music video review by Shardae Jobson
It's good thing that Ciara's looking back to her debut Goodies for the next album titled Basic Instinct, as if the single "Ride" is any indication, contemporary, smooth R&B jams with a touch of chopped and screwed beats are again her forte. "Ride" is a glowering R&B song that begs for non-stop dancing that CiCi adeptly delivers beyond comprehension in the music video. Along with the late singer Aaliyah, Ciara has truly been the only singer/dancer in recent memory actually able to follow the sensual, intricate moves of dancing icon Janet Jackson. The video, directed by Diane Martel, even recalls Jackson's "The Pleasure Principle", and throughout is clearly roused by the otherworldly abilities of both Janet and the giant that was Michael Jackson. The influence of the the two Jacksons she switches from interchangeably, but there is also plenty of Ciara's unique detail in the video that while anyone who saw her videos "Goodies" and "Get Up", she was a natural dancer. She challenges herself unto a higher level of intrigue and precision in "Ride".
The dancing is in "Ride" is robotic, spontaneous, frisky, and obviously sexual when you watch it, but the sexuality presented is empowering and pleasantly intimidating to her competition and future lover as she completely demonstrates her possibilities and her unnecessary need for superfluous company and suggestions. She needs nothing more but an audience which she undeniably demands. What's great about Ciara's talent as a dancer is that she's so simply so good at it, she could probably break it down as such as the club. Her musical peers shimmy and shake, which is cute, but they've never quite brought it as hard as this. If "Single Ladies" was the dance movement of the pop world, Ciara's representing the urban other side in "Ride", and it's just as fantastic.
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