#68 Britney Spears, "Womanizer"

Boy don't try to front
I-I know just just what you are

In the long run, or even the short run, "Womanizer" isn't going to be able to hang with songs like "Oop!...I Did It Again" or "...Baby One More Time," but, even if it could have had a better bridge, it's still a great pop song. Less dark and distant than much of the material on Britney's previous album, Blackout, it nevertheless bears a strong resemblance to that album's "Ooh Ooh Baby," but luckily made much sharper with some production work from the Outsyders. Other variations on that colliding jangling beat existed this year, but none of them were supplemented with constantly blaring sirens and Britney's still perfect for pop voice. "Womanizer" dances on a fine line between catchy and annoying; for some people, it'll fall to far on the latter side to be worth returning to, but it's still welcome on my radio and enough of an attention-grabbing song to function well as the lead single for Britney's "no, this time is really my comeback!" album.

Find it on: Circus (that's a link to buy the deluxe UK edition of the album, by the way, because if you're going to buy the album you really need to own all three extra tracks that version of the album contains; if only it included "Quicksand," it would contain all the tracks from this era you need to have...though I guess having "Trouble" thrown on too wouldn't hurt)