Earnest songs call for relational transparency (“Shadow”) and reconciliation (“Everytime”).
Spears calls “Touch of My Hand” an ode to female masturbation, telling US magazine that women should “make themselves happy” and then let their partners “kind of follow up.” “Me Against the Music” finds her reconnecting with Madonna (after their salacious kiss at MTV’s Video Music Awards), this time in a duet about rabid dancing. The line between dancing and intercourse is blurred (“The Hook Up”), and a woman earns the title “Brave New Girl” for picking up a stranger for a fling in a motel room (“Her M.O.’s changed/She don’t wanna behave/Ain’t it good to be a brave girl tonight”). Spears flirts with a prospective partner on “(I Got That)Boom Boom.” Heated ogling, touching and undressing prefaces a sexual “Showdown.” She describes other forms of intimacy on “Toxic,” “Breathe on Me” and “Early Mornin’” (which features a hard-to-recall late-night rendezvous that leaves the singer “passed out”). Mild profanities and racy CD photos add to the problems.
Spears’ sleazy slide continues. With each new release she gets more irresponsible, immoral and blatantly sexual. Steer teens away from this Zone.
