrushed on the Circus CD cover (or any of her other previous recordings for that matter) and provided the same computer-generated vocals without compromising a bit of the music’s, uh – integrity.

Britney’s longtime personal manager Larry Rudolph and veteran A&R messiah Teresa LaBarbera Whites come together here as the record’s executive producers along with a host of different modern day ace producers who meticulously crafted each individual track.

“There’s only two types of people in the world. The ones that entertain, and the ones that observe,” Ms. Spears states in the record’s title track. “Well baby,” she continues, “I’m a put-on-a-show kinda girl.” Hmm, Shakespeare.

On “Kill the Lights” Britney is touted as the new “Queen of Pop.” But is that really a title to be proud of given the “luck” that a similar moniker brought to that other guy?

And is it a coincidence that all three titles of the only songs co-written by Britney on this record all start with the letter “M” and that “mind-numbing” and “mundane” also start with “M?”

I love pop icons and Britney Spears is arguably the Ali of pop icons. In 2008 she was Googled more than Barack Obama and Circus did debut at number one on the Billboard chart. But don’t you only have to sell a dozen units to debut at number one these days?

One thing is for sure though, Circus is, without a doubt, the newest record of Britney Spears’ career.

Britney Spears: http://brit-s.net