*6 inch smh
― dyl, Sunday, 24 April 2016 05:39 (eight years ago) link
Have to admit, I expected the song with Jack White to be a whole lot worse than it actually is.
I love the New Orleans horns on Daddy Lessons, but the acoustic guitar stomp of the rest of it is so goddamn bad.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 24 April 2016 05:39 (eight years ago) link
All Night is so beautiful.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 24 April 2016 06:02 (eight years ago) link
The song w an Ezra Koenig credit also has a Josh Tillman (aka Father John Misty) credit acc. to wikipedia. Just...fyi
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 24 April 2016 06:33 (eight years ago) link
MNEK co-wrote "Hold Up"!
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Sunday, 24 April 2016 06:51 (eight years ago) link
The first point of comparison that occurred to me was relational: this feels like the To Venus & Back to Beyonce's From The Choirgirl Hotel: a more casually executed, "smaller"effort that leans harder into its predecessor's eccentricities and points of difference.
When I wrote about Beyonce following its release it seemed obvious to me that the most interesting aspect of the album was what Beyonce was doing with her vocals, exploring the way she could use her voice to push into different emotional states and terrains. With this album, it's like the songs only really matter insofar as they provide vehicles for exploring new states, new terrains.
― Tim F, Sunday, 24 April 2016 08:19 (eight years ago) link
― Fetchboy, Sunday, 24 April 2016 08:24 (eight years ago) link
really glad i listened to the audio before watching the film
wow @ "daddy lessons", "don't hurt yourself", "freedom" especially
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Sunday, 24 April 2016 10:41 (eight years ago) link
I'm, uh, not much for Jack White but his vocal over those drums is a holy-shit moment.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2016 11:37 (eight years ago) link
Is the sound on this kind of muted or is it just my dodgy MP3s? Please don't make me subscribe to Tidal to find out...
― Matt DC, Sunday, 24 April 2016 13:12 (eight years ago) link
Probably the dodgy mp3s.
― MarkoP, Sunday, 24 April 2016 13:21 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it definitely is - Formation just started and boomed out about twice as loudly as everything else.
First impressions are that this is excellent but the one with James Blake is probably the worst Beyonce song since the Sasha Fierce at the very least.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 24 April 2016 13:36 (eight years ago) link
the jack white song is soooooooo good
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Sunday, 24 April 2016 13:38 (eight years ago) link
i have so many favourite parts but b and Serena jamming together in the hallway was so fkn great
― art baengels (monotony), Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
This is a good album ain't it.
Atlanta next Sunday!
― A nationally known air show announcer/personality (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
great post, Tim
― 1st Amendment absolutist in favor of the unltd publication of sextapes (schlump), Sunday, 24 April 2016 15:43 (eight years ago) link
after i listened to it for the first time it has a bittersweet taste...'all night' is an obvious highlight, probably the best song. 'don't hurt yourself' and 'forward' are bad jokes.i still don't know what to think of it, but i'm not as excited as i wanted do be.
― Nourry, Sunday, 24 April 2016 15:50 (eight years ago) link
The moment when 6 Inch goes from minimalist trap to widescreen orchestration is wonderful.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:24 (eight years ago) link
damn, i didn't mean 'dont hurt yourself', which is surprisingly good, but '6 inch'. i can't deal with weeknd's voice.
― Nourry, Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link
sandcastles seems so out of place for me, no matter how genuine it may be w/in the spectrum of feelings she's exploring. like the song itself was a corporate addition "well, bloomingdales won't play 6 inch in the stores so we need something for 40-something rich wives." the whole album is so dynamic vocally like dyl was saying and it's so... SAFE
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:32 (eight years ago) link
Huh? The way I hear it Sandcastles is the one where she is most vulnerable vocally. There is one moment especially where she seems to lose it completely.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:48 (eight years ago) link
― Matt DC, Sunday, April 24, 2016 12:24 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol you mean the part where it goes from the 2nd minute of the Isaac Hayes version of "Walk On By" to the 1st miniute of the Isaac Hayes version of "Walk On By"
― some dude, Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
― Frederik B, Sunday, April 24, 2016 12:48 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I guess the barn-burning speaks to me more. SC is very trad to me
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 24 April 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it's the one very trad song in there (perhaps the same can be said of Freedom?) but it's still very moving.
― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 24 April 2016 17:03 (eight years ago) link
just watched the visual..
not malick, julie dash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughters_of_the_Dust
― arts and crafts THIS GUY (daria-g), Sunday, 24 April 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link
watching this w my 86 y/o grandmother rn
― dc, Sunday, 24 April 2016 19:04 (eight years ago) link
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), 24. april 2016 19:00 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oh, I agree with this fully. Yeah, not my favorite track. But the vocals from 1:15-1:50 are quite extreme. Actually, the way she screams 'what is it about you' 1:40 in might be my favorite vocal moment on the album so far. She sounds so scary and ugly right there, as if she completely loses her cool for a moment. I also quite like the James Blake coda, lol.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 24 April 2016 20:38 (eight years ago) link
I should have put this off a bit, because I don't think I'm really in the mood to engage with non-Prince music right now, but this sounded generally fine but rarely spectacular for the most part. I like "Sorry" a lot. "Daddy Lessons" is dreadful, though; essentially her version of Lady Gaga's "You & I."
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:08 (eight years ago) link
"Daddy Lessons" is my favorite. I love the horn chart part seguing into the acoustic part.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:10 (eight years ago) link
Well, Gaga's track was divisive as well. The problem may be me: I don't like contempo country enough on its own, so hearing pop superstars do their camp riffs on the genre is really gonna make me itch.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:12 (eight years ago) link
Would it sound backhanded for me to say that I'm happy that its a 40-something minute album? Cause I don't mean it that way.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:13 (eight years ago) link
I don't hear country in this track at all! Sounds like Beyonce over an acoustic riff.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:17 (eight years ago) link
and, no, I'm grateful it's 45 minutes long. I want more 45-minute albums.
