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by R.M. Nayhowtow * * * 1/2 "In The Zone" is a quirky hybrid of various popular sounds with a tinge of teen-pop thrown in for good measure. It's at times self-indulgent, recklessly obtuse, ingenious and deviant. Dance records are rarely this exciting, brazen and unabashedly mindless. Overproduced and written as though drunk in the back of a tour bus, "Zone" is a prodigal princess, blowing kisses at her detractors and fans alike. At the peak of her career Spears has no qualms about making her intentions known, being one of the few entertainers who've managed to convince Madonna to guest star on a lead-off single the trip-hop theatrical epic, "Me Against The Music".
It's as though Spears, copping from the Queen of Pop, admires and simultaneously wants to quash her one last competitor, in the only way she knows how. "If you can't beat em', join em'" seems to be the motto of a record that has no problem asserting its identity crisis. Spears uses the Redzone-produced start off point as though to showcase her Eve Harrington to Madge's Margo Channing, fully aware that in HER zone, Madonna will be trying to keep up. It's pure superficial and ego-driven calculating fun-- the kind more associated with a young and audacious Madonna.
Spears, throughout the course of her career, has been accused of using every vocal trick in the book to conceal her limited singing abilities. There's no doubt that throughout most of "In The Zone" Spears' does little to hide the fact that she employs many vocal tricks to compensate for some notes, she's merely too busy trying to dance to notice. "In The Zone" is not without it's cringeworthy moments but it's a record made for those who love to dance, sing along, strut their stuff and dress up to the max. It's Spears' final teen-pop epic, an ode to her predecessors, a call-to-arms for her fans and dance-hall junkies and a idiosyncratic personal retreat from the pressures of being an innocent girl. Drenched heavily in sex, drugs, booze, ecstacy, and moral depravity, Zone is a mini-dance-hall masterpiece, which will only serve for years to come as the soundtrack of girls and boys who want to have fun.
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