BRITNEY SPEARS - BRITNEY CD 14 TRACKS (60638) Amazon.co.uk As Brit and her fan base grow older, it's perhaps inevitable that Miss Spears's third album would be one of those difficult "coming of age" affairs. Luckily manages to carefully mix the more "credible", /adult style tunes (thankfully there are only two--"I'm A Slave 4 U" and "Boys")--with the more formulaic pop anthems that have made her great ("Anticipating", "Cinderella", "Bombastic Love" and "Let Me Be"). The pressures of "growing-up" and the adolescent gripe of being taken seriously, seems to a dominant theme which runs right through the album from the, "...I need to make mistakes to know who I am" lyrics on the -style "Overprotected", to the appropriately titled, "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman". Perhaps Britney's street-wise maturity explains why there's no power ballad on the album, with the lower songs like "That's Where You Take Me" and "When I Found You" still having a bit of a swing to them. In true Britney album style, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is the obligatory rock cover of the Joan Jett classic. Winding the album down, "Before The Goodbye" is a Hi-NRG powered track (in the style of Dana International), which would make an excellent Eurovision entry given the chance. While this album might suggest a slight shift in musical direction for Britney, there's plenty of material on here that will appeal even to the most conservative Spears fans. -- John Galilee