Circus

Call it a comeback. After a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with "Circus" and the chart-topping peak of the first single, "Womanizer," the title track from Britney Spears' sixth album is her first top five start on the Billboard Hot 100. Besides the image overhaul with a return to the Spears of old, Brit has recorded her most mature, musical album to date, with hook-heavy tunes and more important, fully engaged pop vocals with little vocoder assistance. "Circus" finds Spears in the more-than-capable hands of Dr. Luke (Pink, Katy Perry), who surrounds her with an electronic cyberpop landscape, while Spears spits out lines like, "There's only two types of guys out there/Ones that can hang with me and ones that are scared." Gotta love it. While her life has often resembled a circus—to which the public has ringside access—it appears Spears is now the ringleader instead of the main attraction. —Chris Williams