Beyonce - 4

I think the decision to get rid of Afrojack's "uh uh uh uhhhhh" hook but not replace it with much maybe was flawed, but then the first few listens I thought "Never Leave You" was too sparse too.

Beyonce already has proven she can do yelling in fine form time and time again, at this stage I'm not certain I can see what the yelling amounts to here.

Surely this isn't particularly surprising to anyone that's heard Ring The Alarm or Single Ladies? It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

Also this is still the demo we're listening to, right?

okay I am in love with "Bobblehead", how did I miss this

oh right, most of the singles from that album were terrible and I never listened to it

It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

On what criterion? I dunno, whether you like it or not Single Ladies is basically the "call-to-arms ladies banger" of the past 5 years.

well, it certainly raises the "call to arms" stakes by using what sounds like a marching band drum cadence as a foundational beat

I think the decision to get rid of Afrojack's "uh uh uh uhhhhh" hook but not replace it with much

yeah i definitely miss it (didn't really know how to describe it though, "uh uh uh uhhhh" will do!)

Also this is still the demo we're listening to, right?

the radio version's emerged, it's much fuller-sounding

this is definitely better than "single ladies" which may be a pop cultural monolith but is only an average song

dan, the other track off the xtina album you should hear is "monday morning" - glorious new wave amazingness, bafflingly also relegated to bonus track status

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

that picture is weird -- it looks like they've extended her face well beyond the confines of her face

re: "Bobblehead", there's some more Major Lazer connection going on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZEtGS9XFo

(obv not nearly as connected as "Girls"/"Pon De Floor")

I was using "the beat" in a modern hip hop parlance where it means "the instrumental track" and not "the percussion."

― some dude, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:51 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

In which case telling someone they're "either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference" is kind of a dick move when what they were saying was technically correct.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, i was talking to The Lex, who i feel i can safely assume was speaking in the same terms as i was. and anyway DJP already poked an actual hole in my argument and i'd dropped it, so i'm not really interested in hashing it out further just because you decided to bring it up again.

On what criterion? I dunno, whether you like it or not Single Ladies is basically the "call-to-arms ladies banger" of the past 5 years.

Yeah but it's had years to grow into that role (and in fact managed it in months). It didn't have that status 48hrs after leaking, in fact there was a general underwhelmed shrug when it first emerged. See how this new one fares after several months of being caned on dancefloors everywhere. I already like it more than Single Ladies (which I like but don't love).

eh, I don't know about all that; it seemed to me that around these parts, the instant a lot of women heard it they went "OMG ANTHEM PUT A RING ON IT FUCK YEAH" and sprained their wrists doing that hand-flick move from the video

Yeah I was mostly talking about people on the internet, not the real world (where this new one hasn't actually impacted yet).

eh, I don't know about all that; it seemed to me that around these parts, the instant a lot of women heard it they went "OMG ANTHEM PUT A RING ON IT FUCK YEAH" and sprained their wrists doing that hand-flick move from the video

I'm not betting against that happening now either. I mean the worst I could say is that she's kinda cynically going for exactly the same effect but that's not to say it won't work.

"Single Ladies" definitely didn't seem immediately like it was going to be as HUGE as it was -- "If I Were A Boy" seemed to get more promotion and discussion initially and then when the "Single Ladies" video dropped that really solidified it as a smash.

Were they released simultaneously?

(lol I could look that up)

"i was a boy" was first by a small margin iirc

the ironic thing is that there was a lot of pre-video buzz about the "if i were a boy" (beyonce was a cop or something?) whereas the "single ladies" video kinda dropped as an instant classic

According to Wikipedia: released simultaneously, "If I Were A Boy" hit #3 in November and "Single Ladies" hit #1 in December

yeah one might have hit the net like a few hours or a day or two earlier but they were pretty much simultaneous releases. totally makes sense that "Boy" peaked earlier as far as i remember things.

