2007 was many things for Britney Spears: dramatic, traumatic, iconic. A divorce from Kevin Federline and an exhausting custody battle over their two kids, a shotgun Vegas wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander and a general struggle to maintain agency over her own life inevitably culminated in a heavily publicised breakdown. It was described at the time as "the most public downfall of any star in history", crystallised in a widely panned VMAs performance in which Britney half-assed it through the debut of "Gimme More" in the most perfectly articulated statement of IDGAF up to that point. It also took place in the foreground while Spears – somehow – worked on her fifth and most foreboding album Blackout. The result is – SOMEHOW – one of her greatest bodies of work to date.
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Released on 25 October 2007, Blackout is the first album to credit Britney as the executive producer – which makes sense, given that it has Britney all over it. Lyrically revolving around womanhood, ravenous media voyeurism, being horny and getting absolutely battered, it's a whirlwind of nihilism dressed up as the best night of your life. Every track sounds like revelling in an objectively unhealthy decision and having a lot of fun while doing it, like the smirking face emoji made audible. It's designed for sticky floors, bumming a cigarette off a stranger and doing a pick-me-up shot at 2AM before heading back onto the dancefloor with renewed vigour. It's taking downers after uppers after downers, or going home with a member of the bar staff. It buzzes with the jittery energy of someone chasing a high to avoid a problem, relentlessly consuming in retaliation to being relentlessly consumed. Essentially: Blackout is an album that disappears into its own darkness, but what you find when you're there is one shameless, endless party.Retrospectively, Blackout has been hailed as one of the most influential pop albums of its time, impacting the sonics of pop as it would continue to evolve through Lady Gaga and Kesha. In honour of its tenth birthday, we have rounded up a cast of Britney scholars to revisit Blackout track-by-track (bonus ones and all) – casting our eyes back over an album that not only stands as a definitive turning point for Britney Spears as a cultural icon, but as an emblem of the manic excess and crushing downfall of 00s celebrity culture as a whole.
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"GIMME MORE"
"PIECE OF ME"
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"RADAR"
"BREAK THE ICE"
"HEAVEN ON EARTH"
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"GET NAKED (I GOT A PLAN)"
"FREAKSHOW"
"TOY SOLDIER"
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"HOT AS ICE"
"OOH OOH BABY"
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"PERFECT LOVER"
"WHY SHOULD I BE SAD"
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