Britney Spears: In the Zone
Well here we are again. Another day another Britney album. I'm curious about this album. The last one showed a break from the teenage image and tried to come up with something more mature. It wasn't a complete break though. The glitzy, teen pop thing with the gigantic, cheesy choruses was still there, just sort of mixed with the club vibe. Maybe she completed the break on here.
Two songs in and it seems that she really might have dropped the last vestiges of bubblegum pop. The first song was as great as Britney's album opener usually is. The best thing though is the next song, "I Got that (Boom Boom)". This song features Ying Yang Twins. I shouldn't have to explain why this is so awesome. The song starts with either Ying or Yang or whatever they hell they call themselves screaming "SHAWTYYYY!!!!" and then going on to say, "We fin' to go to the club and get crunk with Britney!" If that doesn't make you happy then we are not friends. I think I even just heard a banjo in the production. This has just made my day. Thank you Britney Spears. Thank you Ying Yang Twins. You've given me the most hysterical song since her faux reggae song on her first album. The fact that the song actually bangs is just gravy. Ying Yang Twins even gave me some new slang. Apparently a "twilly" is a slut. Sweet.
She definitely seems to have shed the teen idol persona and has embraced...I don't want to use a loaded word like "slutty" (though I'm sure the cynical douche rags who give her her persona were probably thinking that word) but she definitely is highly sexualized at this point. Breathy singing. Lyrics about sex and partying. Production that could work just as easily in the bedroom as in the club. It makes this embarrassing to listen to for entirely different reasons.
Without the aforementioned big, cheezy choruses it's not quite as easy to get into the songs on here as on earlier albums, but given half a chance there are some serious ear worms all over this shiz. I'm actually sort of tripped out. Four albums in and Britney motherf
ucking Spears has only had one bad album. Who knew?