Not only was she confronting the dreaded sophomore slump, she faced a particularly virulent strain.
With the exception of Kelly Clarkson, every American Idol alumnus - from Carrie Underwood to Taylor Hicks - who has released a second album has experienced a precipitous drop-off in sales.
Sparks does not seem worried.
This week the Arizona-born singer (19) was full of enthusiasm for Battlefield, a sleek, polished pop record with an R&B undercurrent.
All the same, Sparks was careful to take nothing for granted.
"I never want to assume that people are going to like what I come out with, or are going to like my music or like my single. With my first album ... I wasn't going to assume just because I won Idol that people are going to like me.
"So this time around I kind of had the same mind set, like, `Just because I have those singles that did really well, doesn't mean people are still going to like my music'."
True enough, though her collaborators on Battlefield surely improved her odds.
Sparks worked with big-name songwriters and producers Dr Luke (Britney Spears, Clarkson), Ryan Tedder (Beyonce, Leona Lewis) and T-Pain.
She also co-wrote four songs on the record, which she loved doing.
"I'm excited for my fans to be able to, like, hear my heart and hear what I've been thinking of, because it has been about two years [since my self-titled 2007 debut]."
"So I've grown up a little bit and gone through a couple of things. I'm excited to hear what people think."
One of the songs she co-wrote is Faith, a gauzy piano ballad with an optimistic heart.
Written four days before Barack Obama took the oath of office as US President, she and co-writers Lindy Robbins and Toby Gad wanted a counterpoint to global political and financial turbulence.
"We were thinking of all of that and the song kind of just poured out of me and poured out of us," Sparks said.
"And it just says, `Come on, baby, baby. Have a little faith.' And I just felt that it was so important. I think a lot of people kind of need to hear that message."
- Eric R. Danton of the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
