Playlist: The Very Best of Ciara

Liner Note Author: Ernest Hardy.
Photographers: Indrani; Markus Klinko; Mark Mann ; Steven Gomillion; Dennis Leupold; Derek Banks.
Each release in the Playlist series tends to be pitched somewhere between a proper overview and a rarities collection. The approach can be aggravating to both casual and loyal fans of a given artist. Sure enough, this is the case with Ciara's Playlist, which covers 2004's Goodies through 2010's Basic Instinct. During this period, Ciara delivered nine singles to the Top Ten of Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Only five of them are here; "Oh," "Get Up," and "Ride" are missing, while "Like a Boy" appears in the form of a Jonathan Peters dancefloor remix. This leaves plenty of room for other material, from "Speechless" (an excellent single that flopped) to "The Title" (a solid, L.T.D.-sampling album cut) to the "slow bass remix" of "Gimme Dat" (which easily trumps the original mix). The singer's catalog deserves better than this. ~ Andy Kellman