Beyonce - 4

just when i thought i couldnt like a new beyonce song as much as "1+1", "schoolin' life" is right on its level

it's a mckinney job of course btw! seriously when those two motherfuckers are in a prince mood they are legit batting 1.000. "fast car" "yamaha" "don't make me wait" and now this

can't really for the life of me understand where you guys are reading the "preschool" element but that's cool.

also k3vin otm on both counts. everything i like about this record is mostly dependent on beyonce's delivery.

Preschool as in it would make more sense as a Willow song.

preschoolin' life

the song is completely empty but she did it well on stage

that might be the only place it makes sense

though i kind of imagine it would be better and people might say 'she should release that' if it started as a purely live thing with beyonce just voicing major lazer for fun rather than trying to make a totally new song out of it.

i agree (cf if she'd made her "in da club" a LEAD SINGLE rather than just something thrown out there)

I'm still rolling my eyes about people complaining about lyrical simplicity or lack of songwriting in a fucking DANCE track though.

I like the lyrics of tons of dance tracks tho.

And the lyrics are hardly the only problem.

It did sound good when I heard it out tho, but I still would have rather the DJ just played "Pon de Floor".

i roll my eyes at the lyrics for her non dance tracks too if thats any better

why yes thank you titchy

luckily she offers "Countdown" here, which is a sop to us both.

In the grand tradition of me vs. ILX,

"Countdown" < "Run The World"

can't really for the life of me understand where you guys are reading the "preschool" element but that's cool.

also k3vin otm on both counts. everything i like about this record is mostly dependent on beyonce's delivery.

i already articulated this, but i'll say it again. the shouting of "girls" in the chorus sounds like a bunch of little girls playing some sort of game. this might be a good look for some songs, but here it just sounds dumb. if this one element of the song were different, we would have an entirely different song on our hands.

you could see it as sort of a hopscotch chanting game type thing

lol yea. i am not opposed to that as a concept, i just don't like this incarnation of it.

i think the song's hard, militaristic edge mitigates that somewhat...it's not cutesy hopscotch chanting at all, it's drilling her footsoldiers.

i guess that's the point but ... i don't think it goes hard enough in either direction, so it ends up sounding somewhat like both, which results in something muddled and inane

maybe we just have more inane chanty pop songs over here but it's nowhere near as awful as say the ting tings or that nicola roberts single

Setting the bar amazingly high there.

also i wouldn't call the ting tings' concept muddled

inane as it may be, it's pretty clear what impact they're going for

8.0

i rly can't take the beginning of i care, that vocal!

with the drums!

Great review of this by Rich in The Voice:

Really, 4 is about joy, and that may prove too much for people who expect our R&B stars to be tortured at least some of the time, who expect life's lemons to produce sourness instead of lemonade. Few know the details of Beyoncé's private life, and sadness is relative, but the perception that Beyoncé has had it easy, and thus doesn't carry the scars to make her authentically soulful, is not an unpopular one. Mary J. Blige, as good of a Bey counterpoint as any, once griped, "There's no school for organic," in reference to Bey's supposedly smooth path and its effect. But if happiness is at the root of Beyoncé's soul, 4 could be just as much her truth as My Life was Mary's.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-06-29/music/beyonce-s-odes-to-joy/

excellent from rich as ever :)

I'm still worried about Tricky. He just seemed to disappear ...

(Is there a Beyonce/Tricky connection that I'm missing - eg. production/collaboration at some point?)

you may have heard "single ladies"

lol not that tricky

oh lol

Tricky's from the West Country, maybe he was just hanging around backstage? It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Beyonce is just a Tricky fan and invited him on?

Either that or he's her stalker.

i was wondering why anyone other than i would care about that xp

Pretty sure Beyonce and Jay-Z have repped for worse and more unlikely albums than Maxinquaye.

it's funny that there are people to whom "tricky" automatically means terius's mate

i'd be surprised if beyoncé wasn't a maxinquaye fan, apart from it being a really famous canonical album and all, she's been hanging around with diplo and switch and frank ocean of late

when she said 'tricky' i thought she was gonna bring on tricky stewart. but then i saw it was the bristol tricky. he looked kinda scared/surprised. how did anyone think tricky would fit with baby boy? def a weird moment.

i wouldnt be surprised if solange gave beyonce trickys album. cant imagine diplo playing that much. or frank ocean.

i assume beyoncé discovered it herself tbh

gwynnie imo

this should really be a poll

He did look ... surprised to be there.

Reckon Beyonce found it when flicking through her 100 Best Albums issue of Q and bought it at the same time as Moseley Shoals and the first Kula Shaker album.

really bugging me that not only does she mispronounce "algebur" on the record but also singing live? i mean shouldn't someone tell her?

also british ppl dont know what 'you showed your ass' means

the drive home safely line was kinda funny too

tho i spose 'walk home safely/camp out safely/dont get muddy' doesnt really sound very beyonce-like

re: algebur, maybe she just has a problem saying that word. or she was doing her version of cmon/shmon.

It was the end of the festival, people were literally driving home immediately after.

'algebra' doesn't sound that bad. maybe that's just how she wants to say it.

if no one told her about bidet, they're prob not gonna tell her about algebur

"dont know much about history.... dont know much about..."

ok "Schoolin' Life" not being on the album is just ridiculous. i wonder how many of these supposed 72 songs recorded for 4 will end up out there over the next year or so as bonus tracks or deluxe reissues or collabs or whatever.

yea i do like schoolin' life