So how does making music work in Britneyworld?
"The record label gets a bunch of stuff in. The first part of me doing the record was weird because everyone had an opinion about the songs to use," she says. "Once I started doing things on my own it started getting a direction. It just flowed and the record label knew which ones I wasn't going to do. They didn't even let me hear most of the songs that'd been sent in."
It's an important record for Spears and her record company. Her first two albums (Baby One More Time, Oops . . . I Did it Again) make up the bulk of her 50 million album sales and have spawned a string of hits. By her third album, Britney, she'd broken the formula - and the run of hits. The Neptunes-penned first single, I'm a Slave 4U, s**ed up her image (in interviews, Spears claimed it was about being a "slave to the music" -- right) and split her audience. The album saw her shed millions of sales.
Her first movie, Crossroads, was a critical disaster ("Not even eye candy, more like eye-smack," one reviewer said) and didn't exactly set the box office alight. This year, the pop climate has changed. Spears' original producer, Max Martin, hasn't had a hit in years and, perhaps because of the genre she helped to create, credibility is now the most important thing in pop.
Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake have reinvented themselves to get it. Britney desperately wants it. Kids are now listening to Avril Lavigne (whose production team, The Matrix, Spears uses on In the Zone) or Hilary Duff. So where does Britney fit in these days? It's hard to say. In the Zone certainly takes more risks than before. Despite an A list at her disposal, Spears has worked with many lesser-known writers and producers.
"People ask, 'Why didn't you work with the Neptunes?' " Spears says. "It's because I've worked with them before . . . been there, done that. They're great producers, they're amazing, but I wanted to do something on my own with people who are hungry and had no egos."
For all the "indulging" Spears talks about in the studio, isn't there major pressure being Britney?
"I really rebelled on this record," Spears claims. "I really kinda did. There was this structure everyone thinks you should go by, this'll sell . . . at the end of the day if I believe in it and like it, hopefully my fans will be inspired by that. If you work with someone different and you believe in it, that puts a new light on you and people see that."
Spears is struggling to explain herself, but what if this record doesn't match her previous sales?
"I'm not at the point now where I want to sell 50 million records. That's not my goal here. I really just want to do something I believe in artistically." And if it fails?
"Then I'll learn from it. You just throw it out there, see what it does, learn from it and keep going."
Of course, she's financially at the point where it doesn't matter.
"A little, yeah," she says.
So we talk about certain producers. Are lesser-known producers daunted by working with Britney Spears?
"Oh, no, I'm very open. I want to make sure they're comfortable."
Her favorite song on the album is Breathe on Me. I asked her who wrote it:
"A guy in London." Turns out to be Steve Anderson, Kylie Minogue's musical director.
After talking about her freedom, Spears says Outrageous is "not one of my favorites on the album", yet it's still on there. We talk about RedZone, the R & B team who wrote and produced Me Against the Music, the album's all-important first single. When we hear it before the interview, it is a Spears song. Weeks later it's become duet with Madonna.
Did she ask for advice from Madonna, as was reported?
"I didn't ask her advice, she's just a cool lady and she told me, 'Don't let things get to you, stand your ground, believe in yourself'."
The album borrows from Madonna's s**ed-up Erotica period.
One song, Touch of My Hand, is clearly about masturbation: "Draw the blinds and I'll teach myself to fly . . . another day without a lover, the more I come to understand the touch of my hand." Spears co-wrote the lyrics but says they're merely "what you make it".
On Showdown, Spears purrs, 'I don't really want to be a tease, would you undo my zipper please,' and 'I see your body rise, rise . . . '
But while she will pose for s**y photos, she doesn't like to talk about the s** in her lyrics -- let alone her life. Nor does she say she is trying to break out of her clean image -- despite being photographed smoking and with a string of bad boys.
"I don't think this record is me coming out and saying I have an unclean image now. I'm the same person, I just think my music has changed a little bit. I think the songs are a little more sensual and s**y but they're not . . . well, Breathe on Me is a s**y song but not actually about s**ual contact."
There were rumours she was going to write her response to ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake's Cry Me a River.
"Not true. I wouldn't do that." She must realize people are going to look for Justin references in her lyrics. "That's not my style. It's not like 'I'm singing about this person'."
Are her songs with Fred Durst on the record? "No. That was an experiment. We tried to work together. It didn't work out."
OK, well, you've been through a lot of public pain in the past year. Did that motivate you musically?
"I had three or four weeks when I got off tour a year ago when I was really down and depressed. It motivated me with this album; that's why this album means so much to me because I was really inside myself doing what I wanted to do.
"I think everything happens for a reason. You have those periods of being low and down so you can appreciate the highs."
"I now let work be about work and not my personal life. I've learned my lesson."
"I don't want everybody to love me," she says. "That's boring. I don't want everyone to hate me either. I like the in-between thing. That makes it interesting."