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When you’re talking about a legend in the media industry you’re talking stars that never fail to provide the headlines for many popular tabloid magazines, gossip websites and of course, global newspapers. But when you’re talking about legends in the music industry, that would be the fallen queen, Miss Britney Spears. Ever since she and childhood/long-time beau, Justin Timberlake went on with their decisions to go their separate ways, her life went on a downhill bringing down her multi-billion career down with it. It was obvious she didn’t take the break-up too well considering the hasty marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander which lasted less then 55 hours. Being one of the most biggest-selling female stars in music history, she has been trying to redefine her image from that of innocent teen idol to raunchy sex icon. Her fourth album, In the Zone which was released in November wasn’t well received by media critics but it did however, hit the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. It wasn’t surprising because the singer has sold more than 54 million albums around the world.

Blackout, is her fifth album in total and first album after she decided to take a long career break after her marriage to Kevin Federline of which she had two sons, Sean Preston (2005) & Jayden James (2006). Officially scheduled to be released in November 2007, the album released date was pushed up to October 2007 due to a number of leaked album tracks that were circulating the Internet rapidly. According to the company’s record label it was an attempt to stop song piracy and of course to ensure the success of the lead single. The current awards that the album has received to date are the Billboard Readers’ Choice Album of The Year and holding third place in the Album of The Year category in Virgin Media Music Awards 2007.

Critics have been rather harsh on the album after the disastrous performance at the Video Music Awards (VMAs) earlier on before her album release in 2007. Billboard stated “This is still pop, but the last bits of Spears’ song-and-dance girl veneer are cracking, along with the rest of her public persona.” Newsday titled its review “Save your money” and labeled the album “terrible”. Critic Jim Farber wrote that “If a blow-up sex doll could sing, this is what she’d sound like.” The New York Times panned it calling the album “The electronic beats and bass lines are as thick as Ms. Spears’s voice is thin, and as the album title suggests, the general mood is bracingly unapologetic.” There were many comments about the lack of solid quality vocal elements in the tracks in Blackout. Most critics also said that a majority of the tracks had an overwhelming overdo of studio vocal editing in her voice making her sound annoyingly robot like.

Despite being bombarded by slicing reviews, there have been rather positive says on the album. As reviewed by Digital Spy, “the most danceable, modern and thrilling album that Spears has ever made, the disc where she finally shakes off the last remnants of her Mickey Mouse Club image”. Rolling Stone also went on to give the album three and a half stars out of five and joked that Spears will “continue to crank the best pop booty jams until a social worker cuts off her supply of hits”. This album was ranked at number fifty by Rolling Stone in its annual publication of top 50 albums of 2007.

Personally, I thought that she could have done a lot better to make a real comeback to the music industry. This album spells party, club and dance. The beat of certain tracks are appealing to dance such as her hit single, “Gimme More” and the other one, “Piece of Me”. Basically 90% of the songs in there have playful hints on sexually contents like, “Get Naked (I’ve Got A Plan)”. You wouldn’t call this a very vocal album, thanks to all the background beats and overups, so don’t be too hopeful if you’re expecting something like her third or fourth album. Overall I think she’s trying too hard to be sexy and ends up sounding quite constipated in some tracks but if you’re a Spears kinda person, in for the bass and the beat, I’d say go for it.

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(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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