By Rashod D. Ollison
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.

Related links

*
Britney Spears Britney Spears Photos
*
Latest Britney Spears news
*
Music multimedia

REVIEWS
Concert reviews

SCHEDULE
Upcoming concerts

PHOTOS
Music photo galleries

READER PHOTOS
Your concert pics

“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.

The music is a glittery grab bag of things: super-sleek club-pop (some of the best Spears has done), crass commercial tripe and, for some strange reason, a nauseatingly sappy ballad.

“Her brand and celebrity are far more than just her music,” says David Johnson, president of Strategic Vision, a marketing and public relations firm in Atlanta. “If her music is a hit, it will just increase [the public's] fascination and her celebrity.”

Spears’ image has always been driven by her music, beginning with the naughty Catholic school girl character in the 1999 video for ” …Baby One More Time.” Mixing childhood innocence with grown-up sexuality, Spears was a pervert’s fantasy come to life as she twirled around in low-cut clothes. But early on, the hits (”Oops I Did It Again” and especially the brilliant “Toxic”) nicely bolstered her somewhat disturbing persona.

But now that her coquettish mask has been snatched away, revealing a troubled young woman underneath, the escapist club songs go down differently. A sense of paranoia and defensiveness now permeates the music.

Circus kicks off with the first single, the new-millennium disco thump of “Womanizer.” That relentless number is followed by the stuttering, slightly noisy title track and the swaying ballad “Out From Under,” which strongly recalls early Madonna. Those cuts (and the ones after it) pale in comparison to “Kill the Lights,” an exceptional dance tune on which Spears musters some palpable attitude. Her breathy vocals sashay through the web of swishing and buzzing synths, underpinned by a metallic, palpitating beat.

The sound is a finer extension of Blackout, but with a more convincing vocal from Spears. She unintentionally solicits snickers as she attempts to croon on “My Baby,” a drippy ballad that’s presumably dedicated to her children. But it’s completely devoid of any emotion. Although the production is soft and stripped-down, Spears sounds more robotic and processed here than she does on the heavily synthesized dance numbers.

But Circus takes a nasty nosedive with “If U Seek Amy,” whose stomping sound is a blatant rip-off of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.” Not known for showing any sense of decorum, especially these days, Spears is downright vulgar on the chorus. She actually spells out what the boys and girls want to do to her. Undoubtedly, the cut is a deliberate trashy move to get folks talking about the album. But it’s really unnecessary. Given the magnitude of Spears’ tabloid life, people are going to talk about every move she makes. A new album just gives the press and bloggers another reason to pick apart one of pop’s most fascinating subjects.

via

Here is a company that has over 28 years experience in the barbecue industry. They always have the latest manufacturing technology, the most dedicated customer support system, and the brightest designers in the UK barbecue industry. Outback Barbecue is a barbecue and accessories on-line shopping you can trust. You can see wide range of traditional charcoal barbecue, gas barbecue, or modern classic models. Visit their website at outbackbarbecues.com to see the facility and the prices.

If you need to look for news barbecue tool, this is the proper place for you. You can see wide range of barbecue tools and accessories that you might be search for a long time. Because they have over 28 years experiences in the barbecue industry. If you are bored with traditional BBQ tool, you can choose gas BBQ. You can choose from Omega Gas 200, Excel 200, Excel 300, Trooper, Hunter, Spectrum Flatbed 2, Spectrum Flatbed 3 and much more. These entire barbecue tools use gas as the fuel.

So, of course you can find the best charcoal BBQ for your next Barbecue Party. You can also save your time, money, and energy if you buy your charcoal BBQ here. Because they want to make every customer shopping experience as simple and efficient as possible. So, visit outbackbarbecues.com and you can choose the perfect charcoal barbecue for you. They have Omega 200 Charcoal, Omega 100 Charcoal Barbecue, and Spectrum Charcoal Barbecue.

