The following is from The Associated Press.

Second Britney Spears comeback CD almost as good as the first

Nekesa Mumbi Moody, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s time for another Britney Spears comeback: Call this one the remix version.

It was only last year that our damaged diva attempted to put the focus back on her once spectacular music career with “Blackout.” A tight collection of sexy club-oriented grooves, “Blackout” was a delight, and had so much hit-worthy material even Janet Jackson could have been resurrected with it.

But “Blackout” never had a chance at success because its star wasn’t as well put together as the album. (It’s hard to generate hits when your personal life is in turmoil.)

Now Spears - while still very different from her previous superstar incarnation, circa 1998-2003 - seems on the road to recovery, thanks to court-appointed guidance from her dad and other positive developments. She seems ready for a rebirth, so it’s fitting that “Circus” - her sixth studio album - makes its debut as she celebrates her 27th birthday.

And like any good circus, Britney’s version will leave you thoroughly entertained. Though “Blackout” was a gem, it seemed like the album was mainly due to the creative and technological wizardry of its producers, with minimal vocal effort from Spears. This time around, her pleasant yet thin voice comes through more clearly, not aided by as many layers and studio manipulations. She is also credited with co-writing two tracks.

Spears spends much of her energy trying to get people in the mood to groove, and it works on fun disco tracks like “Womanizer,” “Shattered Glass” and the cleverly titled “If U Seek Amy” (say it fast and you might need your mouth washed out with soap). She teams up with former collaborators like Max Martin (who wrote her career-making hit “. . . Baby One More Time”) and Nate “Danja” Hills, who was responsible for some of the best music on “Blackout.” But newcomers also help out, like the Outsyders (on “Womanizer”).

A few songs hint at the media circus her life has become, including “Kill the Lights,” where Spears takes on the paparazzi.

But she strikes the most personal and emotional chords on the slower tracks, most notably on the dreamy, synth-centric “Unusual You,” on which she coos, “Baby you’re so unusual, didn’t anyone tell you you’re so s’pposed to break my heart, I expect you to, so why haven’t you?” Though she didn’t write the song, it’s hard not to wince in empathy when you think about the string of users who have filtered in and out of her life.

The most poignant track is the ballad “My Baby,” co-written by Spears. On it, she sings to her “precious love.” It’s an ode to one of her sons, with lines like, “How did I get through all of my days without you?” Considering she doesn’t have full custody of her two boys and is trying to strengthen her parental bond after a period of turmoil, it’s especially touching - so much so that we can forgive the song for being just a little bit sugary. After all her recent drama, Spears deserves something sweet in her life.

Check out this track: Acknowledging that many fans probably didn’t hear her best work on “Blackout,” Spears includes “Radar,” one of the standout tracks from that CD - as a bonus track on “Circus.” She should have included the whole CD and done a double disc.
 
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The following is from USA Today.

By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
Britney Spears confesses to her exhibitionism on the title track to her album Circus (* * * out of four, on sale Tuesday and now streaming on imeem). It’s what feeds her hunger for the spotlight even as she’s driven to distraction by the constant scrutiny.

She gives raspy, robotic voice to this duality over a series of electro-pop grooves aimed at maximizing her pop appeal. This is the album that’s supposed to get her career back on track after last year’s Blackout began her recovery from a train-wreck life that has included custody battles and public breakdowns.

To a point, it works as artistic rehab. Britney is in control as the dismissive ex on hit single Womanizer and the hot boy magnet on Radar. She seems most at ease when she’s playing the teasing tart. But there’s plenty of tension underneath that blithe spirit.

Kill the Lights finds her snapping at the omnipresent paparazzi like a piranha baring its teeth at fingers pressed against the fishbowl. If U Seek Amy mocks onlookers’ morbid fascination with the downward spiral of celebrities.

Spears tosses in a couple of ballads along the way, but these really aren’t her forte. The slew of top-flight producers — including Max Martin, The Outsyders, Danja, Bloodshy & Avant and The Underdogs — bolsters her vocal variety of echoes and gimmicky effects, but they don’t really help the breathy Out From Under or saccharin Unusual You. She shines much better on the dance tracks, especially when she’s in naughty-girl mode on Lace and Leather or trying to come out of a morning-after fog on Blur.

The pop star frequently has been written off, and here she again shows her resiliency. She knows who she is as a singer, and she doesn’t waste time searching for artistic direction or overthinking her appeal.

