Britney Spears- Circus

I thought it was over for Britney Spears.  When I watched her performance at last year’s Video Music Awards, I was horrified.  How could anyone in their right mind let her perform in that state?  The charisma that was the spark to her performances on was gone, replaced with glassy eyes and sequin covered bra.  I’ll never forget the camera cutting to 50 Cent, who was wearing the same look of horror and pity I was.  Despite what she said at the beginning of the performance, this was not Britney, bitch.

After her VMA appearance, things got even worse.  She got her children taken away, she was committed to a mental institution and was on television every night running away from paparazzi.  She quickly released a new album, Blackout, but like her VMA performance, her heart wasn’t in it.  Rolling Stone put the final nail in her coffin with one of their best covers:

Then she disappeared.  There were no stories about random midnight headshavings or walking out of gas station bathrooms eating Cheetos.  There was a guest shot on How I Met Your Mother, but that was it.  She was in the studio, making the record that would catapult her back to pop royalty.  Circus is the fruit of her labor.

Nobody listens to a Britney Spears record for the music inside.  She’s not a singer, she is a brand name.  You listen to a Britney Spears record for personality, charisma and a few bouncy hooks.  The good news: The spark is there.  She’s clearly trying hard, and there are a few moments where she manages to channel the Britney of old.  Musically, it hits all the right bases for a good Britney album.  The dance tunes are bright, shiny and disposable.  The ballads are overwrought and melodramatic, and her metaphors are as easy and cliché as they were eight years ago.  The album is called Circus for God’s sake.

The album kicks off with “Womanizer,” her first number one single since “…Baby One More Time” in 1999.  The song is the catchiest thing she’s done since “Toxic,” but still isn’t the knockout first single that she needed.  The best part of a Britney song is usually the first two seconds, when the hook punches you directly in the face.  Who could forget the three piano chords in the beginning of “…Baby One More Time,” or the “Oooh Yeah!” at the beginning of “Oops, I Did it Again?” “Womanizer” begins with a shrieking siren, which is a nice metaphor for her comeback, but there are a million low-rent techno songs with that effect.

Despite the fact that the metaphor bludgeons you over the head immediately (Her life is insane, so it’s like a three ring circus, for those of you that don’t get the complexity), “Circus” is an enjoyable piece of dance pop. Her baby talk voice is in full bloom, and it fits the beat perfectly.  The producers show an admirable amount of restraint by not adding a pipe organ.

“Out From Under” is the obligatory emotional centerpiece of the record.  Not surprisingly, it’s also the best moment.  Britney takes an unremarkable ballad and makes it her own.  She can’t hit as many notes as Christina Aguilera, but it doesn’t matter.  There is actual pain when she says she “doesn’t want to feel the pain.”  Unfortunately, Britney’s performance is slightly hindered by the production.  A spare piano arrangement similar to 2001′s “Everytime” would have been more effective.

Like most albums of the genre, Circus falls apart quickly.  After the first three tracks, everything starts to run together.  There are a few decent fake Timbaland beats (“Shattered Glass,” “Mannequin”), another obvious lyrical pairing (“Leather and Lace”…how original!), and shameless use of a classic line from Sunset Boulevard (‘I’m ready for my close-up’ on “Hit the Lights”).  All of these breeze by inoffensively.

It wouldn’t be a Britney album without one horrendously cringe-worthy moment, and Circus delivers.  “MMM Papi” is about her boyfriend, or her dad.  I stopped paying attention when she breathily informed me that “I’m Mommy, and that makes you Papi, and that makes us Lovey.”  There are so many things wrong with that statement.

Circus fulfills its purpose.  It’s nowhere near perfect, but it shows that Britney Spears is back in the game.  If she handles the momentum well, her next album will be her true comeback.