Album Review: Ciara "Fantasy Ride (Deluxe Edition)"

After introducing her 'goodies' to us & going through an 'evolution,' Ciara is back to finally take us on a musical rollercoaster ride with Fantasy Ride. It's been a rollercoaster of a journey even getting the project released, with the massive leakage, the failed attempt to launch it with "Go Girl," & the ultimate reliance on labelmate Justin Timberlake to get things rolling once "Never Ever" started slow. However, Super C did eventually get on her grind, so is the result worth all that waiting?

Fantasy Ride kicks off appropriately with "Ciara To The Stage," a decent slow jam, then heads right into the album's big hit "Love Sex Magic." The Justin collabo isn't what I'm used to from CiCi, but I found that I appreciate what she offers vocally on the track. Ciara impresses me most when she ventures into an almost operatic territory with the Ludacris-assisted "High Price." The hotness that is that song makes for a very worthy follow-up to "Oh," the two's previous collaboration. Next up is "Turntables," which I like, but I still have an issue listening to the Chris Brown-featured song. It irks me immensely that the label is pimping Chris out to Ciara's fans in a small-stitch effort to get him back out there.

Ciara shows off her chops as best she can with the seductive ballad "Like A Surgeon." Still, I'm a little more fond of her Polow Da Don-produced tracks like the Young Jeezy-assisted "Never Ever." The-Dream helps finish out the mid-album slow section on "Lover's Thing," & even though the songs he does for Ciara aren't my favorites, I can't find anything bad to say about them either. In fact, I actually quite like this as a collaboration between the two of them.

"Work" features Missy Elliott & is a pretty hot track except that I always get the feeling I'm being barked at during the chorus. My favorite producer Darkchild then crafts the outstanding "Pucker Up," a swaggerific banger. I'd take this club perfection over the ol' crunk-&-b any day & if you don't agree, just grab your best pair of headphones & enjoy! The wonderfully clever "G Is For Girl (A-Z)" follows & is some more uptempo goodness. I can't say I was upset when I realized that The-Dream had been taken off "Keep Dancin' On Me" because I really dig the song solo.

The deceivingly simplistic slow jam "Tell Me What Your Name Is" is nothing short of brilliant. Not far off from that is the closer "I Don't Remember," which is a different kind of song lyrically for Ciara & I love it. Don't get me wrong though because as great as everything is up to this point, you simply MUST get the deluxe edition of this album. One of my favorite Ciara songs ever is the Danja-produced "Echo," the first of two bonus tracks. It is far better than either of Danja's other offerings to Fantasy Ride ("Turntables" & "Work") & I'm still baffled as to why it didn't make the standard edition. Not only does the latter also apply to the second bonus track "I'm On," but I would go as far as to say that this banger is first single material. I can pretty much guarantee that anything you may feel is lacking on the album will be fulfilled by these two songs.

Now, I wasn't too pleased when the tracklisting for Fantasy Ride was released because I was baffled that knowing almost all of the material was already available, they were still going to put it on an album that fans had been waiting an eternity for. However, I have since realized that as I listen to the album as a whole, I already have a love & appreciation for it that I wouldn't have otherwise had & it increases my level of enjoyment while listening, so it's all good. Also, I'm still a bit bitter about this release not including the originally planned three discs. I mean, how in the world does a track like the excellent "Feelin' On My A" NOT make the final cut? Still, I am willing to forgive & forget because Ciara really went above & beyond with Fantasy Ride's package art. Thank goodness there is an artist out there who still appreciates the visual aspect of an album's packaging. With the above reasons as well as the fully-loaded DVD, there is simply no reason not to go out there & get the deluxe edition of Ciara's terrific third album. Oh, & one of these days, I'm gonna get over the fact that they didn't include "Go Girl" on this album.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars