Album review: Britney Spears: Circus

**

JIVE

THE other artist releasing an album called Circus this week is the world's most photographed woman, phoning in her contribution just to keep her hand in with the day job.

This follow-up to the marginally superior Blackout is another robotic collection of sleek, processed R&B-laced radio pop that purports to allow us into the mind of a troubled star.

Reading from the script supplied to her by her team of songwriters, Spears claims "I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl" on the title track and purrs "I'm ready for my close-up" on Kill The Lights, a gruesomely cynical number about being attracted and repelled by attention which, like the rest of the album, has been custom-written to provide some bogus commentary on a life already lived through a lens.