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Britney Spears BLACKOUT Album Review: The Lights Go Out, No Hope Left
29 October, 2007
What joy! Britney's new album will drop next week, and ever since it's been announced, confirmed and then confirmed again that well, yes, there is such a thing as a new Britney album (her first studio work since she released "In the Zone" in 2003) we've been hit with wave after wave of speculation that invariably centered around one thing: how bad or how extraordinarily good this piece of Britney will be. One thing was clear from the beginning: under the current circumstances, a Britney album could only be qualified in extreme (and extremist) terms – but thankfully, not as a "make or break" piece. No, that part of the saga is behind us, for sure. There's no more naïve wondering about Britney making a comeback, no more speculations in that department, no more fingers crossed, no more "you show them, Britney, you can do it!" That childish curiosity and unexplained desire to see Britney Spears, THE Britney Spears prove to the world she's still a star died inside our still-struggling hearts while Britney was going through her drug-fueled, hypnotized dance routine at the VMAs. The Britney of my childhood, the energetic, cute teenager struggling with the pains of maturity and teenage love, all that is over.
We now have adult Britney on our hands, and there's just about as much romance in her life as in a Die Hard movie. At the end of that tunnel of hope from which we've all emerged, beaten and bruised, there are only hard facts left. One of them is that Britney Spears will drop an album next Tuesday. It's a fact of life we have to deal with from a perspective that has to stay professional, cold and to the point. And if we look at "Blackout" from that point of view, without the background divorce and custody battle drama, without thinking of the life that once pulsated through Britney's drug-free, toned body and the spark that stayed in her eyes and made up for her not-so-amazing vocal abilities, all we have left is an empty shell. "Blackout" is not mature, it is empty. There is no Britney in it, no trace of any learning curve, no clue that the child Britney is now all grown up and back with an electrifying, if a little darker new album. It's a commercial, over-produced piece that showers us in pulsating club beats overlaid with layers of icy synthesizers and breathy, heavily processed vocals. It's said to be mature – but it sounds like it's searching for something, a balance between what's left of Britney's musical self-confidence and a desire to drown the memory of her previous false steps under a facade of defiance. This new, "in your face" Britney tries to find some sort of justification for the flesh-and-bone Britney's transparent sexuality and series of blunders, but all she achieves is some rather suggestive panting through a web of palpitating beats, distorted noises and sharp synthesizers. You want club cliches? You got them. You want cold, sharp beats? You got them. And the so-called revelations that speak of personal drama, break-up and being a parent only manage to make Britney appear even more ridiculous when put next to the cold, hard facts of her everyday existence. If there is one thing that "Blackout" can't deny, it's the fact that Britney's personal life and drama and her music prowess (or lack thereof) can't be forced into providing justifications for one another, for the simple reason that there is no trace of Britney – the song writer on the whole album. And when I say "no trace" I don't mean her writing some lyrics here and there, I mean her making sure that there is a connection between her essence, her true nature behind the distorted pictures we see everyday in the gossip columns, and her music. And since this connection in non-existent, such lyrics as "I’m Miss bad media karma / Another day another drama / Guess I can’t see no harm / In working and being a mama / And with a kid on my arm / I’m still an exception / And you want a piece of me" (Piece of Me) only make us wonder "where did that come from?" There is a major clash between someone's desire to portray Britney as a hard-working mother and her aimless daily cruising through L.A. With a pack of paparazzi in tow. As I said, there is no mutual justification between her music and her life, just a smokescreen and an "in your face" Avril Lavigne kind of attitude that, while it can't provide any excuses, exposes Britney even more to public ridicule. I'm sure Britney's fans will find no fault in the album. It's very difficult to judge the album and Britney's life separately, but this is exactly what we should all try to do: draw the line between the woman and the (former) professional, and start out musical explorations of "Blackout" from there. The result will be heartbreaking – you might find yourselves choking at some point while listening to songs like "Radar" or the shamelessly suggestive "Perfect Lover" or the album's down-tempo number "Why Should I Be Sad" which is aimed at being self-reflective but ends up showing us a sad, disoriented Britney that's in search of a place to hide rather than a place to gather her energy and shoot to legitimate fame again. You can listen to BLACKOUT here and shape your own opinion of it – but do not expect much in terms of substance and prepare to be left with a bitter, half sad half despondent taste in your mouth. Try to go beyond the multiple synthesizer layers, beyond the "oooh"-ing and the "aaaah"-ing into the very core of Blackout, which is – as its name says – blank and lost in its own defiance. Posted by admin at 05:34 PM | View: (254) 
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