Britney Spears : Releases >>

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Blackout >>

She may be bald, and her parenting skills may be more backwoods than the celebrity-obsessed would prefer, but when it comes to her profession (singing pop songs, for those who have forgotten) you've got to give Brit a break. Not because her previous records have been flawless--for all its first-listen appeal, Oops! I Did It Again will drive even the most tolerant pop fiend bats after two repeats, and it's hard for long-term fans to overlook the unfortunate "I Love Rock N Roll" off 2001's Britney--but because, despite all the personal tumult, she's feeling the music like never before. Blackout is not a brilliant record for its vocals, though they're good in the cooing, sex-kittenish way we've come to expect (check first single "Gimme More," a monstrously catchy dance-pop number, for the requisite moans and sighs). But it is brilliant. And though the Neptunes, Bloodshy & Avant, and Nate "Danja" Hills do their trippy, thumpy, raved-up thing successfully enough to make you think so, the brilliance isn't in the production only. The crackling "Radar" gets under your skin not just because of its club-ready beat, a familiar element on this disc, but also from Britney's deliberate vocal haze; here she is interpreting how she ought to sound against the heat of this track, and pretty skillfully--she goes for pure vibe, and she gets it. And while the words to the seemingly autobiographical "Piece of Me" are enough to pull you in themselves--here we get to hear Britney refer to herself as "Miss Bad Media Karma"--they get a little something extra from our girl's newly awakened sense of what makes a song flow; she has the good sense to squeal. Is she a credible role model? Certainly not. Is her music worth hitting, as the old song goes, one more time? Absolutely. --Tammy La Gorce

Greatest Hits: My Prerogative >>

In the six years since her debut CD ...Baby One More Time set Billboard charts a-trembling, Britney Spears has pried open pop music's rusty cage and sprinkled her sex-kittenish fairy dust around like long-overdue disinfectant. She has also arguably done more for the neglected navel than Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé have done for the derrière. But despite her well-earned reputation for boldness (to which releasing a greatest-hits package after just four discs can only add), Britney calls it quits at making claims about her vocal talent. And that works in her favor. Because while My Prerogative is an exciting and even at times superb record, its merits lie almost exclusively in each track's production. From the Abba-esque choruses of her earliest hits ("...Baby One More Time," "Crazy") to the twitching, pulsed-up grooves of 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U" to the technified bleeps and swizzles of 2003's self-skewering "Outrageous," the pop princess proves she's been largely content to let her in-studio performances take a back seat to the rhythm. With beats as consistently good as the ones she's managed to recruit, though, it's hard to blame her. "Toxic" and "Me Against the Music" mash trance and hip-hop into the mix, and the three previously unreleased joints don't shrink from sliding headfirst into new sound, either. The Bobby Brown cover and title track stomps and bomps to a bared-teeth backdrop, and "Do Somethin'" creates such dancefloor urgency it should come with a siren. "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)" treads two steps shy of crossing the Britney-bred boundary between sexy and raunchy, but fans will hope it's autobiographical anyway. For detractors the song--and the disc as a whole--should signal a long wait till the party's over. --Tammy La Gorce

In The Zone >>

However coy she might be in her public statements, Britney Spears leans more than a bit toward the provocative on In the Zone. Less concerned with aiming at the mainstream radio dial than in the first days of her career, she and her collaborators make this as street and club ready a record as possible. The opening duet with Madonna, "Me Against the Music," is worthy, but the bigger superstar's presence serves almost less as a performance than a key to Britney's intentions: as Madonna did on albums such as Erotica , Ray of Light, and Music, she's out to bend current trends to her needs. R. Kelly, Moby, and Ying Yang Twins all provide stirring moments that draw on everything from Bollywood to Southern hip-hop, while one of the most impressive tracks, "Touch of My Hand," joins the proud tradition of Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop." She still lacks a fully formed artistic vision of her own, but Zone, with its many get-free anthems, puts her much closer. --Rickey Wright

Oops!... I Did It Again >>

Yes, she did. Even if the title track's chorus is a blatant rip-off of the Barbra Streisand/Barry Gibb duet, "Woman in Love," it's still darn catchy--much more than anything from 1999's ...Baby One More Time (save the album's fab title tune, of course). With the rest of the 12 songs here, the teen queen pretty much delivers a remake of her last album. Songs like "What U See (Is What U Get)" and "Stronger" show Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin in his element, churning out another and yet another slick smash with staccato synth beats and heavily overproduced melodies. But even at his strongest points, he can't bury Britney's voice far enough below the virtual guitars--and it's obvious this girl ain't no Celine. Except for the horrendous ballads, however, that doesn't make a stitch of a difference. The pop songs have all the qualities of memorable tunes--the choruses are clear and catchy, the beats are bouncy enough to make you shake your bonbon, and the singer is about as randy for love as Austin Powers is for a shag. Edit out the low-water mark--when Britney mutilates the Rolling Stones' misogynist anthem, "Satisfaction," by oversexualizing it with inserted "uh"s ("I can't get no, uh, satisfaction")--and you've got a hit-packed album that's as guilty a pleasure as reruns of Beverly Hills 90210. --Heidi Sherman

...Baby One More Time [ENHANCED CD] >>

Debbie Gibson never recorded anything as sexy as Britney Spears's white-funk smoker "...Baby One More Time." Unfortunately, neither does the 17-year-old Spears's debut album contain anything else that remotely approaches that instant hit single. A few of the disc's cuts are pleasantly catchy, but too much of its space is given over to icky ballads ("E-Mail My Heart"?) and other unconvincing moves such as the dancehall-lite "Soda Pop." --Rickey Wright

Now That's What I Call Music! 4 >>

The fourth in the series of Top 40-tracking compilations strikes a good balance between pop radio played-to-death singles, R&B standouts, and straight-up rock chart stormers. The beginning of the disc is packed with requisite teen pop; however, the Britney Spears offering "(You Drive Me) Crazy" will probably disappoint those who were hoping for the more recent "Oops!... I Did It Again"). This disc, where the Italian group Eiffel 65's dance-pop smash "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" lives in the same space as Blink 182's "All the Small Things," Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses," and Macy Gray's "I Try," is like channel surfing during drive-time radio hours and scoring with every hit of the "seek" button. --Beth Massa

Break the Ice >>

UK two track CD pressing of the third single pulled from her Blackout album. 'Break The Ice' was written by Nate "Danja" Hills, Marcella "Ms. Lago" Araica, Keri Hilson and James Washington, and is Electropop at it's very best. Features two versions of 'Break The Ice': Main Version and Instrumental. RCA.

Piece of Me >>

2008 UK two track CD pressing of the second single pulled from Brit's 2007 album Blackout. Arguably the most famous woman in the world, Britney is back and doing what she does best! 'Piece Of Me' is an upbeat, electronic, catchy, monster of a song! For the first time, it gives insight into Britney's take on the media circus that constantly surrounds her.