Typically, whenever a self-titled album arrives fairly far into an artist's career it signifies a rebirth, a moment when the musician reconnects to what's real and true. That's the party line on , ' eighth album (she already used as the title of her third album, way back in 2001). Prior to its December 2013 release, called one of her most "personal" records, a term that carries a certain weight, suggesting that the brief album -- a mere ten songs and 36 minutes in its standard form and not much longer in its deluxe expansion -- would offer insight into the spectral pop star. As it turns out, is a streamlined approximation of 2011's , which itself attempted to re-create the producer-driven magic of 2007's , the album that seems destined to be the apex and turning point of ' career. , the main producer behind 's two big hits ("Till the World Ends" and "Hold It Against Me"), is absent, as is her longtime collaborator , who worked on those two -produced hits. In their place is , the leader who happened to be responsible for 's "Big Fat Bass." sports producer credits on seven of the ten songs on and is listed as executive producer, responsible for shaping the sound and direction of the album. Often, this means seems to be playing a role created just for her, a situation not unfamiliar to . The best moments arrive when she's forced to the front: she's the focus on the co-written and -produced "Passenger," the purest pop moment on the record that finds a counterpart in the album's best ballad, "Perfume"; her bizarre vocal affectations invigorate "Work Bitch" (it's hard to resist her faux British phrasing) and are mildly memorable on the duet "Chillin' with You." Elsewhere, , sometimes assisted by , puts through Euro-disco paces as she competes with synthesizers and bass; works a similar territory but achieves a melancholy grace on the album opener, "Alien." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine