Britney Spears - Circus Review

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Tracklist:
1. Womanizer
2. Circus
3. Out from Under
4. Kill the Lights
5. Shattered Glass
6. If U Seek Amy
7. Unusual You
8. Blur
9. Mmm Papi
10. Mannequin
11. Lace and Leather
12. My Baby

Release Date: 12/02/2008

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2.7
average

Chart.

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Terron Moore (2.5)
Dumb dance-pop? Yup. Overly self-indulgent? Yup. And since you would already guess that about Circus...

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On 5 Lists

4.5
superb

Dave de Sylvia STAFF (188 Reviews)

2008-11-30 | 236 comments | 12,636 views

Summary: With a bit of justice, Circus will be afforded the same longevity as Britney's brilliant early singles.

She’s been around so long, and the past two years have been so batshit insane, it’s easy to dismiss the controversy that followed Britney Spears when she first emerged from a Swedish recording studio as, well, just a little silly. Sure, the naughty schoolgirl routine was every bit the cynical ploy to rope in horny schoolboys and dirty old men to the hitherto impenetrable world of teen pop, but there was always more to her than that. She was held up as a beacon for evangelical morality, having vowed to abstain from sex before marriage- a claim that, while perhaps sincere at the time of utterance, few but the most excessively moralistic of parents believed would last. Then there were the persistent rumours of her boob job that turned out to be nothing more than an epic case of stuffing. They sum up the Britney phenomenon in a nutshell: the only aspect of Britney Spears that wasn’t completely imbued with a maniacal sexual energy was the girl herself. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that her eventual response would in some way involve flashing her cooch.

Thankfully for Ms. Spears, and just about anybody who doesn’t enjoy watching a person slowly kill themselves on TV, she appears to be back on the straight and narrow, and Circus audibly benefits from her newfound serenity. One of the defining features of 2007’s comeback record Blackout, a feature that Circus shares, was just how thematically coherent it was. Britney herself was clearly far from recovered, and a couple of badly-received performances justified the decision not to take the record out on tour, but she and her handlers had somehow managed to jumble together more than just a bunch of songs. Britney’s contribution to the actual writing of the album was negligible, but she proved to be the perfect muse for tracks like ‘Piece Of Me’ and ‘Why Should I Be Sad?’ (The Clutch and Pharrell respectively), songs that presented the star’s perspective, so often ignored, on her predicament, if not in her own exact words. Her vocals were heavily tuned and processed, which, looking back, probably said as much about her physical state as it did her singing ability. For all her faults, Britney has always known her way around a sweet tune, a skill which has seen her consistently outshine more technically gifted singers like Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera.

On the surface, there couldn’t be much more to separate Circus from Blackout. If Blackout is a reflection of the drug- and alcohol-fuelled mentalness that characterised the height of Britney’s public breakdown, Circus is the sober post-game analysis. Musically, it harks back to the simplicity and (sometimes) innocence of her early records. It is by no means a teenybopper record, but the impetus is clearly there with the re-introduction of Max Martin, the man behind ‘...Baby One More Time,’ and his onetime cohort Dr. Luke Gottwald. While the electronic overtones persist, it’s the most straightforward pop-rock record she’s put out in years, with impish power pop romps like ‘If U Seek Amy’ and ‘Lace And Leather’ sitting pretty alongside club bangers ‘Womanizer’ and ‘Kill The Lights.’ And that’s not to mention the welcome return to the fold of the epic, schmaltzy r&b ballad. Circus is a supremely polished record, but Britney’s natural voice comes readily to the fore, affording us a glimpse of exactly what we’ve been missing for the past few years.

What binds the two records, in spite of their obvious differences, is just how utterly of-the-moment they both are and were. Blackout was fiery and confrontational, an attitude reflected in the unapologetic lyrical stance of ‘Piece Of Me.’ Circus, too, feels like an accurate document of Britney’s life as she is currently living it. There are the same brazen attacks on the media, and photographers in particular (‘Kill The Lights,’ ‘If U Seek Amy’), but the tone is far more reflective and analytical. On ‘Kill the Lights’ she asks, mischievously, “is that money in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?”, while ‘If U Seek Amy’ revels in a spot of cheeky wordplay with the chorus: “Love me, hate, say what you want about me / But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to If U Seek Amy.” The flip-side to ‘If U Seek Amy’ is the title track, on which Britney reflects upon her own fascination with the public’s gaze: ”There's only two types of people in the world / The ones who entertain and the ones who observe / Well, baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl / Don't like the backseat, gotta be first.”

Lead single ‘Womanizer’ provides the smooth transition between albums, a pulsating club single that pairs blaring, ravey synths alongside a sledgehammer-repetition chorus. As a song, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Blackout’s Bloodshy & Avant (they of ‘Toxic’ fame) production ‘Radar,’ and the latter inexplicably appears as a bonus track on the current album. Second single ‘Circus’ is more reflective of the album’s general mood, balancing laid-back vocal harmonies with a more uptempo half-rapped chorus. Guy Sigsworth’s twin productions, ‘Out From Under’ and ‘My Baby,’ subtly evoke the Britney of old: airy pop ballads that benefit from the former Frou Frou producer’s sophisticated, layered arrangements. Dr. Luke contributes to ‘Circus’ and ‘Lace And Leather,’ the latter driven by a ferocious slap bass and handclap routine that’s more Bobby Brown than Britney Spears, yet the strength of the material is such that it melts seamlessly into place. Max Martin’s ‘If U Seek Amy’ might just be the best of the lot, however, marrying the producer’s signature hard rock synth style with Britney’s impeccable phrasing and flirtatious demeanour.

Pound for pound, Circus rivals ...Baby One More Time and Oops... I Did It Again for top-class pop songs, but unlike those albums it is burdened by virtually no filler. The lyrical case for Circus is probably not as strong as this review lets on- there will be no university courses taught on this subject- but in the lexicon of pop music, Circus is a top-rate pop album that, with a little bit of justice, will be afforded the same sort of longevity as her brilliant early singles.

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