Rob Sabin Spears & Munsil

On her ninth album, Britney Spears sounds happy to have settled into her status as a grande dame of forward-thinking pop. Downtempo offerings like the gauzy come-on “Make Me…”, the reggae-inflected Tinashe duet “Slumber Party” and the cooing “Man On the Moon” put Spears’ sensual side on full display. On the wide-eyed, bouncy “Clumsy”, the swaggering “Do You Wanna Come Over?” and the vampy “What You Need”, she gets playful over booming beats. This expanded deluxe edition includes fresh remixes of “Mood Ring” and the brand-new single “Matches”, a glossy collaboration with the Backstreet Boys that feels like a long-time dream come true for early-aughts pop fanatics.

The soft commercial performance of 2013's Britney Jean made it clear that it was time for Britney Spears to shake up her recording career – a move made somewhat less urgent due to the success of Britney: Piece of Me, the residency show she launched at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood a few months after the release of Britney Jean. Sin City's influence can be heard within the splashiness of the arrangements of certain portions of Glory, the 2016 album designed to be Britney's return to the Top 40. To that end, Glory downplays the show biz glitz of Vegas in favor of modern dance-pop, one with EDM undercurrents and hip-hop overtones. Sometimes echoes of other stars can be heard – Justin Bieber's Purpose appears to a primary text – but despite this contemporary gloss, the album usually relies on sounds of Spears' past, trading heavily on the cloistered dance of Blackout and the shimmering neon of Femme Fatale.