I can't profess to be knowledgeable about Britney Spear's musical past, but I wanted to check out this album, what is undeniably her "comeback" disc. What can I say, I have to give everybody at least the benefit of a doubt.
Maybe it was the fact that I played this one on my laptop so I couldn't get much of the bassline, but still the album plays like a stripped-down 80's throwback. This might be trying to follow the recent trend in pop music to go minimalistic and simplistic as possible, but the music comes out sounding hollow and empty. The songs here just don't register. I even re-listened to "Slave 4 U" (my favorite song of her past radio hits) and though the same few elements are there (boom-click drumline, bass, synth) still the sound is lively. Both the "new" Britney and her new music just seem tired. On a side-note, the breathy 'Ha! Ha!"s of "Slave 4 U" show up a number of times on this disc, and by the second or third appearance starts feeling flimsy and recycled (which spreads to the entire album after a while).
Also, it's interesting how there seems to be a shift in gender role here. Britney is so over-sexed in her music that if one looks at the lyrics and imagines a male R&B singer delivering them, it makes even more sense. Frequently it's Britney who's looking for action in a club, wanting to go home with the hottest piece of meat she can find, asserting to the man "don't be afraid" and in general making all the moves. If there's ever been an example of how gender roles can be switched while the underlying sexism and objectification continues, Britney illustrates it wonderfully.
Then there's the title itself. A Blackout is what happens when a city looses power, when something looses contact, or what happens when you drink too much and your body shuts down. This record is thus appropriately named: it features a dramatically weaker Britney who has probably done a bit too much partying and lost touch with herself and her fans.
This Blackout album is ironic on a number of levels. In general most tracks are steeped in sex, yet Britney has long since moved on as a sexual object. The material places Britney in the role of a spoiled California highschooler, obsessed with boys, sappy romance fantasy, boys, love at first sight, boys, how cool she is, boys, and boys... yet it's difficult to hear Britney singing about clubbing and scoring boy-toy action when we all know she's a mom and (against all odds) not a MILF. Her journey into motherhood, the deep depression and mental anguish she's suffered for being so long in the spotlight, the public dissolution of her marriage... all of these are fertile material. But Britney seems determined to squeeze back into the schoolgirl uniform and mentally and musically remain in gradeschool.
The entire work reeks on insincerity. "Gimme More" will always evoke the grand snafu of her horrendous VMA performance where she looked disengaged and unappealing. "Piece of Me" postures as a middle finger to the ravenous media, but ultimately comes off as flimsy especially when compared to other songs of a similar theme from other artists (like the bitterly charged "Scream" of pop-god Michael Jackson). Many songs feature Britney giving up entirely. In "Radar" she flat out admits "I'm a lush," while "Get Naked" (a near musical copy of "Gimme More") is obviously too tired even for innuendo, and "Ooh Baby" has moments where Britney sings nothing but the word "baby" on the same two notes for measures on end.
Britney says it best in her own words: (taken from various lyrics on the album)
Better hurry up
Cause time is ticking
Tic Tock Tic Tock
Come and get me while I'm hot
Hot as ice
It's time for me to move along
(Goodbye)
It's time for me to get it on
(OK)
I'm tired of singing sad songs
(All right)
It's time for me
(Britney, let's go!)
I couldn't agree more. (show less)