Massive Britney fail.

Britney's Circus album was far from a modern classic, but it did have a few cracking potential hits ('Kill The Lights', 'Out From Under') that could possibly have been successful singles.

INSTEAD. After 'If U Seek Amy' (enjoyable, if ridiculously over-hyped) just about managed to scrape into the Top 20 on either side of the Atlantic, the fourth single was announced to be 'Radar', a song that first appeared on 2007's Blackout album before then being snuck on the end of Circus as well.

The single was released on July 27 to very little fanfare. Now, a week after climbing to the dizzy heights of No46, it's slipped back to No58. Given that its official release date was July 27th, any further upward momentum is not gonna happen.

Its reasons for failiure probably are:

- It's twenty-one months old, aka NEARLY TWO MORTAL YEARS.

- It's been on two albums. TWO!

- The cover art is like the 'Toxic' sleeve, only it's shit.

- People like to know that a single exists, so perhaps a bit of basic promotion might be a good idea next time...? Just a thought.

- The RoboBritney that seems to have replaced Actual Britney doesn't really sound much like Actual Britney; in fact we haven't really heard Actual Britney singing for quite some time now, what with Miming Britney being the Britney of choice for all live performances these days.

- No-one likes a music video that's basically about a love affair with a horse.

Also, reports say there's another Greatest Hits album out by the end of the year. This is a bit ridiculous seeing as there have only been seven singles from two albums since the last one in 2005, and of those singles only three have made the Top 10, but the good news is that the compilation - rumoured title Sublime: The Singles Collection - looks set to feature some new material from general all-round musical overlord Max Martin, a major player in Spears' first three albums and producer of 'If U Seek Amy'. The first three albums were a bit bubblegum-y and 'If U Seek Amy' was just absurd, but if he can find some form of middle ground we could be on to a winner.

We shall see.