Beyonce - 4

Like how wack does a producer have to be to drain the fun from a ladi dadi sample

Run the World, which is an awesome song but does not belong here.

it's so glaringly out of place - do we think it was intended to be a red herring all along or was the album track listing completely rejigged after its disappointing reception?

methinks it might have originally been Track 2. Would make sense following up a slow burn like 1+1 with something like Run the World, but then it fell flat on the charts and they dropped it in at the end.

Has Beyonce been on one a lot recently? The sense of coming up in the second half of this album is kind of astonishing.

i can't get over "love on top"

wow, breathless

If Run The World fits anywhere it's probably between End of Time and I Was Here, there's a pretty obvious sense of build there. The run from Love On Top (amazing, very Stevie Wonder) and its ridiculous pile-up of key changes at the end, through Countdown (those horns!!!!) and then through The End of Time is incredible, such a rush.

The first half is good as well - agree this sort of balladry suits Beyonce a lot better than most of what she peddled over I Am. The only real clunker is Party, I know this is sort of the peril of the mid-paced club track but almost everyone concerned sounds bored (although I was relieved when Andre 3000 started rapping not singing). There should be some kind of independent international tribunal to determine whether songs are worthy of having the word 'party' in the title.

Love On Top (amazing, very Stevie Wonder)

it's very solange!

A little bit, I sort of think of Solange's retroisms as reaching even further back though.

u guys i haven't heard the album yet but i heard Party and i really really like it

like a lot

loving the way she sings along with the guitar solo on "I Care"

production/writing credits for like half these songs still aren't out there yet are they?

1st few listens i like 'countdown' & 'end of time' the most; basically prefer the back half definitely

i think people are overthinking shit if they think "Run The World" was shuffled to the last track after and as a direct result of its underperformance as a single. it's not a bonus track or anything -- if anything that's a prestige spot in the sequence! just like "Edge of Glory" on the Gaga album. but really nobody cares anymore where a single falls in the running order of a pop album, it's not like the '90s when the first three singles were often tracks 1-2-3.

me and my boo, and my boo LIP LOCKIN
all up in the back cuz the chicks KEEP FLOCKIN

"Rather Die Young" is BLOWING MY HEAD

Trying to figure out what "Rather Die Young" reminds me of

― Number None, Tuesday, June 7, 2011 12:08 PM Bookmark

the guitar runs remind me of "And Your Bird Can Sing"!

I feel like it may take me a while to get past this song.

OK fine, I'm downloading this now.

Oh shit the "Uhh Ahh" sample on "Countdown".

Totally loving this album. Wasn't sure I would.

I think it was a general Delfonics vibe or something i was getting from it. I can hear the guitar thing now you say it though.

Yeah, I didn't think that was what you were trying to get out, it's just what jumped out in my mind.

Oh shit the "Uhh Ahh" sample on "Countdown".

yesssss

I also like "Party" btw. I mean the beat is a bit chintzy or whatever but i love B's vocal.

that song is singlehandedly slowing down my motivation to listen to the album a 2nd time

cant stand party. so hamfisted

its channeling 80s/90s R&B the way someone excitedly shows you a childhood cartoon theme song on youtube does

You people are crazy. That song is great. Hamfisted or not, I'm glad someone in her statue is referencing that era of r&b.

has that era gone away?

i think its just kanye that puts me off tbh

theres no subtlety to it rlly obvious & cmon, the slick rick sample + stilted drums + synthesizer riff .... its ott referentialism. some tumblr marketing ish

yeah that era has been evoked in a lot of recent R&B and usually much better than on that song (both by other artists and by Beyonce)

not that i have any idea what tumblr marketing or youtube cartoons has to do w/ it

i just mean that it seems like really heavy-handed reductive caricature of the era rather than, like, a reinvention

I'm really grooving to "Love on Top," which boasts a subtle horn chart.

deej do you like "love on top"?

So Frank Ocean co-wrote "I Care" huh? Can't wait til Tyler jumps on a remix

deej do you like "love on top"?

― The Brainwasher, Friday, June 10, 2011 12:22 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think its good mostly cuz of her performance, less the songwriting/arrangement which is mad retro

tend to lose grip of my sanity during the last minute of 'love on top'

yeah it def builds to an unexpected thing

i mean i think it has to be that way for it to work

only bey is 4real enough to throw in that extra psychotic keychange and she wants you to know that

Yeaaah that keychange is great.

think this album just gets away with 'party' by the skin of its teeth, it's really kind of a feat

more impressive when you consider it's doubtless some bullshit that's been sitting round since the dark days of 2004 and someone had a eureka moment

i may be young
but i'm
READEHHHHHH

Dunno if this is bullshit or not, but..

http://www.musicboxmix.net/2011/06/09/beyonce%E2%80%99s-new-album-%E2%80%9C4%E2%80%B3-pushed-back/

Word is that Columbia has pushed back Beyonce’s album until September, because of the leak, and the Queen “B” is not feeling it at all.

Reportedly, the record label made the decision late Wednesday evening in an emergency meeting. Record executives at Columbia Records felt that a leak of the 3 weeks was too severe and would hurt record sales. Columbia records cancelled all printing orders for the album until further notice.

Also, it looks like Jay Z who is reportedly head of Beyonce’s new management team agrees with the record label but Beyonce does not. Beyonce reportedly called her own emergency meeting in London. Word around Beyonce’s Camp is that Beyonce is now contemplating making an emergency trip back to the states to personally plead her case to Columbia Records.

Sources say that Jay Z wants to pick an entire new set of songs (minus the singles that have already been released). However, Columbia wants Beyonce to redo the entire album over because they feel the other songs Beyonce turned in are too concept edgy and extreme and fear they want play well in America and Beyonce, sources say is worried about making the Grammy’s September deadline.

I mean, the weak hang on the English language the author has doesn't help the story's case.

Also, taking the details of this "report" into consideration, Columbia and Jay-Z had to be completely aware this album would leak. No album escapes a leak until you yourself sit on it until release day (Radiohead). I assume they probably worked the inevitability into their release plans. Now, if they're REALLY considering pushing it back, it's because of how the singles have underperformed.

yeah, i'll wait for something more concrete than musicboxmix.net's sources

i cant imagine 1+1 underperforming tbh

Most of this is really good, but "Countdown" is almost like a parody of Beyonce.

But, yes, the B2M snatch is a nice surprise.