As Karen mentioned in her recent blog entry, the Guest Contributions section officially launched a week ago! During this first week, there has been an awesome and informative batch of new articles posted in the section from this week's featured guest authors, R. M. Naytowhow and Roxie. As we'll always periodically do here on the front page, let's take a quick look at each article just in case you've missed any this week.

First up, R. M. Naytowhow has taken the microscope to Britney's 2000 sophomore album, Oops!...I Did It Again.

The songs work wonderfully together creating a cohesive whole that Britney understood, or at least acted rather convincingly as if she did. The album designed for Britney a definitive persona that was all her own; a contradictive, indifferent young sextress masquerading as a singer, fully aware of her limitations and fully aware that great productions can eradicate such impositions.

Click here to read "Oops!...A Beautiful Mistake."

Next, R. M. Naytowhow again brings out the microscope to take a look at Britney's 2001 self-titled album with another album review from Britney's back catalog.

The album seems stuck between playing soundtrack to Crossroads (it also featured a cover of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll"), playing Lolita in "Let Me Be", "Bombastic Love", and "Cinderella" which were casual throwaways and actual musical growth in the understated sugar-high brilliance of "Anticipating" and "That's Where You Take Me" - ultimately failing to convince listeners of any of these incarnations.

Click here to read "Britney does 'Britney'."

2003's In The Zone is the next album to be given R. M. Naytowhow's review-treatment. As usual, he not only takes a look at the hit songs, but also discusses the collective theme and feel of each track, as well as the impact it made in helping to further define Britney's career.

"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.

Click here to read "Spears Zones Out on 'In The Zone'."

If you're a Britney fan who has yet to have an opportunity to truly explore the tracks released as b-sides to her many singles, it might seem to be too daunting a task to think about securing EVERY single to dig around and find the tracks most worth experiencing. Fear not, R. M. Naytowhow has offered up a look at his top ten b-sides from Britney's catalog.

Over the course of her nine-year career Spears has amassed quite a repertoire of praiseworthy B-sides and album cuts that, in some other glorious pop-starved universe, were all #1 singles destined for radio-play. R.M Naytowhow unearths these hidden gems from their place of (un) rest.

Click here to read "Britney's Top Ten B-Sides."

Given the extraordinary twists-and-turns Britney's life has taken over the past nine years, going into even more of an extreme as of late, Roxie has taken a look at several ways through which Britney may try to take some time to experience some semblance of a 'normal' existence.

How can Britney achieve a normal life? Recently, I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And I keep coming back to the unavoidable conclusion: Britney needs to leave LA and the whole music scene for a while.

Here are the ideas I’ve already gone through and discarded - well, discarded except for the last one. That idea I think is the best course for her to take, for a while anyway.

Click here to read "How Can Britney Get (Back) a Normal Life?"

A bit puzzled by Kevin Federline's recent public transition into practically being our generation's Ward Cleaver? You're not alone. Roxie analyzes this transformation, the reasons for which she believes Kevin and his PR team have taken this route, as well as pointing out who she feels was sacrificed in the process.

One may argue that Britney entering rehab has changed Kevin, matured him even, and that is worth considering. I’m even willing to bet that he has grown up a bit these last 30 days. But that still doesn’t justify his need to qualify everything for the press. Why rephrase the statement that Larry made? Why call out Britney on her need to retain sobriety? And question whether or not she can provide a lifestyle beneficial to their two small children? Why dangle the custody issue in front of the media and further paint the idea of an unstable mother who, despite completing rehab, must further redeem herself, before she will be “rewarded” with her own children? That’s needlessly cruel and shady and manipulative.

Click here to read "I HATE Kevin Federline..."

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