By Rashod D. Ollison , rashod.ollison@baltsun.com|November 30, 2008
There's probably little Britney Spears can do to reverse the damage done to her image. The glorious, teasingly sexy bubble in which she floated a decade ago has long since burst. Her madhouse life, as covered by the ravenous pop press, has all but obliterated Spears' relevance as a recording star.
Last year was especially rough for the former teen-pop phenom. Not long after her fumbling lip-sync performance of "Gimme More" on the MTV Video Music Awards, she was institutionalized and lost custody of her baby boys.
With the near-constant coverage of Spears' very public meltdown, her bleak but interesting 2007 album, Blackout, was pushed way into the background. A year later, she's slimmer and looking less detached. Apparently, she's also ready to jump back in the pop game with Circus, her new album, which is due in stores Tuesday.
The title is a not-so-subtle metaphor for the recent state of her personal life, the perils of which have fueled tabloids and blogs for the better part of three years now.
"If Britney put her own dirt in her own magazine, she'd make a killing," says Shire (pronounced Sha-ray), a Baltimore urban-pop singer whose debut, Pickin Up the Pieces, will be released next summer by Universal Records. The Underdogs, the same producers that contributed to Circus, are also working with Shire. "It's the reality-TV life we're living in now. People are more interested in your personal life. If you're Britney Spears, the music doesn't seem to matter anymore," she says.
Though not a monster seller like Spears' previous releases, Blackout still managed to produce two platinum singles: the undeniably catchy "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me." On Blackout, Spears sounded as if she recorded her vocals via her cell phone, but she seems to have actually been in the studio for Circus. But make no mistake: Like all of Spears' albums, the new one is very much a producer's showcase, driven by the Almighty Beat and layers upon layers of synthesizers. It's all aural Velveeta - gooey, a little salty and heavily processed.
Circus is also an obvious attempt by Spears' handlers to bang out the dents and repair the nicks in her public persona. They're apparently trying to soften her image while retaining some of the manufactured edge that has helped push her worldwide album sales past 80 million.
But it's all quite tacky, starting with the album cover. Wearing puffed-up, cascading hair and what appears to be a cotton candy-pink tutu dress, Spears looks like a '70s porn star shot with a soft-focus lens.