Considering the daggers that come out whenever she rears her head, her ability to laugh at her foibles — and other people’s reaction to them — is one of her more endearing qualities. Of course, you can’t always tell whether she’s doing it with tongue in cheek or smiling through gritted teeth.

>Download: Womanizer, Radar, If U Seek Amy, Shattered Glass, Blur
>Skip: Out From Under, Unusual You

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The following review is from All Music. 

With its title, Circus nods knowingly at the madhouse that is Britney Spears’ life, acknowledging that things got a little rough after the release of 2007’s Blackout. It’s no secret that Blackout’s launch didn’t go as planned: the furor surrounding her stumbling VMA lip-sync of “Gimme More” was eclipsed by her institutionalization — a drama played out live on TV, as so much of her life is — and the loss of custody of her two young boys to ex-husband Kevin Federline, all of which pushed Blackout far, far to the background. Britney herself didn’t exactly seem engaged on Blackout — it was a club album, a producer’s showcase, so it didn’t matter if Spears didn’t give herself over completely as the behind-the-boards team carried her through. That distance combined with her troubles did give Britney the appearance of losing control completely, and the best way for a pop star to right herself is through image — hence Circus, a friendly remake of the hedonistic Blackout that posits that all is better with Brit-Brit now, thank you. If Blackout was a producers’ album, Circus is a handlers’ album, intent on sweeping away any recent unpleasantness — the only acknowledgement is that title — and acting like nothing ever happened, imagining that this is still a world where Britney remains envied and desired, where she can be dolled up as a gauzy Farrah Fawcett pinup on her album cover, where she can sing a drippy ballad about “My Baby” and have nobody raise an eyebrow. She can get away with the former with a bit more ease than the latter if only because all the time, effort, and money is poured into the club tracks, such as the thumping, stuttering first single “Womanizer” and its better, the relentless “Kill the Lights,” so sleek and sexy it winds up diminishing the rest of the record.

“Kill the Lights” may be exceptional, one of Britney’s best-ever singles, but it also doesn’t have much competition here: it’s one of a handful of tracks that follow through on Blackout, while the rest of Circus plays it safe, never hitting the beats hard enough to alienate a pop audience but perhaps layering on a bit too much saccharine for dance fans. It’s careful and considered, right down to the single-entendre “If U Seek Amy,” a Katy Perry-styled exercise in crass commercial carnality that is at once the best and worst song here. Best because Max Martin once again works his undeniable pop magic, turning this into a trashy stomper that feels inevitable and eternal, working against any sense of taste or decorum, something that the lyrics work overtime to undercut as they insist that all the boys and all the girls still want to F, U…well, spell it and you’ll get the picture, and if you don’t, Britney’s elocution will paint it for you. This sexy strut doesn’t work not because Spears’ desirability took a nosedive in the five years since In the Zone — although it did — but because Britney’s sexiness never was this explicit; she teased and hinted, at least in her music, and it feels wrong to have her be so nakedly vulgar here. Still, it was a necessary move, a way to stir up headlines and perhaps snatch the tabloid tiara from Katy’s head, but the rest of the record doesn’t follow through as it resorts Spears’ standard formula: a couple of great dance singles, a couple of pretty good chillout cuts (best being Bloodshy & Avant’s “Unusual You”), a couple of not-good-at-all ballads, and a whole bunch of stuff in the middle. If she feels marginally more connected here than she did on Blackout, it’s a Pyrrhic victory, as Circus never feels as sleek or addictive as its predecessor.

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The following review is from HeatWorld:

“We’re feeling a bit giddy and overwhelmed this afternoon because we’ve just come back from Britney HQ, where we’ve had an exclusive sneak preview of her new album, Circus (out 1 December). We can officially confirm that Britney’s back on form, which should mean we’re talking more about Brit’s music than her personal dramas from now on. So, what’s the album like then? Well, highlights include title track The Circus (set to be the next single) which has an insanely catchy chorus and loads of cool electro-y bleeps and beeps; it’s vintage Britney, which means it’s totally amazing. While Kill The Lights and the tongue-in-cheek If U Seek Amy (which is not, we’ve been assured, about the Winehouse) are both fab dance tracks that have a typical Britney attitude and edge to them. But it’s not all up-tempo dance floor-fillers, Out From Under is a gorgeous ballad with poignant lyrics (which we reckon might be about K-Fed); best of all Britney’s vocals sound natural, making it one of her best ballads ever. So tell us, are you excited about hearing Britney’s new album? “

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