Britney's Circus is coming to town

Photo: Getty Images

Ah, the wonders of the Internet. Who'd have ever thought we'd be able to order a medium meat lover's pizza, stream amateur armpit porn, and pay our cable bill all at the same time (and who'd have ever thought we'd want to)? Better yet, thanks to early album leaks via message boards and torrent sites, gone are the Tuesdays of yore when you actually had to wait for the release date, put on pants, trudge to the nearest Sam Goody and plunk down $18.99 for the latest pop guilty pleasure.

One of the biggest, gayest, and most anticipated albums of the year, Britney Spears' latest, and first truly post-breakdown effort, Circus, leaked Sunday night and after burrowing it's way into our ears over the past three days, we've jotted down a few quick thoughts:

> The album isn't the breakneck club-stomping thug that Brit's producers have been pimping it to be for the past 9 months. Instead of the crowbar-bearing beats and sketchy back alley skulk of last year's Blackout we get Spears' poppiest offering since ...Baby One More Time, and for the most part we love that.

> The ballads are back! "Out From Under"'s simple guitar strum is the perfect accompaniment for Brit's boo-hoo-hooing over love lost and "Unusual You"'s unpredictably topsy-turvy vocal keeps the song from being reduced to mere album filler. Unfortunately, "My Baby" is perhaps the worst thing Spears has done -- ever. All we can think of when we hear the opening line ("Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny hands...") is Kristin Wiig in that hilarious Lawrence Welk Saturday Night Live sketch from last month.

Continue reading our Circus review after the jump...

> The best tracks aren't even on the album! Bonus track "Amnesia" is hands down our favorite. With a woozy delivery, clumpy drums, and a catchy, sing-songy '60s girl group refrain it sounds like a lost single from Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album -- but recorded in the Back to the Future Delorean circa 1984. "Quicksand," penned by Lady Gaga and featuring the electro-performance art princess singing backup, is pure '90s pop goodness and is already wearing a hole in our iPods.

> We don't love every song on the album. We've been skipping the aforementioned aural nightmare that is "My Baby," as well as "Mannequin" (we're the first to admit the sound of a guy moaning drives us buckwild, but not when it's Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs doing the moaning and not during the chorus of a Britney Spears song). "Phonography" and "Lace and Leather" have encouraging beats but suffer from icky lyrics (the former uses cell phone terminology like "bluetooth" and "hands free" as euphemisms for sex and the latter kicks off with the unforgivable couplet "French fingertips, Red lips / Bitch is dangerous").

After all is said and sung, we're satisfied -- if not impressed. In the last six months Britney has managed to get her life and her career back on track, she looks great, and -- beneficiary of wily Pro Tools tricks or not -- she sounds great. Many of the songs on Circus hook you instantly and most are worthy of repeat plays. Is this album going to change the face of music? No. Are you going to be hearing it every weekend for the next 12 months? You'd better believe it. So give in, turn it up, and get ready for the diva you've been rooting for these past two years to finally reclaim her throne.

Circus is in stores on December 2.

-- NOAH MICHELSON

Previously > Just say no to marriage! > Britney's Comeback

Comments

[David]

I'm a hardcore Britney fan and I agree with most of what you said, except for the comment about Lace and Leather. I really like that song!