She’s coming to Australia, so we thought we may do a little review….

All of Australia abuzz with the recent news that Britney Spears is coming to Australia for the first time in November, for her tour ‘Circus.’ My friend has paid an excess of 300 dollars a piece to pre-order pre-sale tickets, commenting they’ve almost sold out! I plan on going to the concert, most definitely, however, I couldn’t actually name more than four songs on the Circus album, because I realised I have not actually listened to the full album.

I remember when I was little and Baby One More Time was Number 1 on TV Hits and she was on the cover of Dolly, now she’s a reformed pop-singer, but so previously passed were her head-shaving, baby-dangling paparazzi basher days.

Circus is Britney’s sixth album and while I’ll always be a die-hard Britney fan, I do suspect they spent more time digitally enhancing her voice than she actually spent recording them in the studio. Her album last year (Blackout) which was made during her infamous dark days, was actually better on every comparison you try to make between the two, so it seems bad girls do make better music.

Provocatively titled If You Seek Amy, stretches the imagination more than it stretches her vocal ability, with an initial struggle, saying the chorus slowly to understand why it’s so controversial.

Hit The Lights is very Piece of Me reminiscent, as Britney rants about why her life so horrible because she’s targeted by the media, personally, as a fan of yours Britney, I like to apologise for buying your music and magazines, all the commodities that have made you famous, I didn’t know you wanted to bite the hand that fed you.

Unusual You is quite catchy, and I certainly predict a future single to be released.

Womanizer, my hands down favourite on the CD, mainly for it’s robo like music, makes me think I’m listening to something futuristic. I miss the days when songs told a story and lyrics were clever, now they just seem to state the obvious, with one example, “Maybe if we both lived in a different world it would be all good and I could be your girl but I can’t ‘cos we don’t.” Hmm. Deep.

On the songs Blur and Mmm Papi are quite mediocre, but up the ante in the electric funk, but also make her voice sound mannish. Lace and Leather is a bit too much bass, bit too much synthesizer in obscure places, and Out From Under and My Baby certainly won’t be nominated for a Grammy for their average sound.

Overall, it’s not an artistic statement and I don’t expect a movement, but it’s Britney and she’s had a rough life, cue the “boo hoo,” so I didn’t expect much which means the CD did meet my expectations. It’s not her best CD, but it’s certainly not her worst, so I’ll happily get down on my knees and hail the Queen of Pop, because Circus is bearable.

- Amalia Buckerfield