Britney Spears: A surprise from pop diva : Netglimse.com News

Britney Spears: A surprise from pop diva

The first single on Britney Spears' new album, Blackout, a word of advice: Skip Gimme More. It's supposed to be sexy and suggestive, but instead sounds outdated and sluggish, like something you'd hear after-hours at a leather bar ... in 1997.

"The legendary Ms. Britney Spears", boasts a matter-of-fact male voice over the synth-fueled arrangement.

Not quite! But since landing with a thud at the MTV Video Music Awards, the song has given Spears her biggest hit since ... Baby One More Time. It sold wildly on iTunes, and the video — featuring a stripper pole and a bad wig — zipped past 4 million plays on YouTube.

I was prepared to similarly hate Blackout — as a critic and as a fairweather fan. It seemed to arrive too fast, amid too much tumult. Leave her alone, I thought. Let her go into hiding, grow her hair out and spend supervised time with her kids and less time with cheese-flavored chips.

Whether it's her work ethic or more powerful forces — a greedy record label, perhaps — Spears has been pushed back into the spotlight. Her VMA trainwreck suggested she wasn't ready.

Blackout, released today, is a different story. We'll never know how much Spears' heart or mind was in these songs. But scoot past Gimme More, and something happens during the chain-link groove of second track Piece of Me. The record springs to electro-pop life with the endless swivel and swirl of club beats. They come courtesy of producers Danja (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake) and Bloodshy & Avant, the team behind Spears' standout hit Toxic.

Blackout is the most consistently engaging record of Britney Spears' embattled career. The tightly wound, impeccably produced tunes build on the promise of 2003's In the Zone, a step toward real musical maturity that was derailed by ... well, you know.

"They still gon' put pictures of my derriere in the magazine," Spears sings during the pointed rant. "Guess I can't see the harm in workin' and bein' a mama/And with a kid on my arm/I'm still an exceptional earner/You want a piece of me?"

It's a typical commentary on her push-pull relationship with the tabloids. Watch out for flying baseball bats, but be sure to show up when she's sipping something from Starbucks or pumping gas.

The only other time Britney Spears directly addresses her troubles is during disc closer Why Should I Be Sad. She plays the scorned ex-wife over a murky, Neptunes-produced beat, ranting about the "stupid freakin' things" — of which there were likely many — that Kelvin Federline did.

"My life was so restricted for you," she sings. "It just seemed like Vegas/only brought the player out of you."

The rest of Blackout is flooded with strobe lights and peak-hour club sparkle. It's flirty, unpretentious party music, like a hybrid of Music-era Madonna and Kylie Minogue.

And Britney Spears' very adult, real-life drama has also completely erased the girlish giggle that marked her previous records.

Heaven on Earth is the shimmering standout, a delirious, delicious mash-up of Donna Summer disco-ness and '80s free- style fervor. Spears' voice usually sounds as processed as her hair (these days, wigs) as she coos and oohs like a computerized kewpie doll. But Heaven is the loosest — and most human — she has ever sounded on record.

Freakshow's kitchen-sink clatter sounds like it could have been produced by Missy Elliott. All that's missing is a breakneck dance sequence. And Toy Soldier (not plural, thus not the Martika tune) is a sassy demand for the right man set to a hyperactive, hip-hop drumline.

"I'm sick of toy soldiers," Spears declares. "That boy that knows how to take care of me/won't be just comin' over."

I've been intrigued by Britney Spears' musical journey from the beginning, and there have always been moments of promise among the skin and sizzle.

Late-'90s smashes ... Baby One More Time and (You Drive Me) Crazy were coy, caffeinated cheerleader anthems, and slinky hit I'm a Slave 4 U signaled an exciting musical shift.

Everytime, a 2004 ballad, found Spears taking aim at the paparazzi for the first time — before it became part of her daily workout. In the haunting video, she's chased endlessly by flashbulbers, hit in the head by a camera and drowns in a hotel bathtub. It's an eerie take on tabloid-superstar reality.

But as the song ends, Spears re-emerges from underwater and flashes a million-dollar smile. It was all a dream.

Maybe a warm reception for Blackout will finally give Spears the confidence to do something truly daring — turn the lights down for a while and awaken from her own string of real-life nightmares.