Britney Spears - Piece Of Me
[Jive]

Britney Spears's second single from The Blackout is a song steeped in irony. Lyrically she sings about the pressures of being hounded by the media, while at the same forgetting just who exactly made her the worldwide name she is now.

We all know Britney made her career off the back of trashy stories, which in all honesty she more than played upto - you only have to pick up a paper from the last year before the release of her fifth album and there will be at least one story of the troubled pop star - "spontaneous head-shaving" articles for instance, or her continually going to celebrity nightclubs full of paparazzi, so forgive us for not feeling too sorry for you.

Sleazy tabloid headlines aside, Piece Of Me is a another dash of bubblegum electro-pop that wipes the floor with the likes of Robyn and Rihanna. Her voice may well be hidden behind studio trickery and manipulation, but the production of the song is impeccable. The beats sound like a bag of broken glass being tossed around, the synths are as wiry to rival even Timbaland's best and that melody is a serious ear-worm you won't be getting rid of any time soon.

And lyrically, well Ms Spears does her best to vent the frustration of the constant stalking: "I’m Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in! I’m Mrs. she’s too big now, she’s too thin" and "Sneak away to the Philippines, they still goin' put pictures of my derrière in the magazine." Hardly ground-breaking, but this is fun, sassy electro-pop designed purely to make you shake your body. Which thankfully, it more than achieves.