The Phoenix
Boston
Portland
Providence
|
WFNX Radio
Live Radio
On Demand
|
About
Blogs
Phlog
On The Download
Talking Politics
Outside The Frame
Laser Orgy
All Blogs
Editors' Picks
Editors' Picks
All Listings
News
News Features
Politics
Editorial
Flashbacks
Sports
News Blog
Cover Archive
Music
Find...
Concerts
Music Features
Reviews
Albums
Music Blog
Band Guide
Movies
Movie Features
Movie Reviews
Film Blog
Contests
Food + Drink
Find...
Restaurants
Dining
On The Cheap
Bars and Drinking
Arts & Entertainment
Find...
Theater Events
Comedy Shows
Readings
Museums & Galleries
Comedy
Books
Dance
Theater
Television
Video Games
Photos
Horoscope
Contests
Puzzles
Comics
Failure
Big Fat Whale
Hoopleville
IdiotBox
The Best
All in CD Reviews
All CD Reviews
CD Reviews
Ciara
The Evolution | LaFace
By
LEON NEYFAKH
|
January 16, 2007
CIARA, THE EVOLUTION
" alt="photo of 'CIARA, THE EVOLUTION'">
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.
Related
:
Pharrell's greatest hits
,
Sergio Mendes
,
Fabolous
,
More
Pharrell's greatest hits
From Wreckx-N-Effect to Fam-Lay
Sergio Mendes
Better known for packaging ’60s samba and bossa nova into stylized, radio-ready novelties for the US market than for breaking any new ground, venerable piano wiz Sergio Mendes enlists the cream of contempo hip-pop/R&B (the Roots, John Legend, Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake) for this comeback album.
Fabolous
Maybe he should spend less time spelling out his name.
Flake-overs
The craziest thing about the new Macy Gray record, Big , is Gray’s choice of coiffure.
When Jacko was king
Richard Nixon may be the only figure whose decline in popularity eclipsed Michael Jackson’s.
High-voltage humans
No musical movement, not even CBGB’s-era first-wave punk, captured the push-and-pull of love/hate about modern city living like No Wave did.
Fruity loops
It used to be, come the first week of the month, you could count on a new Certified Bananas MP3 mixtape showing up on-line, clocking hits of the day (reggaeton, rap, dancehall) alongside the Providence DJ duo’s inimitable blends and remixes.
Darrell Katz/Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra | The Same Thing
Boston's Jazz Composers Alliance is fearless about subject matter — this, after all, is the organization that gave us The Death of Simone Weil as an "improvisational cantata."
Lil' Wayne
With four solo albums to his name and no more than a meager reputation, you’d expect former Hot Boy Lil’ Wayne to have gotten tired by the time he set out to record Tha Carter, Vol. 2 .
Chingy
Chingy is the second-most-famous rapper from St. Louis, but he lacks Nelly’s je ne sais quoi and has never been much of an MC.
Busdriver | Jhelli Beam
For a guy whose layered rhymes are less accessible than Hilary Duff's muff, Busdriver designs relatively people-friendly hip-hop.
Less
Topics
:
CD Reviews
,
50 Cent
,
Hip-Hop and Rap
,
Music
,
More
,
50 Cent
,
Hip-Hop and Rap
,
Music
,
Pop and Rock Music
,
Dirty South
,
R&B
,
Less
|
More
>
Most Popular
The Current Issue
Table of Contents
Cover Archive
Masthead
|
Authors
|
Contact us
Blogs
Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics
| March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM
Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM
[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download
| March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM
See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame
| March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM
See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM
More:
Phlog
|
Music
|
Film
|
Books
|
Politics
|
Media
|
Election '08
|
Free Speech
|
All Blogs
LATEST SLIDESHOWS
Photos: DeVotchKa at the House of Blues
SLIDESHOW: Boston Ballet's ''All Kylián''
All Slideshows
Featured Articles in CD Reviews
:
Wavves | Afraid of Heights
Marnie Stern | The Chronicles of Marnia
The Men | New Moon
Atoms for Peace | AMOK
Johnny Marr | The Messenger