Jordin Sparks : Jordin Sparks : Review : Rolling Stone

Jordin sparks was the perfect American Idol because you could see that she was working hard, learning new tricks week to week, which suits the Idol massive's fantasy that we're teaching her how to be a star. She was wildly inconsistent, going from an excellent "I (Who Have Nothing)" to a pitiful "Livin' on a Prayer." But that just built up her ingenue appeal: America gets to feel like we're watching the duck become a swan before our eyes. Melinda Doolittle may have been a stronger singer, but she's also a fully formed adult — there's no way she could sing something called "This Is My Now" with a straight face. (When Blake Lewis had to sing it, he was practically gagging all the way through.) But Sparks? Happy to be here, happy to do what she's told, no different from millions of other pleasant-mannered teen girls. She's the kind of pop star who writes "Nobody puts baby in a corner :P" on her MySpace blog and means it.

At seventeen, Sparks is the youngest Idol ever, with a sweet smile, not much of an ego and an appealing enthusiasm about getting to be the center of attention. So she's perfectly happy to lard her album with her Idol coronation song, something Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee refused to do; she's willing to call her castmates "my best friends.” The moment you hear her sing "Tattoo," with the hook "You're on my heart/Like a tattoo," you can't help but chuckle — yeah, right, like this girl would ever be allowed near a tattoo parlor.

The album shrewdly positions her in hip-hop-flavored R&B, which is interesting because it's one style she never touched on the show (unless No Doubt counts). The powers that be shelled out for real songs from real producers: StarGate (Beyonce, Rihanna), the Underdogs (Chris Brown, Ne-Yo), Robbie Nevil (High School Musical and Hannah Montana, although he blew up with "C'est la Vie" before Sparks was born). The kickiest tracks come from Bloodshy and Avant, the Swedish team behind Britney's "Toxic," who funk up Sparks' voice without pushing her too far into adulthood. "Young and in Love" has warped hand claps and Nu Shooz electrobeats, while "Shy Boy" goes for Prince funk — it's an ironclad law of pop that all songs called "Shy Boy" or "Shy Girl" are great, and this one is no exception.

Most of the other winners come from StarGate, who produced Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" and have no shame about churning out "Irreplaceable" replicants forever. They reprise their formula brilliantly in "Tattoo," giving Sparks an acoustic guitar, a drum loop and a lyric replete with over-the-top, Kelly Clarkson-worthy verse like "I gotta let my spirit be free" and "No matter what you say about life/I learn every time I bleed." Their overstatement brings out the best in Sparks' voice, as in "Now You Tell Me" (a Coldplay knockoff) and "Just for the Record" (a hilariously brazen rip of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain"). Sweet Baby Jordin takes to "No Air," her ballad duet with Chris Brown. He's a couple of rungs higher than her on the maturity ladder, but it forces her to step up, as C-Breezy and J-Speezy toss the melody back and forth like a beach ball.

Her ballad voice is nowhere near as strong as it was on the show. Like every young female singer bent on displaying her technical abilities, she's picked up the bad studio habit of imitating Mariah Carey, giving her vocals affected sobs and chokes, and it drags down her slow songs. She doesn't get to sail away on long notes the way she did on "I (Who Have Nothing)," still the best thing she's ever done, with the possible exception of her version of Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" (unfortunately not included). That's the real flaw of Jordin Sparks: The only time Sparks doesn't sound like a pure pop star is when she's trying to pose as a soulful grown-up, which is something nobody really wants her to be.