Britney Spears is back.  At least musically.  I’m still not entirely convinced that she isn’t a complete loony toon in life.  But Circus is definitely a reincarnation of the Britney Spears that made Britney Spears, well, Britney Spears.

First, you need to understand that pop is to music what horror is to movies.  There’s not a whole lot of substance there.  It’s about the sound.  It’s about boppin’ your head and shakin’ your hips (neither of which I do – really – but I still appreciate it’s catchiness, of which Circus has plenty).

By now, everybody’s pretty familiar with “Womanizer” and “Circus” so there’s no need to dig into those.  Well, on second thought, I wanna talk about “Circus” for a minute.  It reminds me of the rough-around-the-edges pop that Brit Brit, along with N’Sync, introduced when they performed together during the ’99 VMA’s.  I really like that sound.  Clean-cut pop is just better when it’s dirtied up a bit.  Like the girl next door that turns out to have a little bit of a wild side when you get a couple Kamikazes in her.

“Out from Under” is a pretty little ballad that manages to sound genuine.  And that’s not as easy to find as you might think.  Britney Spears seems pretty good at it though, whether by design or by accident.  But does it really matter?

“Kill the Lights” and “Shattered Glass” are both good pop tracks in the spirit of “Womanizer”.  Although, I really could do without the cliché faux breaking news report that wastes the first 15 seconds of “Kill the Lights”.

That brings us to “If U Seek Amy”.  Remember the game Mad Gab?  Of course you do.  Well, “If U Seek Amy” isn’t about anyone named Amy.  At all.  It’s a cute little play on words that… well, you be the judge.  It’s my favorite song on the CD though!

And you know how sometimes “they” take a simple ballad that’s approaching the end of it’s prime on the radio and set it to a dance beat to squeeze another couple of weeks of airplay out of it?  That’s what “Unusual You” reminds me of.  It has a very ballady feel to it but it’s set to a slightly more upbeat kind of dance track.  This is subtle though and it works, unlike the previously mentioned remixed joints that suck the life outta the intended work.

The rest is mostly filler.  Not bad filler.  But nothing special either.  I just don’t have much to say about it.  Although “Blur” borders on intriguing.  It seems to describe being hungover the morning after.  No.  That’s not the intriguing part.  What’s intriguing is how the song sounds like a hangover.  That’s both good and bad.

Then there’s “My Baby”.  Another pretty ballad.  Very literal.  I can’t possibly tear into such a soul-bearing moment.

Finally, if you can hunt down the myriad of bonus tracks out there like “Amnesia”, “Phonography”, “Trouble”, and “Quicksand”, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.  They oughtta replace some of that filler I was talking about with these bonus tracks.