Britney Spears

The sultry moments on Ms. Spears' self-titled third album -- particularly the Neptunes' fresh-forward beat work on "I'm A Slave 4 U" and "Boys" -- show that Britney is now ALL grown up. A few more polished, hook-laden albums like this one might one day secure her a place in the pop pantheon alongside the likes of Madonna.

Britney Spears is now so high-concept, such a distillation of what made pop singers like
Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson and Madonna so fabulously marketable, that her third record,
Britney, is a concept album about herself. She's "Overprotected." She's "Lonely." She's "Not
a Girl, Not Yet a Woman." Britney just wants to be Britney, this self-reflexive CD reasons,
even as everyone around her is feverishly constructing "Britney" the product. J... More >

Hardly the first not-terribly-bright teenager to approach self-knowledge via the words of others ("Overprotected," "Cinderella") (Grade - **)