Music Review: Ciara

Fantasy Ride is the third album from Atlanta native Ciara. I fell in love with her when her first CD, Goodies, came out in 2004. That love was compromised with the release of Evolution in ’06: half of it was hot and half of it was the tragic result of a misguided concept album. Honestly, the only reason I bought this CD was because I wanted to do a review; it’s not like I was that into either single (“Never Ever” and “Love Sex Magic”). But I do remain loyal because, from what I've seen on YouTube, she puts on a hell of a live show.

The first thing I noticed was the album art. The cover is kind of dreadful with the cartoon Spawn-like outfit scribbled onto the real-life photography (and don’t get me started on those cornrows); on the other hand, the art on the inside is a well-integrated combination of photography and comic-book art. The credits for each song are written as narration boxes in comic sans (sorry, MicHELLe). She takes on the persona of Super C, a superhero whose powers seem to include costume changes and posing.

“Ciara to the Stage” starts out with our heroine cooing over short electronic piano and harp glissandos and sparse percussion. Halfway through the verse, it becomes clear that this is a combination of an album intro (I’m getting ready for a performance) and a love/seduction song (I’m putting on a show just for you). This track features detailed imagery over a typical yet engaging slow, electronic instrumental. Rather than singing a third verse with the same melody, she speaks/raps it with just enough variation to the rhythm and phrasing to tie it to the rest of the song but still keep it interesting. The countdown in the beginning is more than a bit hackneyed and takes away from the originality of the writing. And the bomb at the end is a disappointingly corny end to the song (what is this, a cheerleading mix from ’99?).

Justin Timberlake was the primary writing credit on “Love Sex Magic” (surprise, surprise). This was probably the original song that he modified to a male point of view to make “Future Sex Love Sounds” (a track off his album with the same name). BTW, watch out for my next single, “Bacon Love Sex Biscuit”. You’ve probably seen the “Diva”-esque video for this song, which the gays seem to love (she does look hot in it). Timberlake’s production team, The Y’s, create a 70s funk feel with a clever, scalar line in the electric guitar and bass. It’s a cool track, but even with the throw-back-updated vibe, it seems a bit dated. Had it been on her last album, it would have been perfectly timed with Timberlake’s Future Sex Love Sounds (which came out a few months before in 2006) and would have been a more strategic collaboration.

“High Price” gets back to the ATL crunk style, and Ludacris is a perfect choice for this song. But what’s up with the opera? I almost laughed out loud. This song reminds me of Beyonce’s “Radio” in that she has multiple vocal personalities on the same track, but I love the non-typical harmonies (is that a diminished 7^th I hear?) on the hook. The Dream-and-Tricky-Stewart team wrote this one, and it’s obvious that men came up with these lyrics (“See me in the drop-head, fresh up out the hair salon/Booty look softer than a McDonald’s hamburger bun”). Ludacris’s verse is good (not great), but the tempo of the song is so slow that it would have worked (better) if he had done an 8-bar or 12-bar verse rather than a full 16 bars.

For “Turntables”, Ciara brings in the controversy-laden Chris Brown (I’m guessing they recorded this before Chrihannagate). Danja's instrumental incorporates a foreign sample (Hindi?) throughout the track (anyone remember “Get on Dis Motorcycle” by Petey Pablo?). It sounds strange because the sample doesn’t exactly follow the progression of the verses, but it works like a dream during the hook. The second verse almost drops the sample (thankfully), but keeps a subtle high note from the intro to create a percussion hit. It’s possible that that sound could be a variation on a record scratch sample…I like the first story better, so let’s go with that. Danja uses his familiar technique of a hard kick drum on each beat to give the track a dance-like urgency. The chromatic line on the bridge is very cool, but I think the song misses out on a very gripping harmonic moment by making Chris Brown’s part a lead vocal rather than a harmonized background vocal to blend with Ciara’s background harmonies. As is standard for Danja’s productions, the song goes into a play-off at the end (like most of his songs on FutureSex/LoveSounds) that extends the dance feel. While I like that the play-off has a different feel to it, it almost goes to far and doesn’t flow with the rest of the song. But somehow, it’s still a hot track. I absolutely love that they gave a shout out to the sound engineer who worked on this song, “The Incredible Lago” (nobody does that!).

