Spins: Album reviews

Ciara – Fantasy Ride

Artist: Ciara
Title: Fantasy Ride
Label: Laface
Genre: R&B/Hip-Hop/Electronica

Ciara will never be considered high art, but this is probably her strength. You pretty much know what you are getting with her: sexy club jams influenced by the likes of Janet Jackson and Aaliyah. With her third album, Fantasy Ride, Ciara builds on the sounds and styles of her first two releases with mostly successful results. Like Janet, Ciara doesn’t have the strongest voice in the world but she makes up for it with her sexy delivery and intensely choreographed performances. While Ciara may be known mostly for her crunk&B style of heavy bass beats, on Fantasy Ride she expands on the slow groove grind of her previous hit “Promise” from her album The Evolution to diversify her sound.

The best tracks on Fantasy Ride are surprisingly some of the slower ones. The opening groove of “Ciara To The Stage” utilizes all the elements that made “Promise” such a great track. Slow grinding bass and undulating electronic effects mix with Ciara’s sultry vocals for a hands down winner. Even more striking is the suggestive “Like A Surgeon” in which Ciara compares her skills in the bedroom to that of a surgeon over a pounding dubstep influenced beat. The first half of the album works for the most part. “High Price” featuring Ludacris is classic Ciara with its speaker rattling 808s, but Ciara injects an opera style vocal which brings a new element to an otherwise cliche sound. Danja lays his hands on the funky “Turntables” featuring Chris Brown and the Gamble & Huff sampling “Never Ever” will definitely grow on you after a few listens thanks to its time tested hook. Surprisingly the Justin Timberlake future funk collaboration “Love Sex Magic” is the only track in the first half that ultimately falls flat. The track pretty much sounds like a leftover from Justin’s album that it no way makes use of Ciara’s strengths as a club queen.

The second half of the album is less successful with a few more throwaway club joints including a very noisy Missy Elliott collab, but Ciara redeems herself with some more pop friendly cuts towards the end. The Dream shares his magic on the gorgeous “Keep Dancin’ On Me”, a midtempo track that shimmers with joy and longing. While Ciara will always have those who discount her music as fluffy pop, she has managed to create a solid career with a sound that utilizes cutting edge production and plenty of catchy hooks. With Fantasy Ride she continues to find her groove while still experimenting with her sound. While the album has many highs and its fair share of lows, it is definitely worth a listen.

- Norman Mayers

www.ciaraworld.com
www.myspace.com/ciara

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Ciara – Fantasy Ride