November 4, 2007 — DREW Carey, pot smoker? “The Price is Right” host appears in a video produced by libertarians defending the medical use of marijuana. “The federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it, safely and easily,” Carey says. Voters in 12 states have legalized medical marijuana and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said marijuana “is not a drug. It’s a leaf.” Studies find marijuana has “therapeutic value” in relieving pain, controlling nausea and stimulating the appetite. Yet the DEA continues to raid medical-marijuana dispensaries.
There’s an appropriate bleakness to first album in four years, and her first as a tabloid figure rather than a vibrant teen idol. The hazy-eyed bump-and-grind of her “Gimme More” MTV Video Music Awards performance fits all this material: It’s defiant like a bad drunk, uncomfortably oversexed and more at home in a seedy after-hours club than a celebrity ultra-lounge. The music ranges from shockingly minimal—”Piece of Me” and “Radar” have the synth fugues and smudgy bass of current underground electro and little else—to novelty pop, like the J.J. Fad-styling of “Freakshow” and Gwen Stefani-ripping snare march of “Toy Soldier.” Spears is threatening or seducing, or both, on every track. This is still pop, but the last bits of Spears’ song-and-dance girl veneer are cracking, along with the rest of her public persona. —Kerri Mason
