Britney Spears' sixth (sixth...already?) studio album, "Circus", dropped last Tuesday and is projected to be the new #1 album on the Billboard 200 Album chart (which comes out this Thursday). Anyone who didn't see this coming and still calls themselves a pop music fan is a moron. What is most surprising is the sheer numbers Brit can still call back to the record shops/iTunes.
"Circus" is expected to sell over 500K. IMO, the album is a Part 2 to last year's "Blackout", although it relies less on a vocoder, however Britney's vocals were never her selling point. The biggest difference between "Circus" and "Blackout" is promotion was actually done for this album. Brit did a very caustic and intimate interview documentary style for MTV (which really bothered me, actually...it's so sad). She did an appearance on "Good Morning America". A tour (with opening act The Pussycat Doll...I mean Dolls) is already in the works with Wade Robson choreographing (remember him? Ah...its' like 2000 all over again!). This is a stark contrast to last year, in which Brit was home watching movies with her family the night "Blackout" was released.
Despite being heralded as Brit's (first) big comeback, I believe "Blackout" has still yet to go platinum (correct me if I'm wrong -- I want to be as factual as possible), something astonishing in a career like Brit's. If it has, it is a meager pass over 1 million sold. It was her least successful album to date.
"Blackout" sold 290,000 units in its first week. "Circus" has already gone gold in Australia, an sold 219,000 units in its first day of release.
Kudos go where they are deserved, but I'm afraid to be too quick to call this a success story. I hope Brit focuses more on her health and wellbeing, being surrounded with people who geniunely love and care about her, and putting on the best show she can. In the end, it is Britney, not the music, that must come first. I hope Jive Records understands that this time around.
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