After bursting on to the RnB scene in 2004 with the smash hit, 'Goodies', things turned sour for Ciara after second album, Ciara: The Evolution sold considerably less. And now she's back again for another attempt at topping the charts once again.
The album begins with chilling, sexy opener, 'Ciara To The Stage'. It screams 'fierce', the perfect way to begin the record. Next up is lead single from the album, a Justin Timberlake collaboration, 'Love Sex Magic'. It continues the theme set by the first song by displaying genuine change and growth from Ciara. It's fun, sexy, quirky, different, everything a comeback single should be. A definite standout.
Next is 'High Price', an interesting, captivating track with a fitting contribution from Ludacris. Though certainly not of the standard of the first to tracks, it slots in well and keeps nice fluidity to the album. The record continues to the next stand out track, a Chris Brown collaboration, 'Turntables'. It's a dance floor filler that's for sure, a pumped up club anthem. One of the best from the whole record. She continues to display evolution as an artist so far, something her ironically titled second LP failed to do.
The fifth track, 'Like A Surgeon' provides the first real filler so far. It's not awful, far from amazing, could almost work as an interlude. It brings us back to the early days of her career, when her album was filled with forgettable, mid tempo ditties. Thankfully she manages to pick things up once again with the record's first ballad and lead single in the US, 'Never Ever'. It's a cool, chilled out number, that features Young Jeezy, about being in a relationship with someone who's not committed.
Next we come to 'Lover's Thing', featuring The Dream, a mid-tempo, verging on bland love song. It's average at best, if a tad boring. Up next, only 8 songs into the album, we have our sixth collaboration, this time from Missy Elliot, a long time collaborator of Ciara, that contributed to her 2005 hit '1 2 Step'. 'Work' is fiery, fierce anthem-like floor filler that has the swagger of any Beyonce track. Then there's 'Pucker Up', a generally enjoyable dance track.
'G Is For Girl (A-Z)' is the next song. Easily the worst track yet, nothing special or fun about it. Utterly generic, lets the album down. It's followed by 'Keep Dancin' On Me', another filler. It's succeeded by, 'Tell Me What Your Name Is', a thankfully, slick, PCD-esque mid tempo love song about wanting to skip all the complications in a relationship. It manages to pick the album up from a lull it fell into during the last few tracks. The album closes with 'I Don't Remember' a blatant rip off of Britney's 'Blur'. Generally pretty awful, a pity to end the album on such a low.
Something this record could have benefited greatly from would be the inclusion of 'Go Girl', which a video was made and released for but yet only used as a bonus track for the Japanese edition of the album. Or perhaps her collaboration with Enrique Iglesias, 'Takin' Back My Love' which was a top ten hit for the pair and was used for Enrique's 2008 Greatest Hits album. It is also apparent that Ciara thrives off collaborations and should be noted that all the standout tracks feature contributions from other artists.
To conclude, though on first listen you may think this is just another bland, samey generic RnB record. And although you wouldn't be wrong on all points - it definitely lacks variety, diversity - if you listen closer you'll see it's actually rather amazing. Ciara has shown growth as an artist and let us know that she is capable of adapting to time and whats in. It's not exactly ground breaking but it slots in well to the blur of electro based records of 2009. Definitely worth a second listen.
STAR RATING:3/5
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