Like 2004's
Greatest Hits: My Prerogative
, 2009's
The Singles
runs 17 tracks but the selected songs result in a very different listening experience. To begin with, the five years separating the two compilations were tumultuous ones for
Britney Spears
, but they resulted in a clutch of hits that kept her on the charts despite all the drama, hits that firmly entrenched
Britney
as a dance club diva. This stretch of six singles --
"Gimme More,"
"Piece of Me,"
"Womanizer,"
"Circus,"
"If You Seek Amy,"
"Radar"
-- along with the excellent new
Max Martin
-written and produced single
"3"
(much better than any of the three new cuts on
My Prerogative
), help push
away from teen pop and toward pure dance-pop bliss, a shift in tone underscored by the virtual absence of ballads (the only one included is
"Everytime,"
which in this context plays a bit as a chill-out number). In some regards, giving her early sticky bubblegum and fluffy ballads a bit of a short shrift does downplay
's era of dominance, but it does result in a stronger overall listen, since there are no slow patches here, just a parade of relentless hooks and rhythms that wound up defining the sound of a decade. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine