Article: Ciara needs to stay in the groove ; CIARA FANTASY RIDE

Why do the party girls always want to be divas?

Ciara's best songs have always been dance jams that exploit her breathy vocals on record and breathtaking moves on video. See: "Goodies," "1, 2, Step," "I Proceed."

On her third release, the queen of the club wastes way too much time trying to convince the listener that she's some kind of chanteuse. Songs like the droning, hook-free "Like a Surgeon" - not an A-game effort for songwriting team Tricky and The- Dream - and "Never Ever," which lazily bites the entire chorus melody of the soul classic "If You Don't Know Me By Now," only expose how thin Ciara's voice really is. Exacerbating the problem is the bloodless, mechanized production that ...

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