The stories on Britney Spears’ wild nights caught on camera, missed court dates and stints in rehab have recently consumed the media and haven’t left much room for positive attention.

Not until she dropped her fifth album “Blackout” on Oct. 30.

In the midst of the bad publicity, Spears makes her comeback with a strong 12-song album featuring upbeat music and lyrics that tell it like it is.

The popular radio hit “Gimme More” was just a preview of what was to come.

For the first time, Spears uses her life experiences to reach the audience, even if she isn’t the one writing the songs. “Piece of Me,” one of the better songs on the album, tells of the constant media attention and rumors. She sings, “Don’t matter if I step on the scene or sneak away to the Philippines/ they still gon’ put pictures of my derriere in the magazine,” letting everyone know she is well aware that her every move is going to end up in the public eye.

It then raises the question of why she continues to live the way she does, but we’ll save that for another story.

After a disappointing performance from Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this year, fans became unsure of what to expect from the upcoming album.

“I was hoping Britney would use her time on the VMAs to show everybody that she isn’t crazy and still has some tricks up her sleeve,” senior communications major Aaron Boggs said. “But all she did was prove that she’s completely lost it.”

However, after listening to some of the songs off the CD, Boggs, 22, saw things a little differently and said he might even buy it for his sister.

“Britney’s just being a good business woman,” he said, “She’s using the attention to spark people’s curiosity so they go out and buy her album, then find out that she’s still got it.”

Spears has definitely “still got it.” With the help of Pharrell Williams, Bloodshy & Avant, who she collaborated with on “Toxic,” and vocal enhancing technologies, she delivers catchy tunes that make you want to get up and dance.

The seventh track, “Freakshow,” incorporates the moans and whispers we have become accustomed to hearing from Spears, but also switches it up with the pop version of rap verses; the style is similar to that ofMadonna in her 2003 song “American Life.”

Spears loses presentation points when she goes outside of her vocal range in “Hot As Ice.” Many of the notes are held a little too long, without enough help from the computer.

Although she more than makes up for it with “Radar,” an electronic dance hit, which may be the best song on the record.

It is easy to picture the songs that will most likely make it onto the radio, “Piece of Me” and “Radar,” and listening to any song you can picture Spears shaking her moneymaker while receiving a rubdown from her backup dancers.

“Blackout” was highly anticipated and was expected to be #1 on the Billboard music charts for record sales. The Eagles flew past Spears in record sales entering her in the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Charts selling 290,000 copies.

Tygenae Harris can be reached at [email protected]