Tracks

1. Me Against The Music

2. I Got That (Boom Boom)

3. Showdown

4. Breathe On Me

5. Early Morning

6. Toxic

7. Outrageous

8. Touch Of My Hand

9. The Hook Up

10. Shadow

11. Brave New Girl

12. Everytime

13. Me Against The Music

14. The Answer

15. Don't Hang Up

Performer Notes

Personnel includes: Britney Spears (vocals); Madonna (vocals); Ying Yang Twins (rap vocals); C "Tricky" Stewart, Moby, Bloodshy, Avant (various instruments, programming); Roy "Royalty" Hamilton (various instruments, background vocals); Guy Sigsworth (various instruments); Roy Gartrell (guitar, banjo); Jimmy Harry (guitar, keyboards, programming); Donnie Lyle, Gary O'Brien, Henrik Jonback (guitar); Steve Anderson (keyboards, programming); Kendall Nesbitt (keyboards); Thomas Lindberg (bass); Penelope Magnet, Courtney Copeland, Emma Roads, Roxanne Estrada, Chyna Royal, Black Cell, Cathy Dennis, Emma Holmgren, R. Kelly, Bud, Tricky, Kyron Leslie, Lisa Green, The Matrix (background vocals); Bollywood Strings.
Producers include: Trixter, Roy "Royalty" Hamilton, Mark Taylor, Bloodshy, Moby.
Asian edition contains two bonus tracks--"Me Against The Music" (Rishi Rich's Desi Kulcha Remix) and "The Answer."
If 2001's Britney was a transitional album, capturing Spears at the point when she wasn't a girl, and not yet a woman, her 2003 follow-up, In the Zone, is where she has finally completed that journey and turned into Britney, the Adult Woman. Like her peer Christina Aguilera, Britney equates maturity with transparent sexuality and the pounding sounds of nightclubs, but since she's not as dirrty as Xtina, her spin is a little different. On In the Zone, Britney feels like the good girl next door cutting loose at college, since this is the first time she can indulge herself. She has been freed from her musical parent, Max Martin, who is absent for the first time from a Britney Spears album. Instead, Britney has decided to play the field and work with a bunch of different collaborators, including Madonna, Moby, the Matrix, TrixsterRoy "Royalty" Hamilton, Bloodshy, and Avant, and R Kelly. Since she's so determined to be a woman, not a girl, she has completely shed the sugarcoated big hooks and sappy love songs that drove her stardom, concentrating on music that glides by on mellow grooves, or hits hard with its hip-hop beats. It's all club-ready, but despite some hints of neo-electro and the Neptunes, it doesn't quite sound modern -- it sounds like a cut from 1993, or Madonna's Bedtime Stories and Ray of Light. Production-wise, these tracks are not only accomplished, they're much more varied than any of her previous albums -- in particular, the sleek feel of Moby's "Early Mornin'," the alluring "Breathe on Me" from Mark Taylor, and the irresistible Bloodshy and Avant productions, "Showdown" and "Toxic." They make In the Zone surely her most ambitious, adventurous album to date. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.198) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...There's no question that Spears wants IN THE ZONE to be erogenous, so she lays on the heavy breathing and offers herself for hookups on and off the dance floor..."

Spin (12/03, pp.130-1) - "...Spears hits paydirt on 'Toxic,' holding her own against a wall of drum breaks, strings, and James Bond surf guitar that warps and struts like it's been fed into the Matrix..." - Grade: B-

Q (1/04, p.122) - 3 stars out of 5 - "It's a sprightly collection of provocative pop showing she still knows exactly which buttons to press."

Album: In the Zone [Import Bonus Track]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Me Against the Music
2)	Breathe on Me
3)	Showdown
4)	(I Got That) Boom Boom
5)	Early Mornin'
6)	Toxic
7)	Outrageous
8)	Touch of My Hand
9)	Hook Up
10)	Shadow
11)	Brave New Girl
12)	Everytime
13)	Me Against the Music [Rishi Rich's Desi Kulcha Remix] - (Rishi Rich's Desi Kulcha Mix, remix)
14)	Answer

Album: In the Zone [Import Bonus Track]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Me Against the Music
2)	Breathe on Me
3)	Showdown
4)	(I Got That) Boom Boom
5)	Early Mornin'
6)	Toxic
7)	Outrageous
8)	Touch of My Hand
9)	Hook Up
10)	Shadow
11)	Brave New Girl
12)	Everytime
13)	Me Against the Music [Rishi Rich's Desi Kulcha Remix] - (Rishi Rich's Desi Kulcha Mix, remix)
14)	Answer