Jordin Sparks: Battlefield

Source: Caroline Sullivan
The Guardian, Friday 17 July 2009

The youngest-ever winner of American Idol, at 17, Jordin Sparks has spent the subsequent two years setting herself up as an irreproachably wholesome purveyor of lovelorn yet optimistic pop/R&B. The 2007 hit No Air gave you the breathy, cleancut gist; this second album employs the same tricks - almost literally, in the case of Let It Rain, which has a tremulous build-up and heroic chorus ("Let it rain, wash me clean," she commands) that could've been cadged from No Air. Squelchy electronics and a relatively earthy lyric ("Look in her eyes, she's mentally undressing him") give SOS an urban hue, and the clattering Let It Rain is modern R&B worthy of Rihanna. 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