Ciara Lost on Fantasy Ride

Ciara's tiny voice can't survive in the spaces her producers leave on her new album, Fantasy Ride, but the disc does provide a few fascinating diversions. Some critical opinions:

• "That's what you get with Fantasy Ride," Tom Breihan writes on Pitchfork. "A few brilliant left turns that feel almost accidental mixed in with a sort of end-times hunger for a top-40 audience that doesn't seem to exist anymore. As a vivid little snapshot of what's happened to the pop music business, it's fascinating. But it's not much of an album."

• "Ciara attempts to keep it real, grown and sexy," Mariel Concepcion writes in Billboard. Though some tracks shine, "the rest of the album could use more of that personality," and most of the time "Ciara seems to go almost unnoticed."
• Ciara's aggressively one-note performance leaves something to be desired, Tracy Garraud writes in Vibe.  "For a woman who has been accused of Beyoncé forgery, Ciara might’ve benefited from a bit of emulation. Super C, who Ciara calls her 'inner strength and more aggressive persona,' dominates here with an androgyny so intense it could make the average male R&B vocalist sound like a sissy."

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