About a year ago, first rumors about a new Beyonce album started to emerge. Songwriter The-Dream even promised we would get to get new music before her Super Bowl half-time show. Didn’t happen. At the Super Bowl we also didn’t get to listen to new music but experienced at least a Destiny’s Child reunion. Then “Grown Woman” and “Standing on the Sun” kind of made their way to us – thanks to her deals with PepsiCo and H&M. Despite a few demo leaks and random performances on her world tour The Mrs Carter Show, we had never gotten the chance to listen to these songs in their mastered wholeness. King B released “Bow Down” out of nowhere on her website but even then it wasn’t clear what it is about. It also was known that Bey kept shooting music videos on different destinations but neither did we really know what for and why on earth would she shoot so many at once?
Rumors about label issues made their way around and the release of her documentary “Life is but a Dream” and Revel show lead to assumptions that this was only a step to sooth the impatient fans.
But then on December 13, 2013 a miracle happened. Out of nowhere the self-titled album BEYONCÉ was let out of its cage via iTunes. 14 songs and 17 videos and a statement by Beyonce that reads:
I feel like right now, people experience music differently. I remember watching “Thriller” on TV with my family. It was an event, we all sat around the TV and now looking back, I am so happy I was born around that time. I miss that immersive experience. Now, people only listen to a few seconds of a song on their iPods, they don’t really invest in a whole album. It’s all about the single and the hype. There’s so much that gets between the music, and the artists and the fans. I felt like, I don’t want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it is ready, and from me to my fans.
I told my team, “I want to shoot a video for every song and put them all out at the same time.” Everyone thought I was crazy, but we’re actually doing it, it’s happening!
I wanted to make this body of work, and I feel like it’s something that’s lost in pop music. I wanted people to hear things differently and have a first impression. Not just listen to a 10 second clip, but actually be able to see a whole vision of the album. It was important that we made this a movie, we made this an experience.
I wanted everyone to see the whole picture, and to see how personal everything was to me. I will make my best art and just put it out. And that’s why it’s out today.
I woke up, looked at my Facebook newsfeed and was in disbelief seeing people posting about Beyoncé’s new album. Well, I can assure you it didn’t take long till I went straight to iTunes to download this visual album.
It has never been easier to get into one of Bey’s albums. It doesn’t need many spins to figure out which songs one could possibly like, it takes, however, much time to decide which is the best song on the album. Is it one of the hip hop female anthems “Partition” (“I sneezed on the beat, and the beat got sicker”) or “***Flawless” (the intro features “Bow Down”)? Or the radio friendly song “XO” (written by Ryan Tedder and The-Dream)? Or maybe “Mine” featuring Drake or the Sia Furler penned “Pretty Hurts”? And let’s not forget the collabo “Drunk in Love” with hubby Jay, they can’t do wrong, I suppose, whereas in all fairness: it’s not Hov’s best verse ever. It’s obvious that “Blow”, which will soon be sent to pop radio stations, was produced by Pharrell, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. When Beyonce sings “I can’t wait til” I expect her to start to go into some “Suit & Tie” stuff continuing the lyrics with “I get you on the floor, good-looking”. “Rocket”, which was brought to life by R&B singer Miguel, is most likely the song that will replace “Speechless” off her first album “Dangerously in Love” on future tour set lists. “Superpower” is a typical Frank Ocean song and that’s as we know a real good thing!
I believe “Heaven” is about her miscarriage, although the music video rather deals with the loss of a good friend. It is striking though that “Blue”, a cute song dedicated to her daughter Blue Ivy who also speaks a few words and shares sweet giggles, follows right away after “Heaven”. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
“Haunted” is one of the outstanding tracks. The “Ghost” intro in which she says “I don’t trust these record labels, I’m tourin'” is just the beginning of a great song that shows us a different Bey. “No Angel” isn’t exactly my favorite, but I can tell that her sister Solange might have influenced this. “Jealous” could technically have appeared on “4” or even on the “I Am” side of “I Am… Sasha Fierce” but then again it fits here much better because it shows such a vulnerable side of Bey.
Renownedly, BEYONCÉ does not consist of audio only. The visual part means a lot in this and you can tell Beyonce was certain to deliver high quality videos to make the experience complete, even with a few face which you wouldn’t have necessarily expected to see and adjusted videos from her childhood. They are all worth watching, there is seriously no bad video in this package and this is absolutely fantastic. The only real bummer is the fact that the videos were not provided in high definition. This flaw will hopefully corrected with the physical release.
Beyonce clearly had a vision in mind and was able to bring it to her fans and the persons who are now starting to dig her, too. The reasons why she decided to release this effort the way she did was revealed above but let’s not forget that this marketing strategy is brilliant. Why? First of all, it’s Beyonce. She has reached the point in her career where she can do whatever she wants (“Probably won’t make no money off this. Oh, well.”). Secondly, due to the unexpected drop EVERYBODY was talking about the release, which also caused many to just immediately download the album not knowing what they’d eventually get. And thirdly, the most important part: the material justifies everything. It’s just so good that we have already forgot about Katy Perry, Britney Spears and maybe even Lady Gaga’s latest releases.
BEYONCÉ is Queen B’s most grown, most criticizing, most sexual, most gangsta album – summing it up: her best one to date.
