Britney Spears - "Blackout" (2007)

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Her fifth studio album that was released on October 25, 2007. She had collaborated with producers Danja, Bloodshy & Avant, Sean Garrett, and The Neptunes for the album. Blackout received positive reviews from music critics, some of whom described it as Spears' most progressive and consistent album. It debuted at #2 on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 290,000 copies after a last-minute rule change, and became Spears' first studio album not to debut at #1 in the United States. However, it was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for exceeding one million shipments.

Retrospectively, Blackout received widespread acclaim, with some citing its influence on pop music years later and it also ranked on many end-of-decade lists. The Times named it as the fifth best pop album of the decade. In 2012, the album was added to the library and archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2019, Rolling Stone named Blackout one of the most influential pop albums to impact the 2010s.

Definitely her best album along with "In The Zone", by far. It's in my top 3 Britney albums. What are your fave tracks from the album? My top faves are "Piece of Me", "Radar", "Break the Ice", "Hot as Ice", "Ooh Ooh Baby", "Perfect Lover", and "Why Should I Be Sad?", in which I find the lyrics pretty relatable.

Gimme More:  #3 Hot 100, #1 Dance, #17 Top 40

Piece of Me: #18 Hot 100, #1 Dance, #28 Top 40

Break the Ice: #43 Hot 100, #1 Dance, #21 Top 40

[birdie]

A POP MASTERPIECE

1 of the best albums of all time !! even Rihsus said she loved it

[divasummer]

LOVE IT!
"Toy Soldier" was my favorite at the time and I was obsessed with "Get Naked".
I don't think I "had" to skip anything really.
"Gimmie More and Break The Ice" were favorites as well and "Radar" was great too.
"Ooh Ooh Baby" and "Piece Of Me' were good too.
I guess the only songs that I may have skipped at the time but didn't hate were "Freakshow and Heaven On Earth".
Great Cd!!

[Ginger Spice]

I remember everyone being surprised at how good this was but, at least as a 12 year old who grew up with Britney, it was even more surprising that a Britney album even sounded like this. It seems obvious now because Britney is synonymous with dance-pop, and with hindsight, this makes total sense following In the Zone, but she had never gone this far in that direction before. Even ITZ had ballads and a few lighter pop tracks, while this was just straight ready-for-the-club music. It was different, it was edgy, and it totally redefined what a Britney album was. 

Obviously, it's still fantastic. A true all-killer, no filler experience. The perfect album for getting ready for a night out as well.

[back2blk]

OMG, what can I say about this album? The way this music was released as a landscape to her crumbling public image made me stan so hard. The opening line of Gimme More changed the game for me and really shifted the trajectory of Britney's career. This album has aged so well. I remember when this came out, the Britney forums I visited universally PANNED that album cover. LOL. We were all worried the album would be doomed for it.

[Koochie]

I don't think a pop album has ever had so many think pieces written about it. Maybe Ray of Light, but I'm not sure. I read one from about a year ago written by a baby gay who listened to the album for the first time in 2019. The article comes to many of the same conclusions other very influential publications like Pitchfork and Slate have arrived at, inferring that Spears deliberately hid herself behind her chosen producers as if to recall her own personal struggles and lack of control; the idea being that this album was a profoundly nuanced commentary on the worst of pop culture. In some ways it could be interpreted that way, and none of these interpretations are meant to slight Britney—many actually assume it was her idea—but the idea that she wasn't engaged in the process is plainly false.

The album was mostly recorded in her own home as she'd purchased the necessary equipment to install a temporary recording studio, and invited Danja, Kerry Hilson, and other producers and writers to work on it in-house (with the exception of Bloodshy & Avant tracks, who she worked with in Sweden, and some 2016 records produced by The Clutch). Every producer who has spoken about the creative process has attested to the fact that Britney was very much involved, often declining to accept production and writing credits and instead opting for the role of exec producer. Lyrically, the album isn't a departure from her past work. Her voice is heavily processed, but this was as timely for any pop artist as it was necessary for Spears herself (although dry vocal demos indicate her voice isn't nearly as processed as people think). None of this is to say that these decisions weren't made deliberately to create some apparent concept for Blackout, but these interpretations feel presumptuous and strip Spears of her agency in compiling a curated selection of well-crafted, forward thinking pop songs that would serve as the blueprint for over a decade of music. Even if there is more to it than that, it's just as likely that she was equally involved in both the concept and execution, and the album's pertinence to her circumstance was coincidental. That doesn't make it any less pointed. Art often transforms itself depending on the observer, influenced by its circumstances, coincidental or not.

Regardless of all the deepthink bulls**t, it's a damn good pop record. One thing I've consistently agreed with in almost every retrospective analysis is that the idea of a timeless pop album is almost an oxymoron, and crafting one is something very few artists have accomplished. Britney is one of them.