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Ciara

The Evolution | LaFace

By LEON NEYFAKH | January 16, 2007

2.0 Stars

Ciara fears obscurity, and with good reason. The multi-platinum Goodies was a distinctive, soulful statement of purpose when it came out in 2004, but with The Evolution the 21-year-old singer finds herself walking into a room full of clones — Goodies students like Cassie and now Cherish. So it goes when you come upon something good, and Ciara doesn’t sound as if she were all that comfortable dealing with the copycats. Too often on The Evolution she’s looking over her shoulder, too self-conscious to be a real seductress. And she’s not willing to take the kind of creative chances that might convert her concern into transcendence. Instead she includes spoken interludes like “When I listen to the radio, I feel like music is so different than what it used to be. And because of that, I was inspired to do something different this time around.” Okay, but such assertions get tiresome, especially when this time around isn’t all that different. That said, the first half of the album is catchy, sexy, and pleasingly sassy. And there’s so much cellphone imagery that 50 Cent actually phones in his cameo.