News

Disc of the Week

• Pop
• Circus
• Britney Spears
• Jive/Zomba/Sony
• 

Doot-doot-doodle-oodle, Oot-doot doo-doo.

Cue the calliope music and bring in the wondering crowds, for Britney the Bicycling Bear is back. She's her own little show, captivating with club-beat pop songs and lyrics that occasionally dwell on her own tumult. She does not write these lines that comment on celebrity; she inspires and (sort-of) sings them. To see the freak and franchise, step right this way!

Spears's sixth studio release, Circus, is one of her good ones. She's more of a presence than she was on Blackout, her initial ("It's Britney, bitch") comeback step from 2007. The material (produced and assembled by a notable team of music makers) is shiny, lively and usually catchy. The teeny bopper stuff fills a need, but it's the tunes that open the flaps to weird Britney's Big Top that are worth the price of admission.

"There are only two types of people in the world," Spears declares on a jittery title track with a distinctly Red Hot Chili Peppers bridge, "the ones that entertain and the ones that observe." True, that, but the bit about her being a "ringleader" who "runs a tight ship" is really something to snicker at.

The former Mouseketeer from Kentwood, La., also knows that there are two types of singers in the world: Ones who rely on voice manipulators and ones who don't. Kill the Lights, a percolating rebuttal to her swarming paparazzi, has Spears in computerized chipmunk tone.

If U Seek Amy, is a self-referring stomper co-written and produced by Max Martin, the Swedish hit-maker who composed a little thing called … Baby One More Time, a rather big hit for Spears in 1998.

Hands-down, the go-to attraction is Blur, a queerly swirling, down-tempo number with a throaty party girl struggling to get her head right: "Where the hell am I/ Who are you/ What'd we do last night?" Marvellous, absolutely marvellous. And if Spears really does wish to recall her tabloid-ready transgressions, someone please hand her an Advil and fill in the woozy star about her divorce, child-custody battles, shaved head and one flab-tastic appearance at last year's MTV Video Music Awards.

Other Circus acts are entertaining, but not as remarkable: Unusual You is a strobe-lit, heart-shaped testimonial; the go-go/Outkast-stealing MMM Papi is a sexed-up lark; and Lace and Leather is a cheap Madonna knock-off.

My Baby (one of two tracks co-written by the mother of two) is cloying and sung softly by someone who sounds nothing at all like the robotic vocalist on the album's hit first single, Womanizer. If Spears is able to reproduce the breathy register of My Baby live onstage — apparently the show hits the road next spring — then I'll eat Kevin Federline's hat.

If there's a big fault here, it's the cover art. Instead of fully embracing the wackiness and going with the wilder image we see on the album's back — a cackling child clown serves the birthday girl a cake in bed (Spears turns 27 today) — Jive Records uses a doe-eyed, damaged Lolita shot. The freak show is fine as a distraction, is the thinking, but the carnival barker knows it's the pop star who sells the records.