In the past few years, Britney Spears went from America’s sweetheart to white trash. Between her misguided marriage to Kevin Federline, nearly dropping her baby on his head, walking into public restrooms without shoes on, shaving her head and attacking cars with baseball bats, Spears’ personal life has been an absolute train wreck of epic proportions.  

After her dismal performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, it looked as if Spears’ personal life was going to destroy her professional life.

That’s what makes the amount of good material on her latest release “Blackout” so shocking. Of course, that shock wears out once one remembers that unlike Madonna or Mariah Carey, Spears has never had much input on her own music. At most, she hires savvy writers and producers to craft top-notch contemporary dance pop and then drops in for vocals and contributes a lyric here or there.  

Still, with Spears’ life spinning out of control, the fact that she was smart enough to hire people like Nate Hills, The Neptunes and Avant seems like an achievement in itself, especially considering that they contribute tunes as strong as any Spears has had her name attached to.  

Despite the VMA performance, “Gimme More” is a great contemporary dance pop song that instantly recalls the futuristic sound on Justin Timberlake’s sophomore album.  

“Heaven on Earth” finds Spears channeling Madonna via “Confessions on the Dance Floor.” In fact, “Blackout” is a lot like Madonna’s latest, where there are no ballads in sight and everything is club ready.

Spears has never made a perfect album and “Blackout” is no exception. “Piece of Me” over-processes Spears’ thin vocals to such an annoying extreme that it undermines any hooks the song could have had. “Get Naked (I’ve Got a Plan)” also finds Spears trying too hard to be sexy and features an obnoxious vocal delivery by an unknown guest rapper.

These bad songs, however, are balanced by pop gems like “Break the Ice.” It has a classic hip-hop backing beat but with a great pop melody thrown on top.  The song would fit perfectly in between Rhianna and Nelly Furtado on any Top 40 radio station.  

“Break the Ice”’s intro sums up Spears’ underachievement from the last few years but also declares she is here to stay: “It’s been a while and I know I shouldn’t have kept you waiting, but I’m here now.” If Spears can get her personal life up to the level of “Blackout” she might just be here for much longer than anyone could have predicted.

"Blackout" received 3.5 out of 4 stars.