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Battlefield actually contains enough ?potential hits to keep the singer in heavy rotation until well into Idol's 10th season.
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Battlefield, her expertly constructed second album, upholds a darker, more experienced tone without losing an ounce of melodrama.
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Lyrical themes get a bit murkier on her appropriately titled sophomore effort, Battlefield.
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As nice as it is to hear Sparks continuing to dabble in dance-pop, though, one wonders if it would have been a smarter move in terms of career longevity to try to build on the urban audience she started to cultivate with 'No Air.'
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Regrettably, though, Sparks sounds more comfortable with power ballads such as 'No Parade;' and there's an inner Pat Benatar struggling to get out on the title track. OK if you like this kind of thing.
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Because the sound is of paramount importance, this does succeed as pure radio-ready product, which is enough for Sparks to sustain her momentum if not enough to give her some kind of identity to build a career upon.
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Britney Spears, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce and Leanne Rimes are all artists Sparks' music evokes, but very little of it could be said to be distinctly hers.
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Sparks emotes about bad love amid beats that mix snazzy electro with stadium-rock bigness. She also comes off like a scrubbed-up deep feeler who doesn't distinguish herself.
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The album lags in its second half with songs that feel half-baked and are not aided by clever production. Many were penned by Sparks, whose writing abilities are far from hopeless; they simply need more development.
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Safe is only good in baseball, but in pop music it can be numbing, and such dull tunes like 'No Parade' or 'Let It Rain' find the singer trying to inject some life into music even she must realize is D.O.A.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 25
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Mixed: 2 out of 25
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Negative: 4 out of 25
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Feb 20, 2012
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Oct 26, 2010
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AlexM.Dec 5, 2009Poptastic album! Very radio-friendly.