Music Review: Blackout by Britney Spears

It was 12:02 the night that Britney Spears’ album Blackout was slotted to hit the stores. I logged into my iTunes store, ready to download, and saw-to my horror- that it was not yet available for purchase. WTF?!? I asked myself. Why can I not get a pop-culture fix? Britney’s last album, In the Zone, was a slippery slide into her development as the media obsession she is today. With iconic songs like “Me Against the Music” and “Toxic”, and controversies over “Touch of my Hand” (come on…its as obvious as SheBop Britney!) paved the way to the fiasco of her reality show and the head shaving heard round the world.

So finally around noon that day the almighty Steve allowed me to download Blackout (named for the philosophy of blacking out negativity and embracing life). I didn’t expect the album to be good. At (what we all thought must be) the height of her craziness, she releases an album? There is no way it is going to be good. But I knew something on it would be fun enough to warrant a purchase.

And no, it’s not good. It KICKS ASS! Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not a soulful collection of jazz standards or experimental indie tech beats. It’s the purest sugary candy of pop. I won’t be bragging at my Mensa meetings about owning it but I will defend it to the end. It seems as if the marketing team of Britney, Inc. has finally figured out what she does well- dance music for gay clubs. Every song is upbeat (meaning no more sappy pseudo ballads like “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” or “Email my heart”) and actually varies in structure from song to song.

So far, the radio has grabbed a hold of “Gimme More” and “Piece of Me”. Satellite radio has recognized the genius of “Freakshow” with a heavy backbeat that requires a subwoofer and gems of poetic prose like “10 PM to 4 and I came to hit the floor/thought you knew before/ but if you don’t then now you know.” In the aftermath of her divorce, we reap the benefits with “Toy Soldier” that describes her need for a real man (“This time I need a soldier/ A really badass soldier”) and “Why Should I be Sad?” (“People and US magazines/Tell me who’d I do that for, who?”). Sure, the singing isn’t operatic, but that’s not what it’s for. With an incredible production team (Danja, of Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake fame produced “Gimme More”) Blackout has a consistent quality that makes the album easy to enjoy from beginning to end.

With her failed performance at the VMAs and the continuous court appearances / hospitalizations / paparazzi boyfriend / fishnet stocking sightings I think this album has been underrated. There is a place for Britney. It involves rolling the windows down and turning the volume up. Don’t be embarrassed. Learn the words and sing them at the top of your lungs on your next commute or as you get ready to go out dancing. If Britney has taught us anything, it’s to let go of your shame.

Review: Radiohead, In Rainbows

Immediately hectic and enormously satisfying, Radiohead’s latest installment revisits the bands straight-forward style. But, don’t expect business as usual - this is the most low-key album Radiohead has made to date. While the band is clearly speaking the same sonic language they have spoken since OK Computer, In Rainbows is unmistakably more eloquent. It’s warm and inviting, with a densely layered mellifluous vibe that oscillates in complexity throughout the album’s 10 tracks. In Rainbows is a pretty smooth ride from beginning to end, with the possible exception of the final track, “Videotape.” Although not a rabid fan myself, I know die-hard “Radiohead-Heads” will enjoy what could be considered a traditional closing track, as “Videotape” harkens back to the similarly-styled finale cuts of former Radiohead albums such as OK Computer and Kid A.

Much has been made of the method in which Radiohead chose to release the record. They allowed fans to pay whatever they wanted to download the tracks via the band’s website. As little as $.01 was enough to purchase the entire album, with the only instructions reading: “It’s up to you.” [Read more]