Britney Spears: You Can’t Look Away, Just Admit It

Our look at the closing lines of the biggest new-music reviews brings us to Circus, the new album by pop supernova Britney Spears:

“Those two ballads and ‘Unusual You’ are the album’s only attempts at warmth. The rest is brittle, crafty and combative, buzzing with studio expertise and celebrity defensiveness. ‘You don’t like me/I don’t like you,’ Ms. Spears chants in ‘Kill the Lights’ (written by Danja and others). ‘Only difference/you still listen.’ It’s creepy, especially because it’s true.” [NYT]

• “Hackneyed as it is, ‘Baby’ is a reminder that Spears is still a young woman trying to manage an impossible situation. But those aren’t the thoughts Circus is meant to raise, and in general the album does a bang-up job of pushing them into the background. And really, that tour is going to be great.” [LAT]

• “Forget the release of Chinese Democracy as the year’s biggest surprise. Circus is a Britney Spears album I never expected to hear—one that matters.” [Newsday]

• “And Mommy shows she has psychodrama to spare on ‘Mmm Papi,’ a go-go romp with daddy issues (‘Grab me tight and don’t let go/Mmm Papa, love you’): Is it about the papa who controls her affairs or the paparazzi she had an affair with? The fact that we’re even curious shows Britney hasn’t lost her talent: Her fans still can’t look away.” [RS]

• “Circus isn’t bad as pop albums go, but whether by default or design, it’s substantially less edgy and exciting than its predecessor. You’re left to conclude that the sound of Britney back on track is substantially less interesting than the sound of Britney going off the rails.” [Guardian]

• “This is faint praise for minor pop pleasures, though pleasures they undeniably are. The only obstacle to enjoying them is that they require listeners to be like the men who benefit equally from Spears’ downward spirals and upward swings with little human regard or compassion. But why let a little thing like empathy ruin a night at the circus?” [Chicago Sun-Times]