Ciara sang a bit of “Like a Surgeon” a cappella at a dance-rehearsal video on her website, so I anticipated hearing what this track sounded like with the production added. The beginning fades in with an 80s synth loop before the eerily Timbaland-esque (though stripped down) beat comes in. I had to check the liner notes because I could have sworn I heard the signature “ficky ficky” from Timbaland’s Missy days. In fact, I could see Genuwine doing this song back when he was big (though it doesn’t feel dated to me)! It evokes the same baby-making mood as “Ciara to the Stage” (same producers). Additionally, it focuses on a similar theme and uses similar parallelism/simile. However, both are very well done, so I wouldn’t necessarily leave either off the album. The sustained bass on the pre-chorus really builds tension and sets up the hook perfectly. This could be a great single.

Okay, yes, “Never Ever” quotes one line “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (properly acknowledged in the liner notes, btw). I don’t know if I would have put this out as a (lead?!) single, but it’s a well-done instrumental. The harmony on the hook sounds a bit more electronic than I’d like for a ballad like this, but Young Jeezy’s flow was totally appropriate for this song.

Someone recently commented to me that all of The Dream’s songs (as an artist) sound alike. Well, “Lover’s Thing” certainly has The Dream’s stylistic stamp all over it. In fact, it has percussive elements similar to J. Holiday’s “Bed” (which The Dream produced). Nothing struck me as exemplary about the 80s vibe of this song, but it was a good political move to feature him as an artist (since The Dream co-produced a number of tracks on this album). It ends up being a well-done, vocally indistinctive slow jam. Even their harmonized ad-libs (which can be the most memorable parts of a duet) are just 'eh'.

“Work” taught me that Danja was gay. Okay, maybe not, but he can produce the hell out of a song that makes me want to queen out! We start out with Missy’s chant as the intro beat builds up. When the verse starts, the kick drum has no rules, and the snare is the only thing keeping the percussion in line as the insanely driving bassline skips up and down the simple chord progression, never letting the listener’s ear (or expectations) settle. I feel like this instrumental was originally written for a rap song because there’s very little difference between the verse (first 8 bars) and the pre-chorus (the second 8 bars), but Ciara’s writing (one of the few Danja productions that sticks out to me as not having his writing credit be primary) takes us into a hard-hitting dance groove that only gets better each time it (it being the pre-chorus) comes around. Some of that pre-chorus tension is released when Danja makes us plant our feet and pop our backs with the kick drum on each beat while the chorus chants “Work!” And at the end of 4 bars, we get the edited version of the very gay phrase, “Bitch, you betta work!” I. Live. The second verse breaks rank as far as the structure goes because Ciara writes a 16-bar verse, possibly to show her versatility and prove that she could be a rapper if she wanted to. Or perhaps it's an effort to mix a tribute to Southern Rap and the Ball Scene (both of which involve a great deal of chanting). Unfortunately, 4 of those bars are a repetition of “Jump in; jump out!”, which ends up getting old. This unnecessary extension of the verse only slows down the momentum of the song, and Missy’s verse doesn’t do much better (and this isn't the first time Missy's dragged a track down for me recently). Perhaps the Industry will realize that Miss Elliot is irrelevant to lyrical success this year; she’s much better as a “hype man”. But regardless of the criticism, this will be my jam for the summer.

If I didn’t hear Darkchild shout himself out, I would have thought "Pucker Up" was a Bloodshy-and-Avant production (especially since Darkchild uses the same percussive chain sound as Britney’s "Piece of Me"). In a way, this song parallel's Britney's style. The different voices saying "swag" are not unlike the varied "more"s in the hook of "Gimme More". The pre-chorus, hook, and post-chorus chant total up to 24 bars of fun that is insanely catchy but never gets old. This type of repetition is similar to “Freakshow” from Blackout (but that’s only 20 bars of pre/post/actual chorus, so she out-Britneys Britney). The bridge doesn't interrupt the dance feel of the song, and the spoken part over the last chorus works like an ad-lib to keep it from being boring (but still keeps it more pop than R&B). This track is the perfect blend of hip-hop theme with pop production and structure. It’s this type of overproduced, one-note-wonder cockiness that made us fall in love with Ciara on her first album (which was a pleasant surprise... from the title, I was expecting a love song).

The beat under the first verse of "G Is for Girl (A-Z)" is hypnotizing. It makes the listener want to get up and 2 step or cryp walk (or whatever mid-uptempo dance is in right now). Lyrically, it reminds me of "Diva" ("G is for girl like gangsta"), but this is grittier, more street (irony: J. Timberlake is second on the writing credits). The half-tempo beat under the chorus near the end is nothing new, but so well done.

When I see a title like "Keep Dancing on Me", I don’t usually expect a slow jam. The track is very space age smooth, except for the echoey 80s synths. The percussion sounds refreshingly live. The chorus is very melodic with sustained, airy harmonies. Ciara even steps out of her usual box and actually belts out a couple of short "oh"s.

Ciara has certainly kept her slow jam game up. "Tell Me What Your Name Is" is another highly electronic instrumental that gives a futuristic sound with echoes of the 80s in the synths and syncopated pad hits. It’s the most appropriate use of auto tune I’ve heard in a very long time.

"I Don't Remember" is lyrically similar to Britney Spears’s "Blur" but with break-up consequences. It’s a very mellow instrumental with a cool, subtle swing. Ciara wins points for using other people for her background vocals on this track. Unfortunately, this is the end of the standard edition of the album. Fortunately, I never buy the standard edition of anything!

"Echo" features a fun hip-hop beat (courtesy of our friend Danja). One can certainly hear Timbaland’s influence on Danja in the horns near the end of this song. It almost sounds like he built the percussion with pots and pans. Don't see it on the radio, but I wouldn’t leave the dance floor if it came on at a club. It actually sounds like it could have been an uptempo song from Keri Hilson's In a Perfect World (according to Wikipedia, Hilson’s songwriting team, the Clutch, wrote it).

"I'm On" ends the iTunes Deluxe album on an uptempo! Yes! It actually sounds like a more danceable version of Timbaland's “The Way I Are”, and the kick drum on every beat makes it that much more dance-friendly. The writing on this song is just okay; I’m inclined to say that it was written in order to make use of the hot instrumental.

The Deluxe iTunes version is packed with over a half hour of behind-the-scenes and making-of bonus material, which is superb for the Ciara-obsessed fans. I found the in-studio video to be mostly too darkly lit, and it was hardly interesting before Mr. Timberlake made his appearance (I probably enjoyed that because he reminds me of myself when I’m producing music). The dance rehearsal, on the other hand, makes me want to see the tour. I think she’ll upstage Britney when she joins the European leg of the Circus tour (as a supporting act). “Go Girl” looks like it’d be a hot video from the making-of feature, but I don’t think the song would have done much in the US, even with T-Pain’s help (the song is not on the US iTunes version). The making of “Never Ever” looked like more of a dance video than a ballad, but the booty-popping sells. The “Love Sex Magic” making-of is the most interesting (possibly because I’ve already seen the finished product), but it feels very long, clocking in at over 10 minutes.

I’d say that overall, I like this album. Even the songs that didn’t jump out and grab me supported the album as a cohesive unit. A co-worker said that Ciara is done in the music industry because Keri Hilson “swagger-jacked” her. Aside from the fact that Ciara had an established fan base coming into this album (especially from touring), this album is more enoyable than Hilson’s album because it's more cohesive. And I would definitely buy tickets to Ciara’s show before Hilson’s: I like her corpus of work better, and I know I’m going to be entertained by her live singing while she’s dancing. Then again, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the two do a North American tour together.

Suggested Tracks:

Like a Surgeon

Work

Pucker Up

G is for Girl (A-Z)

Maybe:

Ciara to the Stage

High Price

Turntables

Lover’s Thing

Tell Me What Your Name Is

Don’t Remember

Click here to check out my review of Flo Rida's R.O.O.T.S.