Britney Returns

"There's no excitement, there's no passion," the singer says in a rare outburst in Britney: For the Record, a documentary executive-produced by Spears' management team that is airing on MTV November 30th. "Even when you go to jail, you know there's the time when you're gonna get out. But in this situation, it's never-ending. It's just like Groundhog Day every day." She also says, "If I wasn't under the restraints I'm under, I'd feel so liberated."

Britney has clashed with her parents on and off for years. "She was scared they were going to come in and take away everything she had worked for," says one former friend. The real problems, however, go deeper: As her mother, Lynne, documents in her recent memoir, Through the Storm, Jamie's alcoholism had led to "knock-down, drag-out fights" during Britney's childhood, and he was often absent from the household, out drinking. "She felt like he was this scary guy who she didn't really know because he was never around," says one Britney pal. In 2000, Britney paid to have a house built in Kentwood for Lynne. The couple divorced in 2002 but have never fully severed their ties, and sources close to Britney say she felt betrayed by their reconciliations. "Sometimes she would call Lynne's house, and Jamie would answer the phone," says one source. "It made her feel like she was being taken advantage of."

Under Jamie's rule, however, Britney's career has risen from the dead. In April, he rehired her former manager, Larry Rudolph, a straight-talking Bronx native who started in entertainment law before discovering Britney in 1995. The singer had parted ways with Rudolph in April 2007, accusing him of joining with her parents to force her into rehab. Rudolph compares his own relationship with Britney to Elvis Presley's and Colonel Tom Parker's, but he gets uncomfortable when asked to explain how Jamie helped her get better. "I can't talk about him, because I'm not allowed to talk about the conservatorship," Rudolph says. "The only thing I can say is, in a general sense, there's a stability in her life right now that I think is a positive thing for her."

Within weeks of the conservatorship's being implemented, Britney started working out again. She and her dad went to Costa Rica on vacation with Mel Gibson, another recent rehab alum, and his wife, Robyn. For her good behavior, she earned expanded visitation with her sons in May. And by the end of the summer, with some 30 songs recorded for Circus, Britney Spears was officially back in business. "Some people are skeptical about her icon status at this point," Rudolph said in September, a couple of weeks after she received three awards at the VMAs. "But this album tells everybody that she's here to stay. This is going to be the album that cements her legend status."

In mid-September, "Womanizer," the first single from Circus, debuted at Number One on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and in November, the video was the most-watched clip on YouTube, with more than 16 million views. Due out on Britney's 27th birthday, December 2nd, Circus is classic Britney pop, updated with the kind of electro-tinged dance-floor kitsch she explored on her past two albums. In addition to collaborating with producer Dr. Luke, who wrote pop-rock hits for Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone") and Katy Perry ("I Kissed a Girl"), she reunited with ". . . Baby One More Time" producer Max Martin, as well as the core beatsmiths from last year's Blackout: Danja and production duo Bloodshy and Avant. The album's also got an epic, gut-wrenching ballad on par with 2003's "Everytime": "Out From Under" is a cover produced by Guy Sigsworth and previously recorded by another singer for the Bratz soundtrack, but the pathos expressed in lyrics such as "I don't want to feel the pain. . . . I'll get it all figured out, when I'm out from under" is heavy with significance the way Britney sings them. It is, overall, a very good Britney Spears album.

"We listened to, like, 9 million tracks from unknown people," says Britney, describing the recording process. "Sometimes it would take 10 minutes to write a song, like this Spanish twang song called 'Mmm Papi.' So we would just kind of crash-course at that for the first two or three weeks. And then you get a vibe with somebody and how you deal with them and how you work together, and then you go to somebody else, and you figure out how they work."

"She always goes for the tracks that don't sound like what everybody else has done," says Los Angeles songwriter Nicole Morier, who wrote nine songs with Spears this summer. "She would come in, and right off the bat, she'd have ideas. She's not afraid to speak up or experiment. She's kind of quiet and sweet, but she's willing to jump on stuff." Though Spears' contributions as a writer vary from one track to the next, Morier says one of her favorite things about Britney is that she's not hung up on wanting to prove she can write an album's worth of songs on her own. "She's a pro," Morier continues, "and she knows her limitations."

"We tried to keep the bar as high as possible for these songs," says Britney's A&R woman, Teresa LaBarbera-Whites, who combed through hundreds of demos looking for Circus's tracks. "People ought to hear it on the radio and go, 'Yes, that is Britney Spears! She's done it again!' Whether you want to admit it or not, you have danced around the room in your bra and panties to her songs or you've been driving in your car singing along. We all have. So you want to get it out there and know that it is going to fucking knock people down."