America's beloved Britney is hitting store shelves with her big 'comeback' album next Tuesday, October 30. Is it a coincidence that "Blackout" will be released on Hallow's Eve? Will it be more frightening than all the terror flicks littering the cable channels? You be the judge.

For a while, I was beginning to think it would bomb even worse than K-Fed's (her ex-hubby) awful shipwreck of a rap record. But, I forgot we are all endlessly infatuated with Britney the way we are with Michael Jackson, so no matter how lame her new single, "Gimme More" sounds, it's getting lots of airplay and will probably propel some decent album sales.

I think Britney oddly succeeds in (and has become the princess of) popular culture because she's kinda become this weird demented symbol of the American dream. Even if it's more of a nightmare. Think about it, she began as this gorgeous little honeypot and she tried her darndest to grow up, but has kinda failed to. The towns of America are littered with people who identify with that. Heck, I even raise my hand along with those folks. Plus, she's become a big open gash spurting for all the attention she can get. Who doesn't love a former teen starlet who shaves her head after divorcing out of a marriage we all knew was doomed to crash, and bashes cars with umbrellas? I know I do.

It shows that you don't have to be stable to be successful, but also that being successful doesn't make you stable. Maybe it's destabilizing? And for those of us that are far from being famous, it makes us sit back in our easy chairs a little more easily. I'm sure a lot of us are far from normal, but when we tune into the news to see Britney continuing to self-destruct, our lives don't seem so bad.

You can listen to her whole album before it's released right here via MTV's The Leak. What ya think?