#blackoutera

Since about November I have gotten extremely into Britney Spears, and I just want to take some time to rant about her 5th album titled “Blackout”, so “Blackout” came out in 2007. The reason it took so long to release another album after “In The Zone” was because she wasn’t doing well at all mentally and the media of course was destroying her image which was disgusting of them, but even through all of that she kept working.

Blackout is the first album of hers where she is credited as the executive producer meaning she had a lot more artistic control over the album, getting to choose the final tracklist, etc. I think she may have written less of the songs but overall she chose who to work with and basically took control. When the album got released it was given next to nothing in promotion, the marketing team seemed to just vanish and her team seemed to change for the worse after she got put in the conservatorship which greatly stunted blackouts potential for commercial success. (I am in no way trying to undersell this albums media impact, the world always seemed to stop for a bit whenever britney released new material.) I also think there was meant to be a tour for blackout but that obviously didnt happen.

Now to talk about the music,

I wholeheartedly believe that Blackout was the blueprint for dance pop today. critics made comments on how it sounded too outdated which in my opinion is ridiculous because even listening to it now, definitely DOES NOT sound like it was produced in 2007. The album was overlooked a lot at the time of release but now a days it’s resurged back and seems to be more appreciated. It’s quite rare to find a full album with almost every track being a complete banger of a song but she managed to do it. song wise, blackout is objectively britney’s most creative and unique work. My favourite songs off the album are (in no particular oder); Freakshow, Toy Soldier, Break the ice, Get naked, Hot as ice, Get back.

Each song tends to follow a really simple formula yet is executed in such a way that adds complexity to each track. as each song progresses, more elements are layered which is why it’s so rewarding to listen to the full song through as you get so sucked into it. and with the addition of a lot of the songs having their own sort of really special but catchy riffs that really just hit right, really making you want to repeat certain parts over and over again. this album does everything right.

(also how I mentioned the layering aspect, “Womanizer” really reflects this which makes sense since it was originally meant to be put on blackout but was put on the “Circus” album)

The two images ubove are both fanmade for a fanmade album titled “Blackout: Golden Edition” and My god do I love it. A lot of songs are questionable as some of the remixes take away from the originals but for “Get naked” it makes it better in my opinion. I also love the concept and art of having a more high quality version of blackout, also the gold designs are just more to my liking. I have recently downloaded all the demos from Blackout and leakied songs before It came out that got cut so I have even more material to listen to !