Thursday, March 14th, 2013

Ciara – Body Party

Thankfully not a single reference to any animated Disney characters…


[Video][Website]
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Al Shipley: When all is said and done, CiCi will have spent more time in lead single jail than she spent making back-to-back hits at the outset of her career. If this busts her out, though, it’s justified; this is almost as sumptuous and surprisingly sensual as “Promise,” without aping it like recent flop “Sorry” did. 
[6]

Rebecca A. Gowns: Now that’s how you update mid-90s r&b.
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Alfred Soto: In 2010 she was still capable of a good single, but her voice has lost its coolness. Except for the octave leap in the middle of the verse “It’s just me and you,” she sounds breathless and scratchy. Except for an Autotuned, marooned ooh-oh-oh, the arrangement is a Tonka Toys recreation of her mid 2000s glory years. 
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Brad Shoup: Her voice sounds a little thin, right? She did spend a lot of time in the lower register back in the day. Sounds like she’s doing Janet now: no authority, but a sense of peace. But the triumph of the chorus is wiped out by her evident strain. Kudos to Mike WiLL for the spangled quiet-storm production.
[5]

Patrick St. Michel: A tiny part of me feels awkward that Ciara and Future’s relationship has been put on display like this. For the most part, though, I’m thrilled this relationship (with help from Mike WiLL Made It) has given the world 2013’s sexiest single.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: “Written by Future and Ciara” — that phrasing! Now there’s some primo pandering to a shrinking base. (“Body Party”‘s writing credits, plus uninvitees: “My Boo”‘s Carlton Mahone and Rodney Terry, then Ciara, Mike WiLL, Future. Poor Carlton and Rodney; that’s some Heather Chandler shit.) Anyway, Mike WiLL pays exemplary service to the R&B divas of old — but there’s the issue. Ciara isn’t a diva, certainly not a belter; the direct comparison exposes only her limitations.
[6]

Will Adams: “Body Party” is appropriately tactile. The opening filter chords kiss my skin like bubbles. I can feel that breathy synth on the back of my neck. The heavy snare pounds against my heart. But Ciara’s high register is raspy, and it scratches at my skin a bit too abrasively, where everything else caresses me like silk sheets.
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Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Ciara, along with the dream team of Future and Mike WiLL Made It, takes the melody of “My Boo” and slows down its wild 808-fuelled desire to showcase what she’s best at: cooing sweetly sexy slow jams. This is more than just “Promise” part two — where that classic showed her roaming for a romantic ideal, “Body Party” finds joy in being with a lover, so much that a night in each others’ company is a cause for celebration. When Future “oohs” in Ciara’s direction and she responds with “I’m having so much fun with you!”, it’s sweet, unabashedly carnal and utterly human, the moment that the song truly bypasses the famous “My Boo” refrain: “at night I dream of you…”
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Michelle Myers: A tasteful application of an otherwise overused sample, and like a softcore version of Velvet Rope era Janet Jackson, Ciara sounds girlish and gruff at the same time. She will seduce you, but only on her terms.
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Scott Mildenhall: Is this what one of those “specialist” chat lines is like?
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Reader average: [8] (21 votes)

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3 Responses to “Ciara – Body Party”

  1. Am I the only one STUNNED that Ostroff doesn’t have a blurb here?

  2. No, you are not

  3. Been dying under the weight of a thousand law school awful things. Promise I’m back with a vengeance as of tonight.