Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Jordin Sparks (background vocals); Ryan Tedder (guitar, keyboards, programming, background vocals); Dapo Torimiro (guitar, keyboards, programming); Andrew Hey, Michael Biancaniello, Mike Payne, Greg Hagan (guitar); Chris Carmichael (strings); Louis Biancaniello (keyboards, programming, background vocals); Wayne Wilkins (keyboards, programming); Eric Darken, Mich Hedin Hansen (percussion); Adam Smith, Sam Mizell (programming); Dameon Aranda, Keeley Hawkes (background vocals). | | Audio Mixers: Manny Marroquin; Pete Hofman; Harvey Mason, Jr.; Vito Colapietro; Louis Biancaniello; Serban Ghenea; Toby Gad. | | Recording information: Annetenna Studios, Burbank, CA; DMP Studios; Homesit 13, Novato, CA; Legacy Studios, New York, NY; Mason Sound, North Hollywood, CA; Mux Music Studios; Side 3 Studios, Denver, CO; Strawberrybee Studios, New York, NY; The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA; The Sound Kitchen, Nashville, TN; the Stujo, La Vergne, TN. | | Director: Michael Sarner. | | Photographer: Mark Liddell. | | Arranger: Toby Gad. | | Jordin Sparks didn't get any traction until she received a boost from Chris Brown via their duet "No Air," the one moment on her 2007 eponymous debut that felt unquestionably modern, so it makes perfect sense that her second album, BATTLEFIELD, ditches almost all lingering American Idol pageantry for stylized pop and R&B pitched halfway between Rihanna (whose "S.O.S." is rewritten here, with Shannon's "Let the Music Play" substituted for "Tainted Love") and Leona Lewis. Here, she hires some of 2009's biggest hitmakers, including T-Pain and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. Most of these namebrands are recordmakers, not songwriters, so it's not a great surprise to find BATTLFIELD bears a slick production that's almost all treble, bass and rhythmic hooks. This doesn't apply quite as strongly to the clutch of Sparks' collaborations grouped toward the end of the album--all ballads, some with vaguely spiritual overtones such as "Faith,"--but for the first two-thirds of Battlefield, it's all a cool calculated assault where Jordin seems almost incidental to the creation of the sound. Because the sound is of paramount importance, this does succeed as pure radio-ready product, which is enough for Sparks to sustain her momentum if not enough to give her some kind of identity to build a career upon. |
Producer: Sam Watters; Cutfather; Dapo Torimiro; David Kopatz; Dawn Rose; Michael Sarner; Harvey Mason, Jr.; Louis Biancaniello; Anne Preven; Ryan Tedder; Sam Mizell; Scott Cutler; Toby Gad; Wayne Wilkins |
Engineer: Sam Watters; Dabling Harward; Javier Valverde; Dapo Torimiro; Andrew Hey; Emily Wright; Dave Lopez; Pete Hofman; Scott Naughton; Neely Dinkins; Louis Biancaniello; Noel Zancanella; Sam Mizell; Scott Cutler; Billy Whittington; Toby Gad |
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