Her new single, "3" ostensibly about threesomes, is incredibly boring. Incredibly boring. Lots of horns, lots of autotune, references to living in sin being cool, which might be interesting, but it's a case of "I don't think that means what you think it means."
Like a lot of women who had high school years where the charts were dominated by Britney and her ilk, I kind of root for Britney Spears. I want her to be okay. "Baby One More Time" is not a good song, per se, and "hit me baby, one more time" is a pretty disturbing lyric to put into a song about puppy love. But in the video, she tilted her head, and looked up from under those big lashes, and she look like we've all felt at thirteen, or fourteen, or fifteen. I felt awful for her during the period of her breakdown; I can't imagine what it must be like to look that dreadful and out-of-control, much less to do it in public, much less to do it when you have two children. I really wanted her to come back, to be fabulous, to have fun, and to capture something about my twenties; I enjoyed her pop encapsulation of my teenaged heartache even if I didn't take it seriously, and I would have liked for her to do it again.
But I don't think it's ever going to happen. The most interesting Britney's released in eight years is "Piece of Me," the product of a Swedish song-writing duo, and with the divinely ubiquitous Robyn on backing vocals, the incredibly nasty and autobiographical song about fame from her Blackout album, with the vicious chorus: "I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous / I'm Mrs. Oh My God, that Britney's shameless." The song comes across as very, VERY self-aware, whether or not it actually is, and it's extremely effective.
I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. When you've gone insane in public, threesomes aren't particularly scandalous. And when you're very, very heavily handled to make sure you never break down again, it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever record something scary, and damaged, but good and honest again. I wonder if it would be better for her if all of us just walked away, if she could take the kids and move back to Louisiana, or wherever, leaving Britney Spears a sweet, high school memory, and leaving her to have something approaching a life.