I just wanna make you mine

I've been on a little bit of a songwriter/producer playlist kick recently--making iTunes playlists of what I perceive as the best work of some of my favorite behind-the-scenes music creators. They're all still very much works in progress, even beyond the fact that they always have to open to change as long as the songwriter is still creating new songs, but as I was working on the one for Dr. Luke, I was reminded of just how much I love Ciara's "Tell Me What Your Name Is," an album track from Ciara's most recent release, Fantasy Ride.



If you think of Dr. Luke, your mind probably goes straight to his guitar-filled pop c.2005 work (Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," Pink's "U + Ur Hand," the Veronicas' "4Ever") or his c.2008 electronic bounce (Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold," Flo Rida feat. Kesha's "Right Round"). Obviously there are exceptions to those gross generalizations, but I don't know that I'd group "Tell My What Your Name Is" with any of his other work. If anything, it's more like a version of Ciara's own "The Promise" which takes away some of the emphasis on drums and replaces it with synth sparkles (and has fewer cooed "ooo"s but keeps and even enhances the super-feminity of Ciara's voice on that song and makes it sound even more gorgeous). It's a smoochy, lovey-dovey ballad which has been produced to keep it from sounding too slow--which is just how I like my smoochy ballads.

For the course of the song, we hear none of the crunchy guitars, hyper-kinetic jolts, or filth-flirting lyrics which we sometimes get from Dr. Luke, but three minutes and forty seconds of the most gorgeous, lush R&B-pop sound you can imagine.

Find it on Fantasy Ride, which you can buy here (physical).