Outback BBQ company also has 1 year warranty for their products. If you have any question their barbecue expert team will pleased to help you. Each call handler that they have also has tremendous experience with barbecue model and the accessories. They will happy to give you a hand in your purchasing decision time.

Inside this site, you will find the latest product of every newest product from this company, this site also famous with the high quality speakers sells at half price, categorized based on the basic purposes of every speakers like: bookshelf/front speaker, home theater, surround, in-wall, in-ceiling, center channel, outdoor, PC multimedia, and subwoofer.

Every listed product inside this site also completed with the extra adding information about detailed specification, product measure, terms and conditions, and guarantees. That information gives to you in order to make you sure about the product that you want to purchase.

To give you the best solution in searching for nursing homes in Boston Massachusetts, there is one site that fully dedicated to the easy searching service of: nursing homes, assisted living, adult day service, homecare, home health care, hospice, continuing care, and geriatric care managers. The website that currently give you those information were addressed at gilbertguide.com

Inside this site, you will get easier in finding such nursing homes in Boston Massachusetts, because it’s searching methodology only require you to fill the simple form contain the city you desired to searching on nursing homes, and then the listed results will come up within a minute. You will get the easier way in searching for nursing homes in Boston Massachusetts with this site rather than using the google service or yellow pages, because all information inside this site were actually accurate and have the good quality, so you don’t have to doubt for all information listed in this site, so just check the website to see the another available information.

Like in Dennis Carey’s book “how to run the company: lessons from the top leaders of CEO academy”. Inside this book, you will find the great tips and some success story of several successes CEO in the world. What makes Dennis Carey wrote this book? It is because in every six-month, Dennis Carey and Marie Caroline von Weichs run the kind of course named CEO academy. Inside this academy, Dennis and his partner Marie were try to educate and give some lesson to the newcomer CEO in the business world, those candidates of CEO were take lessons and tips from several famous CEO that already prove their success in business.

What will you get by buying this book? Inside this book you will find all lessons that give in the CEO academy that the cost of participating in CEO academy were cost at US$10,000 per person. So what a valuable chance for you to get the world-class CEO lessons worth $10,000 with only pay for the book at $17.95

Easy to book offers the best service in finding, comparing, and booking hotel rooms in any destination city in the world. With excellent service and features you can easily finds hotels in any city by just enter it in the tab search. There’s also check in and check out tab, currency, persons, and rooms tab from which you can easily find hotel room based on what you need. They also came up with interesting and informational brief about the attractions in any selected cities for you to read. Who knows you might consider going there someday. Find also in selection of popular locations whether in one country or many.. For example you can easily find Barcelona Hotels, Prague Hotels, London Hotels, and Dublin Hotels for you to book.

If you not sure yet to take aesthetic laser treatment you can visit the web first and see the picture to see the results from other patience picture, you can see and compare before and after treatment and you will amaze with the result. They have high technology equipments to give the best services and they provide the experienced doctor to serves you.

AZ Med Tec is one of the leading laser manufacturers from Europe’s and now available in USA, They have long experience on this field, so you doesn’t need to worry if you want to using their service. If you interested and want to try you can visit their website and starts make arrangement with them, don’t forget to bookmarks this site and share it to your friends maybe they need this information.

If you were looking for shredders based on your needs like office needs or home needs, all you have to do is just check the single complete website at wize.com the hardware online buying guide site that give information about shredders variations like, shredders for home use, for files, official use, all use, and financial papers.

In this site you will also find the perfect shredders for all kind of purposes and this site also completed with the reviews, user reviews and recommended stuff for you based on the purposes. Every product that sells in this site were currently tested not only by the store, but also from the user, so you will find the comprehensive information about to getting the perfect shredders for your special uses like, personal uses for shredding mail, unused papers, etc. so what are you waiting for? Just check out their website, go find your desired shredders or any products that you need, and then do the online transaction, all is only in single website.