 Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic commented , " If 2001 's Britney was a transitional album , capturing Spears at the point when she wasn 't a girl and not yet a woman , its 2003 follow @-@ up , In the Zone , is where she has finally completed that journey and turned into Britney , the Adult Woman . " Erlewine compared Spears to her peer Christina Aguilera , explaining that both equated maturity with transparent sexuality and the pounding sounds of nightclubs , but while Aguilera " comes across like a natural @-@ born skank , Britney is the girl next door cutting loose at college , drinking and smoking and dancing and sexing just a little too recklessly , since this is the first time she can indulge herself . " Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine stated , " For a girl who 's always seemed too sexed @-@ up for her age , In The Zone finds Britney finally filling her britches , so @-@ to @-@ speak . Her little girl coquettishness actually works now — maybe because , at 21 , she 's finally a woman . " Jason King of Vibe said the album showcased a transformed Spears , " no longer a girl , and all the woman any man can handle . " In 2009 , Amy Schriefer of NPR listed the album on The 50 Most Important Recording of the Decade list . Calling it " a primer on the sound of pop in the ' 00s " , she deemed Spears as the ideal vehicle for a futuristic sound , since she was still trying to break away from her teen pop past . Schriefer praised " Toxic " and " Everytime " , and also stated , " While the decade 's history of celebrity obsession , paparazzi voyeurism and conflicted constructions of female sexuality and motherhood are written on Spears ' body , the decade 's history of impeccably crafted pop is written on her body of work . " 
