Beyonce - 4

you did say it's the best song of the year

lol true

best song i've heard anyway

best song i never had

http://www.dazeddigital.com/articlefiles/features/beyonce-the-simple-life/beyonce-tom-ford.jpg

the woman who fell to earth (to eat cereal).

yeah like Beyonce would stain that dress by resting it against that chair.

amazing

Great shoes.

*drools*

would stain that dress

lol

oh dude

wtf is in that bowl?

like...lurid cereal?

y'all don't have this over there?

http://www.miltontrainworks.com/MTW/services/KCC/images/FL_frontPanelDesired_fromKCC.jpg

"natural fruit flavours" lol

i think most british cereal is...not that colour

hahahaha

i can't really imagine putting it into my mouth without a certain amount of trepidation. what natural fruit is violent pink in colour? or the frankly terrifying green? BEYONCÉ DON'T EAT THAT

froot loops are a hugely popular cereal in the US

one of my favorites, even tho i'm pretty sure they contain actual poison

i habitually eat muesli

this is about the least healthy cereal i eat

http://www.jordanscereals.co.uk/media/dContent/325/productMainImage.jpg

I remember being very excited to try Froot Loops when i went to America as a kid. Never again *shudder*

i do like how beyoncé's lipstick and eyeliner matches the cereal

the picture is just weird

im not sure it works exactly

the mix between the silly/pop culture stuff like froot loops and the bright eye make up vs the tom ford shoes and 'i watch two tvs at once with a serious expression on my face', i dunno, it doesnt quite mesh

rest of the shoot is here -

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/10868/1/beyonce-the-simple-life

actually i see most of the shoot is about that 'contrast' (or whatever)

...

It’s hard to think of Beyoncé as an advocate for anything but an ideal of spritzy competence. She is a quiet meritocrat, celebrating the pleasure of doing things well and not making a particularly big deal of it.

Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2011/06/27/110627crmu_music_frerejones?currentPage=1

not terrible

except he called born this way "immensely fun"

I want him to vote in my poll.

almost all the musical moves are there to frame the singing.

^super otm

whoa "dance for you"

like!!

this was probably written for ciara or someone? but beyonce pulls it off pretty well!

I love how well that SFJ piece filters out distractions and homes in on the real core stuff about the records -- it's just terrifically well-written and clear-thinking. Sort of the least clotted thing available to read on either album.

it's really great on gaga for exactly that reason - it's deceptively hard to write about her because it's so easy to be distracted, to go down tangents - but feels way underdone on beyoncé. also "spritzy competence" seems an odd thing to apply to someone whose entire raison d'être has been her unashamed pursuit (and, generally, attainment) of perfection. i guess that's kinda what competent is, doing things exactly right, but beyoncé's never been as mundane as that implies.

I'd agree though I'm guessing SFJ's implied point is that perfection also builds in more risk-taking than he's hearing.

Where I'd go further in that regard is that the record is not just a spotlight on Beyonce's voice, it also allows her to do stuff with her voice that is both distinctive and (I think) unmatched - could anyone else invest quite so much character and nuance into "Countdown" in particular?

In this regard I think the record is "braver" (in a certain sense unobvious to many listeners perhaps) than it gets credit for.

perfection also builds in more risk-taking than he's hearing

indeed! get perfection wrong, once you explicitly aim for it, and you look like a prat. whereas if your thing, like gaga, is celebrating messiness and flaws or individuality, when you overreach or underwhelm it's less a failure than just a by-product of gaga being gaga.

Yeah exactly: Gaga can at least theorise any failures.

could anyone else invest quite so much character and nuance into "Countdown" in particular?

rihanna.

nah

Yeah exactly: Gaga can at least theorise any failures.

If not, that's always ILM's specialty.

rihanna.

A million times no. And I love Rihanna. But their skills are very very very very different.

i can totally imagine rihanna doing "countdown" but it'd be a very different song

oh yeah she could do the song but it's not like it's a "classic song", that song is all about (a) the production and (b) the winning hilariousness of Beyonce's vocals.

when i heard it i thought it sounded basically like a rihanna song. she would do an amazing version of it i think.

Again, I love Rihanna, but I can't imagine thinking that Beyonce sounds like Rihanna on it.

90% of the appeal is the singularity with which Beyonce delivers lines like "ME AND MY BOOF AND MY BOOF LIP LOCKING!"

Y'all make me want to listen to Lindsey Buckingham's "Countdown."

Yeah exactly: Gaga can at least theorise any failures.

If not, that's always ILM's specialty.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, July 20, 2011 11:02 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol