Sexy Brit Brit

After regaining some visitation rights with her kids, a bikini-clad Britney Spears celebrates in her backyard on Sunday with a unadulterated shake-shake.

Meanwhile, her new CD has some “slammin’ new songs,” says this review.

Certainly, the material on “Blackout” makes the most of that mechanized character. The 12-cut disk features wall-to-wall electro-fueled club cuts. There’s not a ballad in the bunch. The synth-dance smash single “Gimme More” tips off the rest.

“Radar” matches a sniping electronic beat to a snappy bubble gum tune. “Ooh Baby Baby” takes a Gary Glitter-style drum pattern and adds its own catchy chorus, while in “Hot as Ice” (perhaps the only song in which Britney sounds like a human being) the sound men concocted a striking dance-rock melange.

Luckily, with music this fun you won’t have to think about that too much. Instead think about this: How wonderful it is that, in the world of slick pop, even if stars can’t deliver, the machine behind them still can.

Once upon a time, it was Britney’s music that would get criticized to no end. But now that her train wreck of a private life is splashed all over the net, her efforts in the studio are music to the public’s ears.

Faded Youth