3, Britney’s new single to go with The Singles Collection, is a club banger. It carries on in the same vein as the Blackout/Circus era. The song only needs 3 listens and it’s in your head. The chorus is as catchy as whatever Peter, Paul and Mary are spreading and the “1,2,3” bit will have kids singing with their parents’ hands over their mouths. The bridge is brilliant and the “Livin’ in sin is the new thing” line sounds like the gospel according to Britney. The song is better than we expected, the lyrics are silly but after a few listens they become fun. The melody is samey but after a few listens they make sense. It blends the best bits of post-‘Greatest Hits: My Prerogative’ and creates something bigger.

Britney Spears released her new single, “3,” on Tuesday morning (September 29). The song will be featured on her greatest-hits album, The Singles Collection, due out on November 24. She’s releasing the collection to celebrate her 10 years in the business since the release of her seminal first single, “… Baby One More Time.”

The track was produced by hit-maker and longtime Spears collaborator Max Martin, who also produced “… Baby One More Time,” and its subject matter — which appears to be about loving multiple people at one time — is sure to cause a stir. Of course, Spears has been causing that kind of stir since she dressed in a sexy school-girl uniform for the “… Baby One More Time” video.

The song, which is posted on New York radio station Z-100’s Web site, is a catchy dance track with provocative lyrics, such as, “1, 2, 3/ Not only you and me/ Got 180 degrees/ And I’m caught in between.” The chorus also mentions “Peter, Paul and Mary,” which would seem to be an out-of-left-field reference to the ’60s folk act. (There’s no indication whether this song was recorded before or after member Mary Travers’ death on September 17.)

In July, during the European trek for her Circus tour, Spears tweeted that she was working with Martin on a song. “Back in the studio with Max!” she wrote about the collaboration.

The Singles Collection will be available for purchase as a standard set and a packaged box set. The standard set will include 17 of her biggest hits, plus “3.” The ultimate fan box set will contain all 29 of Spears’ singles individually packaged in slip sleeves with their original artwork and B-sides or remixes. The box set will also include a DVD with all of Brit’s videos from past to present and a photo booklet with various photos spanning her career. Spears released her first greatest-hits collection, My Prerogative, back in 2004.

It’s now been over ten years since Britney Spears released her debut album …Baby One More Time, which went 14x platinum in the United States and sold over 25 million worldwide, and what better way to celebrate Britney’s success than a brand new single produced by the man who helped launch her career?

“3″ is the official lead from Britney’s upcoming best of compilation The Singles Collection, and is produced by the singers most well-known collaborator Max Martin. The Swedish hitmaker also helmed a number of Spears biggest tunes from “…Baby One More Time” to “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “Stronger”. Check out the provocative pop jam below.

Wow, if there was ever a song to mark Britney’s 10 years of ruling the pop scene than this is it. The club-heavy ode to group sex that is “3″ contains everything that makes Britney, Britney. It’s a perfect pure pop record!

The beat is a certified dancefloor filler, it’s a relentless and doesn’t stop, becoming more intense as the song picks up steam until it finally climaxes like a musical orgasm. The way it picks-up and stops, then changes tempo is amazing. The hook is insanely infectious, and actually rivals the catchiness of “Oh baby baby” and “Gimme gimme more, gimme gimme”

The lyrics are classic Britney; they’re flirty, sexy, provocative, tongue-in-cheek, and full of the cheeky faux-innocence we’ve come to expect from the girl who once tried to convince us that she was a ‘virgin’. This point is further driven home as Britney chants the hook like it’s a sexed-up nursery rhyme.

Vocally Spears comes across quite similar to “Mannequin” from her Circus album, with her voice being fed through autotune to the point where she sounds like a singing fembot crossed with a blow up a doll. What Britney does brilliantly though (and has done her whole career) is her ability to add her unique personality to the song.

Despite being heavily produced Britney never lets the song swallow her and she lets us know that she’s the one in charge. She also shows us why she’s one of the most successful female artists of all time by delivering yet another flawless anthem, maintaining a consistency and quality in her music that’s rarely seen in the genre.

Some people may argue that they wanted a more urban Britney this time around, but I think it was important that this record be completely pop. It’s how she started so it only makes sense that it should be how she celebrates her 10 year anniversary and new greatest hits compilation. Brilliant!

Britney Spears’ new single “3″ — the sole fresh song off her upcoming best-of compilation The Singles Collection — debuted this morning on New York Top 40 station Z100, and yes, the song is about having a threesome. Spears has never been shy about courting controversy, and this song will likely receive plenty of it. 3; is yet another product from of producer Max Martin, the Swedish pop savant who also gave the world Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Spears’ “If U Seek Amy,” so a track about ménage à trois would be the feasible next step in his repertoire.

The music itself seems to borrow from the Flo Rida playbook, as “3″ is more of a surefire dance-floor stomper than anything Brit loaded onto Blackout or Circus. “Merrier the more, triple fun that way,” Spears sings in one of the many, many innuendo-packed lyrics that seem like they were spawned from Prince’s Dirty Mind-era brain. There’s also “Three is a charm, two is not the same. I don’t see the harm, so are you game?” and “If you don’t like the company, let’s just do it you and me. You and me… Or three… Or four…” The song also boasts the strangest Peter, Paul and Mary reference we’ve ever heard.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, The Singles Collection is due out November 24th, just in time for Black Friday. Singles will be Brit’s third greatest hits compilation in four years, following 2005’s My Prerogative and 2006’s B in the Mix: The Remixes.

She’s back! Well, she hadn’t really gone anywhere.

Brit Brit just released her new single, 3, and….

We instantly like it! Actually, we LOVE it!

1) The song is about threesomes!
2) It was written and produced by the genius that is Max Martin, the Swedish hitmaker behind Baby One More Time and countless other hits.
3) The song is damn catchy!