I just wanna make you mine

I've been on a little bit of a songwriter/producer playlist kick recently--making iTunes playlists of what I perceive as the best work of some of my favorite behind-the-scenes music creators. They're all still very much works in progress, even beyond the fact that they always have to open to change as long as the songwriter is still creating new songs, but as I was working on the one for Dr. Luke, I was reminded of just how much I love Ciara's "Tell Me What Your Name Is," an album track from Ciara's most recent release, Fantasy Ride.



If you think of Dr. Luke, your mind probably goes straight to his guitar-filled pop c.2005 work (Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," Pink's "U + Ur Hand," the Veronicas' "4Ever") or his c.2008 electronic bounce (Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold," Flo Rida feat. Kesha's "Right Round"). Obviously there are exceptions to those gross generalizations, but I don't know that I'd group "Tell My What Your Name Is" with any of his other work. If anything, it's more like a version of Ciara's own "The Promise" which takes away some of the emphasis on drums and replaces it with synth sparkles (and has fewer cooed "ooo"s but keeps and even enhances the super-feminity of Ciara's voice on that song and makes it sound even more gorgeous). It's a smoochy, lovey-dovey ballad which has been produced to keep it from sounding too slow--which is just how I like my smoochy ballads.

For the course of the song, we hear none of the crunchy guitars, hyper-kinetic jolts, or filth-flirting lyrics which we sometimes get from Dr. Luke, but three minutes and forty seconds of the most gorgeous, lush R&B-pop sound you can imagine.

Find it on Fantasy Ride, which you can buy here (physical).

I don't wanna waste your time

"Pucker Up," a Darkchild-created track from Ciara's upcoming album Fantasy Ride, sounds like it could have been on Britney Spears's Blackout--and it would have been better than half the songs on that album. Copping the jangling part of the beat from Britney's "Piece Of Me" and Cyndi Lauper's "Into The Nightlife" but glossing it up with that slick futuristic production more typical of Danja's work with Britney, "Pucker Up" has a disjointed, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink disjointed approach towards melody and hooks, but it's no lesser a song for that: it's exactly how fierce modern urban electro pop should be done and Ciara's best non-slow jam since the underrated "Like A Boy."



The other highlight from what I've heard so far of Fantasy Ride is the Dr. Luke-produced "Tell Me What Your Name Is." Smoochy Ciara slow jam? Yes, but a luscious one, and one that's not really even that slow, come to that.



Fantasy Ride, Ciara's third album, is released May 5 and can be preordered here (physical).

I gave it all up

I was planning to write about that boy band song today but the post somehow ended up turning into a rambling mess that can't yet see the light of day (though knowing me two days from now I'll be thinking, "Whatever, just post it anyway" and it'll get posted without any revisions whatsoever); since I can't figure out how to put into words what I wanted to say there, let's just listen to another song I've been meaning to write about forever (and now can finally post in good quality), as well as what blatantly should have been the lead single from an upcoming greatest hits. I mean, really, man, what on Earth are you doing releasing "Away" when you've got this new track on the album?

"Takin' Back My Love" (feat. Ciara)

Another RedOne production and, though I'm still more than ready for him to ditch that particular sound effect he always uses, as long as he keeps making songs this great, I'll keep being glad we've got RedOne around. "Takin' Back My Love" is a song I find it a lot easier to be enthusiastic about than "Away,"at least as far as a lead single goes. It's up-tempo (world: "oh, so that's why she likes it more"), synth-backed, insistent, catchy, and actually finds this artist engaging in a change of sound (for him, not for the rest of us used to RedOne's work by this point) that really suits him. With that voice, so perfect for conveying the point near an emotional breakdown, he can pretty easily get away with doing ballads--the voice alone gives them at least a little spark--but "Takin' Back My Love" takes him into full-fledged danceable material that doesn't feel like an unnatural fit for him. In addition to shirking some of the more mismatched urban qualities in songs he may have flirted with before, "Takin' Back My Love" actually gives him a chance to be the party doing the breaking up, as opposed to bemoaning being broken up with or begging for a chance, and, do you know, he does it pretty darn well. Though that voice is of course part of the song, he doesn't play up that "just about to crack" element at all here, and really, the key to this song's appeal is just the music itself, catchy and with that strong synth-pulse that would be welcome on the ears coming out of American radios.

To preorder this artist's Greatest Hits, due out November 11, go here (physical).

Next up: probably not that boy band post--I have a feeling I'll be too on edge tomorrow to be doing any sort of thinking, which is what it needs to clean it up. Maybe a one man boy band song.