obv i'm talking about the "if i were a boy" video in my last post

yeah i was responding to the one before that

i know i was just clearing up the fact that i omitted the word "video" from my post

ok i didn't get that that post was about videos since it was a response to DJP who clearly wasn't talking about videos but that's a pretty mild misunderstanding to hash out over several posts haha

well i was sort of going off your point about "if i were a boy" having more discussion/promotion initially

the video iirc was hyped as this big thing where beyonce plays male roles whereas the "single ladies" video is the antithesis of that stylistically & it's just funny how things actually turned out

weirdly the stats don't even totally show that big a gap between the 2 songs -- "Single Ladies" only has twice as much iTunes sales as "Boy" and 115 million YouTube views vs. 70 million, where it really feels like 10 times as popular

Why can't she make an album that sounds as good as the Control scrap? That was such a great track, I listen to it often.

i think its way weird ppl on here like this more than 'single ladies' -- this sounds like directionless garbage imo

I like the egregious vocal overdubs on this more than "Single Ladies" but I'm not 100% convinced it works as a song.

As a swaggering sound collage it's fucking great, though; almost like Beyonce listened to some old Severed Heads shit and said "hey Switch, I want you to do this, only use my voice and make it all sparkly and day-glo".

i think its way weird ppl on here like this more than 'single ladies' -- this sounds like directionless garbage imo

― geeks, dweebs, nerds & lames (D-40), Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:40 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark

Matt DC and lex pretend said this is better than "Single Ladies" but i can't imagine they speak for a ton of other people, if anyone

I think a non-negligible number of ppl around here liked "Get Me Bodided" more than "Single Ladies" so I don't think it's really that much of a surprise that some would also like "Girls" more.

Those are the two best songs she's done imo

"Bodied" and "Ladies", not "Girls" obv

"Ring The Alarm" and "Crazy In Love" imo

I think a non-negligible number of ppl around here liked "Get Me Bodided" more than "Single Ladies" so I don't think it's really that much of a surprise that some would also like "Girls" more.

― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, April 20, 2011 12:25 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

well i'm captain of the GMB fanclub and think SL is just ok and derivative, i'm not saying it's a shock if anyone doesn't worship SL over all else but i felt like D-40 was turning 2 opinions into a 'consensus'

"single ladies" is a great jingle

you know how pop songs are usually enhanced if they work in communal settings - "single ladies" is one of those that ONLY works in communal settings, when you're drunk.

bear in mind i think "baby boy" and "ring the alarm" are better than "crazy in love" too

What a surprise Switch did something similar for Christina Aguilera for Bionic

...isn't this really just what he's been doing for m.i.a. since whenever

i dont love single ladies or anything either but its 10x the song this is imo

agreed

I dig the anarchic incoherency of "Girls"; I don't necessarily think that makes it a good pop single.

i kinda hate the snap-judgment listening culture when it comes to big pop singles - it's very often the case that something that seems underdone or a bit of a mess at first ends up resolving itself - often you find yourself looking in the wrong place for your thrills based on expectations. that's actually been the case for a lot of B's lead singles - i was underwhelmed by "déjà vu", "if i were a boy" AND "single ladies" when i first heard them! and now i basically love them all, to varying degrees.

it works the other way too, sometimes big production or a big hook can fool you into thinking that a song will grow on you despite its flaws.

thats an otm post, i just think im right this time lol

my official position is that i haven't made up my mind either way until my lizard-brain instincts either kick in or don't - i'm pro the idea of this, but either it ends up being addictive and on loop 20 times a day, or it doesn't

it's not a good pop single because it's not a pop single, it's a rehashed tropical bass track with beyonce wailing over it. also, i'm starting to notice no lay unorthodox daughter in this, were there hints of that in pon de floor?

being a pop single and being a rehashed tropical bass track with beyonce wailing over it aren't mutually exclusive things

except in this case

even if you don't think it's a good pop single (which i'm not sure if i do), a bad pop single is still a pop single and it seems on some silly DEATH TO FALSE METAL shit to say otherwise?