Former American Idol winner Sparks returns with a second helping of what can most kindly be described as production-line pop. Battlefield fails to stir the emotions. It’s hard to detect any sense of risk, or indeed of passion here. In fact, it’s as blank and unrevealing as a heavily botoxed face. Produced by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, this is a precision-tooled pop construct with some slight R’n’B and dance modifications.
Coated in a gauze of velveteen production, Sparks’ true voice is often robbed of its natural grain. The album is ballad heavy – ‘No Parade’, ‘The Cure’ et al – and lyric light. The words are as flimsy as balsa wood and – as typified by the likes of ‘It Takes More’ and ‘Faith’ – are concerned with how her man does her wrong, or with fostering some semblance of female empowerment. In other words, these songs will prove ideal for soundtracking sanitary towel advertisements, and chick flicks, but have little other redeemable value.
Only the title-track – on which the female voice and countering male holler, cleverly, give musical form to the battle of the sexes – offers anything by way of invention. Sparkplugs [the official term for Sparks fans] will no doubt find this electrifying, but the true pop connoisseur will consider Battlefield low voltage fare.