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| Beyonce - 4 |
It is, don't lie to yourself.
Don't get me wrong, it will still do exceptionally well, if not only because of her devout fans, but because of her incredible capabilities when she performs live. Watching her at Glastonbury even made me want to give 4 another chance. Watching 'Run the world' on Oprah made me desperately want to like the song. She is amazing, of that there is no doubt. However, she did not completely think this album through, I've no idea if it's because she switched from her Dad's management or whatever, but somewhere along the way she failed at making a cohesive piece of music. Rather spectacularly, she manages to make a disjointed album, on which not a single track is able to stand out, rather, they all sound the same. Amazing, considering not a single song fits together, don't you think?
I feel like she's trying to do what it seems others in music are doing at the moment, which is to try to recreate the nineties. Shrug me off as a devout Gaga fan, but I feel she recreates the 80's/90's much better on Born This Way. The Edge of Glory literally makes me think of the holiday resort in Dirty Dancing everytime it plays! Beyonce, however, seems to have just made generic 90's music, which wasn't great then, and is positively awful now.
I miss seeing into Bey's soul like she showcased on I Am... Even ballad 1+1 comes out as strained. There's no emotional connection to speak of, purely because the song does not seem to flow. It stops and starts, almost like they put together 20 different sound clips, each of a line or 2 and stuck them on that flat backing track. We know that she can do these things, we know that she can emote, and we know that she can give us goosebumps (remember Listen anyone?) Personally, I feel like she just does not deliver.
I'm not going to lie, I didn't have high expectations for this album. Any hopes of mine were crushed as soon as I heard she was going to sample Pon de Floor on the lead single, (long before Run the World actually leaked.) This is because I (and apparently millions of British chavs in Magaluf) already love that song. The only thing she could do, would be to butcher it. I'm not saying the girl hasn't worked hard, but she's hardly 'hood' like she keeps trying to remind us she is - she's been a popstar since she was like 15! Daddy Knowles has been in the business even longer, not for a second am I buying this hood s***. As if that wasn't bad enough, I cringe everytime she refers 'baring children'. She might not be the skinniest girl, but there is no way that waist has ever seen a child! Between that and Schoolin' Life I'm also wondering what Bey's complex about college grads is? I'm about to be one, and I'll tell her for nothing that it ain't worth s***, so she doesn't need to be so hung up on it. Saying that, my favourite song, the only one with even a decent number of plays, is Schoolin' Life. It's VERY nineties, and makes a good deluxe track, but not when the rest of the album is so weak, she should've bumped something- nay anything- else off the track list.
If I'm being fair I also like I Was Here, but then I'm a sucker for anything Ryan Tedder produced. Despite this, it still hasn't achieved a respectable play count on my iPod. I also don't hate Start Over, but for the life of me I couldn't recall a single lyric without playing the song, (I can barely remember the title,) which is never a good sign.
Well rant over for now, I apologise to the devout Bey fans, but for me, I was disappointed to put it mildly.
