Review: Ciara, Basic Instinct

Basic Instinct strictly observes a no-ballads policy.

Ciara, Basic Instinct“Basic Instinct (U Got Me),” the opening track from Ciara’s new album, starts with a syncopated guitar riff lifted from “Eye of the Tiger.” The track is half fight song, half apology for Fantasy Ride’s lack of a chart-destroying hit: “See I was on the red carpet/When I shoulda been in the studio, layin’ down hot shit.” Self-awareness turns out to be a good look for Ciara, though the song works because the muscular track totally undermines her self-critique, like she’s come out swinging because we were all too stupid to realize how hot her last album actually was. She even directs some preemptive sass at her would-be haters on the net (it’s like she can see us dusting off our Sharon Stone jokes), snarling, “You can go and write your blog, I don’t need your feedback.” J’accuse!

Emphasizing her unfuckwithability is actually a pretty savvy way to raise the curtains on Basic Instinct, in part because Ciara’s a survivor in an industry that eats aspiring divas alive and, at that, entitled to a bit of swag, but also because she’s a performer who has appeared to take her star-status for granted. She’s like the Citrus Fanta of female R&B singers: nobody’s first choice, but a serviceable alternative when you can’t find Sprite or 7-Up. Basic Instinct won’t change that, but it’s a damn convincing effort. Eleven tracks long and curated almost entirely by pop-R&B’s most reliable songwriting duo, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, it’s a svelte and cohesive collection that serves up one glitzy guilty pleasure after another.

If Basic Instinct turns out to be a bit frontloaded, then, it’s only in the best way: There’s pretty much nothing wrong with the first four tracks on the album. At the two-minute mark, the brittle rock track behind “Basic Instinct” gets washed out by The-Dream’s stately synths, locking a groove that extends through singles “Ride” and “Gimmie Dat,” gradually raising the tempo in anticipation of album high-point “Heavy Rotation.” It’s the masterful type of pop confection at which The-Dream is truly unrivaled, with Ciara vamping on hook after generous hook until, nearly a minute-and-a-half in, you realize that the song hasn’t even come to its chorus yet.

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Surprisingly, the only songs on the album’s second half that sound like placeholders are the same ones that sound like potential singles. “Yeah I Know” is pretty transparent as “Goodies” rewritten for today’s disco-crazed climate, while the Usher-featuring “Turn It Up” sounds like a leftover from Versus. Those numbers suggest that Ciara could do respectable business as a Euro-disco fembot (no revelation, since she’s always favored R&B of the synthetic, as opposed to sultry, variety), but they’re less appealing than the surrounding tracks, which hue truer to Ciara’s urban-radio origins. Best of all, the album strictly observes a no-ballads policy; historically, slow songs have proved nightmarish for Ciara, and she compensates for their absence here with a robust offering of slow jams, nearly all of which she hits out of the park.

Color me impressed. It’s pretty rare that a singles artist decides, seven years into her career, to make her first concerted effort at an album that works as a front-to-back listen. Suddenly, the underachieving diva starts to look like real competition for crossover starlets like Rihanna and Leona Lewis. About time too: It’s not like she’s been banging out classic singles on the reg, and in between full-stop smashes like “1, 2 Step” and “Promise,” she’s often coasted on the good will derived from her highly circumstantial association with Aaliyah. All the same, when she tosses off the more-groove-than-hook chorus to the show-stopping closer “I Run It,” does she not succeed at capturing a fraction, if only a fraction, of that singer’s effortless charisma?

Score: 
 Label: LaFace  Release Date: December 14, 2010  Buy: Amazon

Matthew Cole

Since 2016, Matthew Cole has been a Preceptor of Expository Writing in the Harvard College Writing Program.

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