6 inch loses its way the moment that sample comes in, imo.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:19 (eight years ago) link
And I'm getting the feeling that the relaxed vocals signify that none of this means v much to her. She has a great voice though.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link
The "yee-haw" that opens it and the whole fetishization of daddy's gun scan as (intentionally) broadly Country.
I'm grateful when albums are 45 minutes long these days, just like I'm grateful when movies are under 2 hours.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link
Actually, 6 Inch is a mess from start to finish and this album feels very unnecessary.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:30 (eight years ago) link
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 24 April 2016 16:32 (5 hours ago) Permalink
Yeah Beyonce groaning "bitch I scratched out your name and your face" is a very 40-something rich wives moment.
If we're talking about Real Housewives of Atlanta maybe.
― Tim F, Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:42 (eight years ago) link
can someone find me a gif to respond to this post with
― 1st Amendment absolutist in favor of the unltd publication of sextapes (schlump), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:46 (eight years ago) link
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, April 24, 2016 9:21 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I can't agree with this even if I know what you're getting at.
The film is intense - and utterly pretentious in a way that almost threatens to topple it but ultimately is also its precondition - and in a roundabout way suggests that the album is both cathartic reaction (to Jay-Z's adultery obv) and a very deliberate statement about where Beyonce sees herself as an artist and about the kind of "art" she wants to make (as an aside, it's interesting to observe that while Jay-Z's response to moving in arty circles is just to hamfistedly reference it in lyrics, Beyonce goes away and makes what is essentially a video installation for a gallery of digital media).
In that regard you might say that the songs as songs are no longer shouldering the burden of all of Beyonce's emotional/artistic focus. These songs certainly don't feel laboured over, and I'd not be surprised if a lot more time and effort went into perfecting the visuals that accompany them. But I think that's less because Beyonce doesn't care about the songs and more that she doesn't really view them in isolation from the "project' as a whole.
But even then, it's not the "relaxed vocals" that give this away - the vocals are clearly the aspect of the music she's thought about most! - but the lived-in messiness of the lyrics and production. A lot of it almost feels like Beyonce is writing the song on the spot - a quality one could never have ascribed to the material on her first four albums.
― Tim F, Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:56 (eight years ago) link
i would call much of the album 'trad' sonically but that's not a value judgment
was pleasantly surprised to hear that the urban station here is playing scattered tracks from the album today. i honestly don't think there'll be much in the way of long-term radio candy from this album, not that that's a bad thing.
― dyl, Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
Thanks, Tim. This album just doesn't *sound* too personal to me. The whole infidelity narrative just raises so many questions about what sort of statement this is supposed to be, exactly. Why address these issues in this very particular way - after years of silence?
I *like* the relaxed vocals - it's something she's been getting closer and closer to nailing, and here she finally does it. But the songs just aren't that strong. They need the Narrative and perhaps also the film (which I haven't seen yet) to work. Her last album managed to intertwine art and life in new ways and felt like a fresh start. This feels like a lot of loose threads atm - not really cathartic at all. It doesn't even feel like an ending. Just a bunch of okay songs sung very well.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:07 (eight years ago) link
Hold up, is this Apathy track not on the actual album, just in the film?
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:12 (eight years ago) link
Or are people talking about Sorry? That must be it, I guess.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:19 (eight years ago) link
Thanks, Tim. This album just doesn't *sound* too personal to me. The whole infidelity narrative just raises so many questions about what sort of statement this is supposed to be,
I wouldn't worry about this at all. She's a star, so what's "personal" anyway?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:22 (eight years ago) link
yeah none of the 'chapter titles' in the film are the same as the song titles, it was pretty confusing in that hour before the album hit Tidal what to call any of them
― some dude, Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:24 (eight years ago) link
Well, what her last album managed to do was to tie together a sense of who Beyoncé was as a person, an artist and a... uh... force in the world. It felt very post-knausgaardian, in a way. She moved decisively away from the "hit songs mingled with a bunch of non-hit songs" paradigm that even Rihanna is now trying to move away from - through recourse to the personal. With this album, however, I get the feeling that it needs the "personal" - in this case the b'trayal narrative - as an excuse to even exist. So yeah, it's all about the "personal" - but it still doesn't feel very personal.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:29 (eight years ago) link
xpost to Alfred.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:30 (eight years ago) link
haven't listened to the album yet because tidal, but i thought the film was really good and memorable. i guess it seems really apparent to me that it's a very personal album but maybe i'm taking it too literally. also,
Any wife who outs her husband on an album and in an hourlong video as a cheater, then makes him release that album on his streaming platform — exclusively — is having her cake and making him eat it, too.That feels only partially triumphant since we’re left in a moral murk. He might be paying for his sins. But we’re still paying him.
That feels only partially triumphant since we’re left in a moral murk. He might be paying for his sins. But we’re still paying him.
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:47 (eight years ago) link
Interesting to hear that people found this impersonal; I felt the exact opposite.
I thought she really nailed what it feels like to be in what's going to be either the middle or the end of your marriage -- when you don't necessarily know which one it's going to be, but both options seem both irresistible and soul-crushing. And the vacillation between superhuman confidence and heartbreaking insecurity...
Projecting my own shit on Beyoncé right now but I liked this a lot.
― dc, Sunday, 24 April 2016 22:49 (eight years ago) link