Single review: Ciara - Sorry

With nobody caring for Ciara's Crunk'n'B offering "Sweat", Ciara went back to the drawing board to give us "Sorry". Despite Ciara rising to relevance with "Goodies" and "Oh", it was when she delivered "Promise" that everybody truly began to take notice and come to the realisation that Ciara does really good R&B slow jams. The problem with this now is that this type of music (at time of writing) doesn't chart too well on the mainstream charts. Then again, nothing Ciara's done aside from "Love Sex Magic" has charted well on any chart, so she's got nothing to lose with "Sorry". Well...she has. But, ya know what I mean.

Ciara attempts to recapture the essence of "Promise" with this song and she succeeds on some level. But the execution feels so lazy that it never truly clicks in the way "Promise" did and still continues to. "Sorry" as an album track would work nicely. The production is slick and R&B lovers will love the Blackstreet inspired over-use of the talkbox and the slinking bass lines. But there's nothing here to really capture those who weren't into Ciara before. Fans will accept this song as a single, but Ciara's too far gone and in danger of losing her career to release these kinds of songs as singles now. What Ciara really needed was a cross over record to secure her a hit and get her album One woman army green lit with a release date. You stick songs like these on albums. You don't release them as singles unless you're an artist who has recent hits and a serious following that the label has faith in to buy whatever shit gets put out. This ain't 1996. Bitch bedda recognise.

Ciara's vocals have never been her gambit, but they are strained to breaking limit here. Her vocals sound as dry as her blonde Rottweiler toned weave. There is no way in hell Ciara will be able to pull this song off live. Ciara's vocals are one thing, but the structure of the song is another. The only section of the song which stuck was the line ♪ All you had to do, was say that 'I'm sorry ♪. There's some pre chorus shit about ♪ I cried and cried and you tried and tried ♪ or some shit. But neither of these verses really stick. The song clocks in at almost 5 minutes, which about is the average running time of an old skool R&B slow jam. But in this day and age, it's a minute and a half too long. By the third minute you've heard all there is of the song to hear. There are no chord changes, melody changes or vocal switch ups to break the song up or elevate it. It's just meanders on until the end.

I don't hate "Sorry". It's a nice enough song that you'd listen to it and not change if it came on the radio or were played on an album. But neither the song nor the video comes close to touching the likes of "Promise", which begs the question of what exactly Ciara has more to offer if she can't offer anything new or manage to top what she had put out 6 years ago. And in terms of slow jams lamenting a no good n***a who won't apologise, The evolution's "My love" did it better. A heck of a lot better.

RATING: 4 / 10

Watch Ciara grind the floor: "Sorry" music video
Reviews: The evolution | Fantasy ride | Basic instinct | Sweat