Britney Spears’ debut song “…Baby One More Time” will be celebrating its 20th anniversary of being released on Tuesday. It’s hard to believe that she has been in the pop stratosphere for that long of a time and shows no signs of slowing down either as the busy mother-of-two just announced that she’s signed a new residency tour in Las Vegas and will reportedly be making $507,000 per show. Not too bad for a girl from Kentwood, Louisiana.
She has put out 9 studio albums over the past 20 years with varying degrees of success. It’s hard for any artist to sell millions upon millions of records as their career age gets older, however the quality of what Britney has put out in her later albums have sometimes trumped what she did earlier on, meaning that your biggest seller doesn’t equate your best.
Here is, in my opinion as a gigantic Britney Spears fan, all her 9 albums ranked from worst to best. Do you agree? Let us know.
9/8. Britney Jean/Glory. Her last two albums just haven’t been that impressive in terms of what Britney can really put out there. Sure, “Work B**ch” is fun and all, but its been several years since she put out anything that was stellar and these two albums were a departure from how fantastic Femme Fatale was many moons ago.
Standout songs: “Perfume”, “Private Show”, “Make Me”.
7. Oops! I Did it Again. Her sophomore effort is only this low because there wasn’t too much of a change from her debut to this. I can understand why, as it was released only a year after …Baby, but I was hoping for somewhat of a shift in her sound and that just didn’t happen with this.
Standout songs: “Don’t Go Knocking on My Door”, “Stronger”.
6. In the Zone. My problem with In the Zone was that the first track released from it wasn’t its smartest. “Me Against the Music” isn’t a good song (at all), but Madonna was featured so I’m sure the label wanted that out at first. Outside of that, this is a super fun album to listen to and helped solidify her mature sound further than it did with Britney.
Standout songs: “Showdown”, “Outrageous”, “Toxic”.
5. Femme Fatale. The dance version of Britney that catapulted her career in the early 2010’s was evident on Femme Fatale, as it evoked some of the same beats and styles as Blackout and Circus. This wasn’t as good as the other two (read on for that), however it did produce some stellar tracks and gave her another number one debut with “Hold It Against Me”.
Standout songs: “Til The World Ends”, “Criminal”, “I Wanna Go”.
4. …Baby One More Time. The one that started it out for her. This album was squeaky pop princess realness, and as much as you want to hate on it for that, you can’t. Max Martin and all her producers utilized that to its fullest and made for an irresistible debut album that became one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Oh baby, baby.
Standout songs: “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart”, “Born to Make You Happy”, “…Baby One More Time”
3. Britney. Oops hinted at this, however Britney hit it out of the park when it came to Britney’s maturity coming through ten-fold from what she did on her first two albums. “Slave” was a smart choice in order to engage multiple audiences and veer her somewhat from the teen queen that she became in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Just a stellar album with many yummy tracks to digest.
Standout songs: “I’m a Slave 4 U”, “Bombastic Love”, “Boys”
2. Circus. I had a hard time going between number two and one on this, as both efforts were during her creative peak that really showed her maturing into the artist that she is today. When all the 2007 pandemonium started to calm down in Britney’s career, she released Circus, which blended a ton of what she did on her previous albums but in a much better and focused sort of way. There was no weak track from it, not a single one, and it’s one that is still so much fun to listen to today.
Standout songs: “Shattered Glass”, “Unusual You”, “Kill the Lights”.
1. Blackout. It’s so frustrating that her best effort to date only went platinum, as Britney was going through such a public catastrophe during this time. Her 2007 VMA opening only intensified the media scrutiny that was going on, which made it harder for her casual fans to actually want to purchase and listen to Blackout. Regardless of what she was going through, Blackout was a true masterpiece that showed off an upbeat, dance driven side of Brit with songs like “Gimme More” and “Hot as Ice”. It is still regarded by her fan base as one of her best if not best album to date, to which I say… Yes.
Standout songs: “Gimme More”, “Break the Ice”, “Freakshow”.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.
1. Blackout (fav: freak show)
2. Circus (favorite: phonography)
3. In the zone (favorite: breathe on me)
4. Glory (fav: just like me)
5. Femme Fatale (favorite: inside out)
6. Britney (Fav: anticipating)
7. Oops (fav: can’t make you love me)
8. Baby (fav: born to make you happy)
9. Britney Jean (fav: til its gone)
I would have actually ranked
I would have actually ranked Blackout closer to the other end of the list. I'm not personally a fan of any of those songs. I probably would have ranked Britney first and Circus second.
I think its funny that you say that because Blackout was definitely her best album, I was just checking this list to make sure.