Britney Spears' Glory: Don't Call It a Comeback

"I never really left," the singer says on NBC's Today

It's Britney Spears' world, and we're just living in it.

Six days after releasing her ninth studio album, Glory, the pop star appeared on NBC's Today Thursday to promote her new music. Appearing backstage at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas (where she's taken up residency through 2017), Spears explained how Glory came to be.

Glory has, by and large, earned raves from critics, with The Telegraph calling it a "masterpiece." People deemed it Spears' "most adventurous album in a decade," and Vanity Fair argued that the 12-track collection is "as fresh and vibrant as most mainstream pop releases of 2016." Rolling Stone gave Spears kudos, saying, "Glory is a welcome comeback for a true pop visionary nobody expected to stick around long enough for a third album, much less a ninth. Has any star pulled off as many comebacks as Britney? For this girl it's the non-comeback records that are the exception, because people have kept foolishly trying to write her off since the TRL days."

Spears, however, was quick to dismiss the notion that she is in the midst of a "comeback," so to speak. "I don't see it as a comeback. I think I've never really left," the "Make Me..." singer, 34, told Natalie Morales in Thursday's pre-taped interview. "I've always been here. So, just like maybe a reinvention of myself and just a different time in my life—a really good, glorious time."

Glory is the follow-up to Spears' 2013 album Britney Jean, which spawned two singles, "Work Bitch" and "Perfume." To her dismay, the offering was seen as both a critical and commercial disappointment. "Pretty Girls," her 2015 collaboration with rapper Iggy Azalea, proved to be yet another misfire for Spears, a proven hit maker. Now, with fans and critics going gaga for the songs on Glory, Spears has wisely added several of the new tracks to her Piece of Me show. The singer's run is set to end in February, but there's always a chance she'll extend her residency (as she's done in the past). After all, she loves living in Sin City. "I honestly do," Spears told Today. "It's like my second home. I'm here for six weeks, then I go home for six weeks. It's amazing."

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