Oops! She did it again (9 times)! It’s no secret that Britney Spears is insanely talented and so it makes sense that her albums are incredibly popular, but which ones are the best? We’re breaking where each one ranks!
It’s no secret that Britney Spears is one of the highest-selling female artists of all time with over 100 million albums sold worldwide and a career spanning nearly 3 decades and 9 studio albums (not counting her compilation or remix albums). Britney stans will always be quick to tell you their favorite album (mine is Oops!), but what is Britney’s best album?
Based on fan’s favorites and record sales, we’re ranking Britney’s 9 studio albums!
*Disclaimer: Britney Spears has never released a bad album.
9. Britney Jean
Britney Jean is Britney’s lowest-selling album in the United States, selling only 107,000 copies in its first week. Britney has called this the most personal record of her catalog, but it’s been rumored that very little of the vocals on this album are actually Britney’s — this was recorded mid-conservatorship and around the time of her Las Vegas residency. This is the album that gave us the gym anthem “Work Bitch,” and for that we are eternally grateful.
8. Glory
Britney’s 9th and most recent studio album Glory gave us hits like “Make Me” and “Slumber Party” and a G Eazy collab (fun fact: Britney met now-fiancé Sam Asghari on set for this music video!), but was just not as successful on the charts as some of her other work. This album has had almost a revival in the last two years, though, as deleted tracks such as “Swimming in the Stars” and “Matches” (featuring the Backstreet Boys! Talk about a 90s baby’s dream) have later been released as bonus tracks.
7. Baby One More Time
There’s no arguing that Britney’s debut album changed the music industry forever. The album went 14x platinum, with hits like “Sometimes” (which Britney has stated she hates), “Born to Make You Happy” and “(You Drive Me) Crazy” that rocked airwaves ‘round the world, but songs like “Sodapop” and Britney’s cover of “The Beat Goes On” are a little less memorable than tracks on her other albums.
6. Femme Fatale
Britney’s 7th studio album ran the airwaves in the early 2010s, with singles like “Till the World Ends” and “Hold it Against Me.” The album sold over 2.4 million copies worldwide and is considered quintessential to the 2010s pop scene —“Criminal” even had a brief viral stint on TikTok as a trending sound in 2020!
5. Oops! I Did it Again
Brit’s sophomore album came with serious anticipation following the hype of Baby One More Time, and she did not disappoint. The “fastest-selling record ever by a female act in America” went 3x platinum and sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Released in May of 2000, Oops! gave us tracks like “Stronger,” “What U See is What U Get,” and the titular track as well as more vulnerable songs like “Lucky” and “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know.” Britney took the world by storm with this album, and as stated by Beyoncé herself “With hardly a reason to say ‘oops.’”
4. Circus
Talk about a comeback album! Circus was released in 2008. Singles such as “If You Seek Amy,” “Womanizer,” and the album’s titular track “Circus” made this album truly one to remember and a fan-favorite. Who could forget the shock that rocked the world when “If You Seek Amy” was played on radios and televisions across the globe?
3. Britney
Britney’s first self-titled record debuted in 2003, with hits like “I’m a Slave 4 U” (the snake? The music video? A cultural reset if we ever saw one) “Overprotected,” “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” and “Boys” headlining the album. Songs like “Cinderella,” “What it’s Like to be Me,” “Bombastic Love,” and Britney’s cover of “I Love Rock n’ Roll” are favorites amongst fans, and for good reason. Britney went 4x platinum and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. When you think of Britney, this is likely the vibe or sound you associate with her, making it a (if not the) quintessential Britney album.
2. Blackout
The album that gave us “It’s Britney bitch” (was a more iconic phrase ever uttered?) deserves due diligence. Blackout has been regarded by Rolling Stone as one of the most transformative albums and the blueprint for pop music thereafter. Blackout was released in Britney’s mid-2000s era, and it is arguably one of her most honest records to date. Britney was largely in charge in a lot of the creative process behind this album, one of the reasons it’s regarded as a fan favorite (and a pop classic). Tracks like “Gimme More,” “Piece of Me,” and “Break the Ice,” have truly stood the tests of time and have continued to do numbers on Britney’s streaming charts.
1. In the Zone
The Madonna collab? The music videos? The singles? In the Zone isn’t just one of her best-selling albums, but it’s Britney’s best album, period. While not commercially her best (at a mere 10 million copies sold worldwide), In the Zone gave us hits like “Me Against the Music,” “Outrageous,” “Toxic,” “The Hookup,” and “Everytime” — truly an album with no skips. This was without a doubt Britney’s most provocative album of all-time, cementing it in the B Army’s hearts as a favorite. Britney won her first and only Grammy for “Toxic” following the sensation of In the Zone. Britney also previously stated in an Instagram live that one of her all-time favorite songs of hers is “Early Mornin,’” which leads us to believe this album might be her favorite, too.
What’s your favorite Britney album? Tell us on Twitter @AfterBuzzTV!
