As she made abundantly clear on her last album, released in 2001, the lovely Ms. Spears is no longer a girl, but now it's official: she has finally graduated to wanton woman. That two year hiatus had some naysayers thinking Britney had lost her chokehold as the Queen of Bubblegum. This release, however, pointedly titled "In the Zone", makes that claim irrelevant. Britney ain't interested in Bazooka Joe no more. She has moved on to more rugged Marlboro men, her cigarette of choice as of late. But for all that big-bad-girl maturity, this album is devoid of any real pop wisdom.
Despite bringing out the big guns in a duet with Madonna, "Me Against The Music" is not danceable, the measure of success in any pop tune. Spears does however pull out a few surprises like with the ballad, "Everytime", the first song Spears has ever written. It's not danceable either, but "Everytime" shows a glimmer of the talent that hides behind the robotic, synthed-out vocals on the rest of the album.
