Though the album cover features a modest shot of Britney's head and shoulders, this subtlety is no indication of what lies within. Clearly, the "not a girl, not yet a woman" Britney of her previous efforts is long gone. Britney does not hesitate to declare her adult status, and she does so in the tone and lyrical content of her songs. Gone are the saccharine pop songs and ballads that positively ooze with sap (thank God), to be replaced with beat-driven tracks, superior production and collaborations with A-list artists and producers.
Retrospectively, it seems that "I'm a Slave 4 U" was a portent of what was to come from Britney, though this time there's no room for confusion about what she serves. She asserts that she is, in fact, all grown up in nearly every song on "In The Zone," with lots of heavy breathing and overtly sexual lyrics that don't tease, but promise. A gutsy move for the former "Baby, One More Time" girl, but perhaps slightly over the top?
The first nine songs on the album are unrelentingly danceable and upbeat, making this an ideal selection for a workout, a party or, hell, even a strip club, with influences ranging from hip-hop to electronica to dancehall. As though endorsing Britney's exploration of this world of electronic beats and unveiled sexuality, Madonna is featured on the album's well-produced first track, "Me Against The Music," an edgy pop single that is almost catchy.
Britney forays into hip-hop on tracks such as "I Got That (Boom Boom)" with the Ying Yang Twins and "Outrageous," co-written by R. Kelly. On the former, the Twins seem to do most of the work as Britney, auto-tuned, supplies little more than a verse and a couple barely melodic choruses. There is little more to this song than the collaborators throwing hooks at each other, as though the infectious dance beats precluded the need for any further effort. "Outrageous" is chock full of grandiose bling-bling boasts that one would expect more from Beyonce than Britney, as she flaunts "my sex drive" and "my shopping sprees" with equal emphasis.
Britney seems to emulate Kylie Minogue on the electronica-influenced tracks "Breathe on Me," "Early Mornin'" and the pretty but flagrant "Touch of My Hand," in the proud tradition of Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop." Moby produced "Early Mornin'," the account of Britney's venture out on the town for some ass-shaking and hooking up at the hotel. Though the track is no "South Side," Moby's mastery of commercial poptronica makes its mark.
The two slower songs on this album, the Matrix-penned "Shadow" and Britney's first song of her own, "Everytime," are, mercifully, more grown-up than her previous ballads-like the junior-high-slow-dance-ready "Sometimes." "In the Zone" contains a multitude of shallow songs about hookups, dancing and a combination of the two activities at the same time. The autobiographical "Everytime," a sweet, piano-backed lost-love ballad that stops just sort of cloying, sounds out of place after this barrage of tracks with erogenously charged but emotionally shallow themes and throbbing electronic beats.
If you're not a purist who insists on singers who can, well, sing-in which case, you wouldn't be picking up this album anyway (for the record, it contains no vocal surprises)-and are just as content with good production and a dance floor-crowding beat, there's nothing missing in "In The Zone," right? Wrong. What this album lacks is any sense of Britney's identity-with the exception of "Everytime," each song in its unaffecting sound and content paints nothing more than a picture of a one-dimensional party girl.
In her seeming attempt to juxtapose Madonna's "Ray of Light" sound with her "erotica" theme, Britney scrimps on the sensuality and falls short of artistic coherence. She seems disoriented as she wavers between genres, and has yet to establish a trademark of her own, save for phone-sex breathing and risque lyrics. As we are all acutely aware, young adults tend to be self-absorbed and hedonistic-and admittedly, that can make for a decent club soundtrack. "In the Zone," however, accomplishes little else: Britney may be no little girl anymore, but she's still got a whole lot of growing up to do.