USA Today: "'Britney Jean' eager to share, not shock"

On her new album, Britney Spears is more into the groove than provocation.
There was probably nothing that Britney Spears could have done to embarrass herself at this point.
The bar for silly behavior among pop stars has fallen so low — tugged by a desperate music industry and we prurient folk in the media — that people are no longer shocked when an artist who has proven reliable tabloid fodder tries to freshly provoke or titillate us. We just feign surprise, or dismay, so that we can all talk/write/tweet about it.
Perhaps the best thing that can be said for Spears' latest album, in fact, is that it doesn't seem obsessed with provocation. Britney Jean (*** out of four), streaming now on iTunes a week ahead of its Dec. 3 release, aims to present this modestly talented young woman who has somehow managed to sustain our interest for 15 years as a cool but accessible dance-pop diva — willing to dangle the occasional profanity to keep us alert, but ultimately more into the groove than anything else.
The album opens with the recently unveiled Alien, a shimmering reverie that is by far the best track, followed by two now-familiar singles: the frantically ingratiating Work Bitch and the more vulnerable Perfume, on which Spears, weary of a romantic rival, warns her man that she's going to "mark my territory."
Emotional and carnal needs remain in focus, whether Spears is advising a lover how to push her buttons on Tik Tik Boom (featuring T.I.), letting him take control on the exuberant Passenger or trying to say goodbye on the wistful Don't Cry. The production, by such club veterans as David Guetta, will.i.am and William Orbit, is by turns clattering and graceful.
As a musical reintroduction, certainly, Britney Jean offers as much grace as anyone could have expected.
Download:Alien, Passenger, Body Ache