After initially hoping to come out with a triple CD of three different sides to the musicians work, the Atlanta R&B singer Ciara released her third album, “Fantasy Ride” in a typical way in 2009. This one has her moving things on a fair distance form her Crunk & B debut alongside Jazzy Pha as she moves more towards the Pop world, although she dos balance tune which have her joining forces with The-Dream, Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake with appearances by Missy Elliot, Young Jeezy and Ludacris
1. “Ciara To The Stage” (Intro)
2. “Love Sex Magic”
Although she had dropped a few promo singles before this, these didn’t get included in the main body of the album, making this Justin Timberlake-assisted song the lead and key single form the album. It came as a banger from her as she jumps on some funky production to come up with a killer joint to appeal to all.
**Five Stars**
3. “High Price”
Just as you got from her debut album “Goodies” you have the “Oh” days brought back here as she works with Luda again to show just how people do things down in the Dirty South and how the
R&B differs in A-Town specifically with a dark joint which has her pulling out a heavy jam to get you bobbing along as they get on to it.
**Five Stars**
4. “Turntables”
Chris Brown comes to help her out here as they come together on (majority) Danja production here. it has them moving towards the direction which we have seen the pair of them go in as they progressive worked their way back from R&B to Pop and so here you have one with minimal R&B aspects and a pretty generic format when looking at the 2008/2009 sounds.
**Two Stars**
5. “Like A Surgeon”
This is a grungy tune from here which has her getting down to the more progressive sounds of Crunk which push things off from all the high-tempo and high-energy work in towards the heavy pounding and deep bass drops which make it fit in with the expectations of 2009’s trends of this kind of material.
**Four Stars**
6. “Never Ever”
You get one of the biggest Gangsta Rappers in Atlanta coming to join her on the one track which I wouldn’t have put him on as she moves into the ballad-style work. The light nature of this is completely unlike what he normally works with and this took things so far off-course that I couldn’t’ really get it following his participation as she takes on “If You Don’t Love Me By Now”.
**One Star**
7. “Lover’s Thing”
I wasn’t real expecting tha much from this one as you see that The-Dream comes to work with her, as I expected that he would choose to dominate the material to a degree where you completely forget he role in it as it just goes towards his supposed ‘perfect’ structure of forming hits (which by this point was out-dated). It is a plain and offers little here.
**One Star**
8. “Work”
You finally get a lift in the album as for this one you see another key Ciara- link up and this time it is with Missy Elliot. It is a funky one and bounces well of the wack songs which came before it as she gets you moving again to prevent you from getting bored by all the lifeless material. It has an Electro-Hop backing.
**Four Stars**
9. “Pucker Up”
Moving things on a little you see tha the Electronica elements persist through it, but I felt that the way it was done for this one made it sound much more like the style which many of the Pop acs of the time tend to go with and so it wasn’t really all that appealing at all here. It is a pretty repetitive one and is poorly written when compared to others.
**One Star**
10. “G Is For Girl”
Moving towards the Beyoncé “Diva” style of R&B, you see that Ciara does a heavy track to rival B’s work to show that she is just as good as the R&Gangsta material. It is a fun one and has the album bounce from another low, up again to show how poorly this has been ordered to make little sit well at any one time.
**Four Stars**
11. “Keep Dancin’ On Me”
As Tricky Stewart and The-Dream are behind the production of this one I just knew where it would be taken and it was towards a direction which I just wasn’t feeling at all with more of the Electronica Pop material coming through. It is a deep and dark one, but with the pair generic mould for this type of tune, it just doesn’t sound original in any way here.
**Two Stars**
12. “Tell Me What Your Name Is”
Te Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry and Britney Spears producer Dr. Luke jumps on this one and so the genre direction chosen for this one was clear, but with additional producer brought in I expected to have some degree of variety from it, but it failed to o so and kept things on the same level as what was found on the one before it.
**Two Stars**
13. “I Don’t Remember”
Ending the album off, you see that Ciara chooses to stay with the Pop (rather than turning back towards R&B) as you find that Ne-Yo gets on the beats (and backing vocals|) and produces for her as she does one which as her backed by winding production and a structure which is designed to grow on you over time.
**Two Stars**
This album has a futuristic feel to it, but I felt that the Electronica elements of it were largely what led to its downfall as it was this part of what you get from it which produced the weaker end of the material and prevented her from getting into all the kind of things which made the artist what she is. It does have a few big ones, but the way it is ordered means you completely forget about them.
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'Fantasy Ride' is the third studio album from American R&B star Ciara. Originally ... more
conceived as a three disc album with each part representing a different theme, Ciara decided to opt for a single disc release instead while also introducing her comic-boo...
Jun 5th, 2009
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