Circus

About

Britney Spears’ sixth album doubled as her late-2000s soft reboot; while it possessed some of the glitchy instrumentals and self-lacerating lyrics of its predecessor, 2007’s hedonistic <i>Blackout</i>, it felt brighter and more commanding from the siren-call opening note of its leadoff track, “Womanizer.” Brisk and accusatory—“boy, don’t try to front, I-I know just-just what you are,” Spears chides on its quick-stepping chorus—“Womanizer” features Spears vacillating between flirtation and irritation in her efforts to stand up for herself and any other women who might fall prey to the “swagger of a champion.” Those lyrics and the stomping beat—a key facet of many uptempo pop cuts from that era—effectively reintroduced Spears to the world while also showing how she’d grown since the days of “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” Spears’ serpentine voice is used to great effect on <i>Circus</i>’ speedier offering, with the anti-hater broadside “Kill the Lights” a particular highlight. Produced by Nate “Danja” Hill, who had worked on <i>Blackout</i> standouts like the giggly “Gimme More” and the freestyle-nodding “Break the Ice,” it uses blown-out synth horns to punctuate her snarling rebuke. Its use of the phrase “feeling froggy” provides the sort of levity that made Spears so appealing early on; although she took her craft seriously, she wasn’t above dropping silly one-liners to make herself crack up. (See also the sing-song “If U Seek Amy,” the punny title of which caused pearl-clutching among the what-about-the-children set.) .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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