Beyonce in 2016 - 'Formation' and Lemonade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tunoFXAZCc4

lol @ everyone calling Daddy Lessons a Beyonce country song. That's some sub-Mumford shit.

is it just me or is 'hold up' just a slowed down pitch shifted 'orinoco flow' sample?

"'love drought' is too rainbow pony princess" is as bad as "'daddy lessons' is some sub-mumford shit"

It is *very* Orinoco Flow but definitely not a sample (different chords for one thing).

http://youtu.be/kO_vKrVxGJM

Also covered by The English Beat and Renegade Soundwave

RE: love drought; it's just a lot of frosting.

"Sorry" has been stuck in my head for days, so that's something.

when I listen to "Sandcastles" this is all I hear

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JI1kq6CA_38

Great show last night. The sound was your typical stadium mishmash -- her vocals were pretty clear, but a lot of the music was just a rumbly mass. Heck of a spectacle, though, and she was fierce throughout. I started imagining that the real beyonce was the 50-foot-tall one on her magic light cube, and the little person onstage just the manifestation of her that our dimension can handle. The setlist was career-spanning. I missed "Single Ladies," but I respect that she's at a point where she doesn't have to play it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/9fb57f55-f18b-41dc-8d1c-aa356c1638ad_zpsybw3kvgo.jpg

My son was suitably astounded, even though he faded toward the end (well past his normal bedtime). He was also jazzed about the opening DJ Khaled set, which brought a ton of people up for single-song cameos: Ludacris, T.I., 2 Chainz, Yo Gotti, Rick Ross, etc.

i'm at the stage of thinking this might possibly be better than the s/t

i'm definitely at the stage of thinking that not only might it not refer directly to beyoncé's marriage, but the point is actually, for the first time in her career, not necessarily her own story

also "all night" works so much better with the visuals!!! i totally got it when i watched the film closely. still think that picking it over anything in the "hold up" thru "daddy lessons" stretch as the highlight is insanity though

also the "formation" instrumental over the credits really drives home what a nutso beat it is, like how did she get hooks and catchiness out of those sounds

i made relatives among multiple generations listen to this last weekend at family dinner. as i was talking about the album, my brother said, "you're just making this record about what you want it to be about." which, yeah: exactly.

fwiw "all night" was the cross-generational fave.

yeah that's precisely why it wasn't my favourite! fuck a cross-generational fave

lol

mine are "hold up" and "freedom." but i'm kinda happy for ppl to like any of these songs.

i'm gonna renege on my earlier negativity toward love drought, it won me over.
this is a good album. still haven't seen the video.

I apparently understated when I said her light cube is 50 feet -- I just read something that said it's 10 stories tall. Big Beyonce.

i like freedom but it sounds like idk a blue jeans ad song to me

also it doesnt touch the self-titled imo

yep

i can confirm that i've probably never felt more powerful ever than when running to "freedom" over the weekend

'love drought' is my fave on this atm, love its ethereal spacy optimism

clearly what i meant by "rainbow pony princess"

'love drought' is my fave on this atm, love its ethereal spacy optimism

I totally agree, it's so gorgeous. Also musically it reminds me of Suzanne Ciani's Seven Waves.

only one i am consistently >:C on is 'daddy lessons,' it sounds like it was written for a tarantino film montage

"Daddy Lessons" is pure magic IMO

so weird to me that anyone is down on "daddy lessons". so much fun to sing along to

i like "freedom" a lot but it's the kind of deliberate attempt to write A Protest Song that precludes much organic life of its own - "formation", despite being far less politically explicit lyrically, feels more politically meaningful. (similar to how kendrick's "alright" was never intended to be a protest song)

the urban ac station here played "sandcastles" tonight :)

(i know half of you don't like that song >:( )

At least 'Sandcastles' is in the middle of record whereas the ST put fucking 'Pretty Hurts' right at the beginning.

pretty hurts needed to be at the beginning for its video :D

"Pretty Hurts" would be a lot better if Beyoncé admitted "bitch I scratched out your name and your face!" halfway through.

xxxpost, i wouldnt disagree that beyonce is still something of an unnknown quantity. she def is. but im not sure shes 'unknowable' in that old showbiz sort of way that prince, and michael jackson, were. i doubt we really know beyonce, shes been shrewd in controlling her image, but ive never really thought of her as having 'mystique' or something all that fascinating behind the public profile. she seems like someone whos relatively normal, albeit someone whose been groomed for fame from a young age. i couldnt imagine her having a britney style meltdown for example, nor generating the kind of weird stories you hear from people who met prince. then again, it might be that shes totally crazy, and has just shaped her image for the current age, which doesnt really seem to be all that cool with weirdness or mystique. her work ethic seems quite james brown-ian. id be interested to know more how hard she works people, or those around her, if such stories exist.

bell hooks went in on it http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/blog/2016/5/9/moving-beyond-pain

i'm at the stage of thinking this might possibly be better than the s/t

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Tuesday, May 3, 2016 1:39 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like it a lot but for me it's not even close to s/t

my favorites on 4 comprise my favorite Beyonce sequence.

i've decided that the 2013 reordered re-release of 4 is better than the original album

I prefer the s/t to lemonade however the run from "sorry" thru "love drought" is kind of incredible

struggle hooks

i've decided that the 2013 reordered re-release of 4 is better than the original album

One of the best things about the original tracklisting is the way it sweeps up and up towards the end. The new version (which I've only just seen) front loads the bangers but kills that momentum. Also Kanye now appears way too early.

The re-release gets points for including "Dance For You" and (especially) "Schoolin' Life" but "Love On Top" does not make sense as an opener at all.

I could work with "Schoolin' Life" as an uptempo opener, but not "Love On Top". And I've always sort of admired how the album started with a sequence of ballads which is kind of an unfashionable move.

relegating those to bonus track status was always insane but idk if it counts as excluding them per se - the original sequencing of 4 was perfect imo, including listening to "schoolin' life" as a kind of closing-credits song that wouldn't really have fit anywhere on the main album (in fact i wonder whether that's the reason it was a bonus track - it's been a prominent song in her live sets since so it's not like she's paying it dust).

i am...sasha fierce wasn't ever an album i disliked but it's the one that seems worse and worse with everything she does now

4 had almost exactly the same narrative arc as lemonade

B'Day is another one with wack sequencing - "Green Light" seguing into "Irreplaceable" is very ungainly

Very Final Fantasy-esque synth figure on "Love Drought"

So I finally listened to this yesterday. The early songs were pretty good, and the songs at the end are pretty good. Some interesting decisions made, etc.

The earth didn't move for me or anything, but we're all different. On one listen vastly prefer the s/t.

fwiw both this and s/t are massively enhanced by the accompanying video

Completely agree that this a great album but not in the same league as the s/t. The last two Miguel albums would be a good comparison for me. I loved Wild Heart and thought it was a worthy follow up but it didn't take over my listening the same way that Kaleidoscope Dream did. That's how I feel about Lemonade at this stage (I know it's still early days). Beyonce and Kaleidoscope Dream were both perfect records in my opinion.

yeah i would put this comfortably below 4 & the s/t on the same level as b'day

Her vocals, her songwriting, the songwriting she commissions, her choice of collaborators has reached such a zenith that the crap ballads on this thing still put it past B'Day, i.e. I can forgive "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles" and the Blake crap. I guess Lemondade for me is like 4 in that even the album tracks sparkle such that "Party" I can pretend doesn't exist.