Britney, one more time
Anyone expecting great things from the highly-publicised return of pop queen Britney Spears (who, at 27, is arguably no longer a princess) will be disappointed by the lack of energy in her new album, Circus.
After years spent in rehab, divorce hearings and public displays of humiliation, the singer has released a 15-track album amid loud fanfare from her record label and dozens of magazine covers. She bares long, golden locks, a flat stomach and a perfect tan, suggesting the label wants this album to revive the magic of her Baby, One More Time days.
But apart from the hit single Womanizer and a couple of other passable tracks, the album lacks the spunk and passion of her early releases.
Spears' characteristic voice-cracking riffs and pop princess energy have been replaced by subdued, whispery low notes. Strong, synthesized beats, produced by the big names behind Spears' former hits, tend to overpower her voice, and Spears winds up too frequently sounding like Rihanna or M.I.A.
In Kill the Lights, an angst-ridden plea against the paparazzi, Spears' solo chorus is meeker than it should be. In Lace and Leather, Spears alternates between sounding like a young child and sounding bored. Even Womanizer is saved only by a catchy beat rather than catchy lyrics.
The slow ballad My Baby pays a disservice to her son with cheesy, repetitive lyrics like, 'Now living with you / See everything true/ My baby, it's you'.
Out From Under is another slow song and alludes to Spears' dark days in rehab. It seems to be the only song sung with any of the passion Spears used to deliver hits like Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman and Everytime.
It's unfortunate that health and passion appear mutually exclusive for Spears. She may look as fit and sexy as she did before her pregnant, drunken, bald days, but at what cost to her own happiness? The week Circus came out, MTV released a telling, behind-the-scenes documentary on the star.
During one interview she sounds spaced-out, tired and sad, eventually breaking into tears and saying she was 'sad'.
'I don't feel like [my life] is out of control, I feel it's too in control. There's no excitement, no passion. It's like Groundhog Day every day,' she says, referring to a movie in which Bill Murray's character relives the same day over and over.
In one particularly heart-breaking scene, Spears appears to be holding back the tears as she says: 'I'm angry. I'm very angry. I'm horribly angry.'
Later she says: 'When I tell people the way I feel, they're not listening. They hear what they want to hear.'
But people are certainly hearing Circus. Womanizer reached No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart even before the album was released, and the album is inching up the charts worldwide.
Spears may yet prove that, oops, she's done it again.
