Beyonce albums poll

4 obv

then B'Day, then Dangerously

IASF sucks

Dangerously > 4 > B'Day > IASF

IASF has some joints imo but i definitely overrated it at the time. i don't think even i knew what a singles juggernaut it'd turn out to be, though

4.

I underrated B'Day at the time though.

B'Day is best end to end but the great songs on 4 give me pause.

alright now i'm getting nervous

to me this is b'day by quite a bit. as alfred said, it's the most consistent; every song on that is great and 100% radio-ready. "resentment" i think is criminally underrated among r&bey fans and along with "irreplaceable" it's probably the first solo ballad of hers i really felt

I played B'day incessantly throughout 2006, but it hasn't held up that well to these ears 5 years on. It's almost too consistent and one-tone in a way. Still, it works as a cohesive album, which is more that can be said of IASF and Dangerously in Love.

4 just sounds greater and greater the more time passes.

to me this is b'day by quite a bit

yeah, p much

I will never think 4 is a great album because of its three dogshit songs, but it's a good one and will probably remain my favorite.

cut party and it's all good

i do think her vocals noticeably improved with 4 but in terms of songwriting and banger quotient there are few r&b records from that decade i appreciate more

besides my fav traxx on 4 are bonus tracks lol

The dogshit songs:

Party
Start Over
I Was Here
Girls (Run the World)

^yeah

4 will landslide this so much that it's probably not even worth doing, but i am still one of the B'Day faithful

my man

If 4 included four songs like "Suga Mama" to substitute for my expendables it would be the greatest superstar R&B record of the last ten years.

besides my fav traxx on 4 are bonus tracks lol

the best song on b'day is a bonus track! - IF.

(the less said about the rest of b'day's deluxe version the better though).

4.

I underrated B'Day at the time though.

― Tim F, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 6:40 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i guess i never gave sasha fierce a full listen but whatever

get me bodied (extended version) is the on the highlight of the b'day deluxe version.

b'day is good, it holds together better sonically whereas 4 is a tad all over the place

but idk, stronger songwriting on 4 imo, and i'm voting for my version that takes out the two singles + the final track and adds in the three bonus tracks aka the best pop album of 2011

voting for an album as a surrogate for your playlist is some bull though

will ilx ever recover?

That's the way this thing is looking: 4 for songwriting, B'Day for people who care about albums-as-unit.

(ftr i penalized 4 on my p&j ballot for having three wack as fuck songs and leaving off three utterly dope ones, or else i would've voted it #1 -- kevin's beyonce ilx poll is slightly less esteemed)

the shitty songs on 4 kept it out of my top 10

I told a friend last week that 4 toppled from my top ten faster and with less foresight than any album I've ever listened to. Convinced all year it was a top ten record, I found I couldn't even place it in my top twenty when it came time to reevaluate matters for P&J.

someday when all of the 70 songs she recorded for it trickle out we'll know what truly great album could have been

word

4 was my #2

and I don't think any of the songs are awful besides "Run The World," still don't get why you all hate "Party" so much. Yeah, Kanye sucks but he's on the song for like 5 seconds.

b'day is great but the tracks 6-10 run on 4 alone demolishes it.

alright I am rejecting this cohesion vs songcraft binary, 4 has some laaame songs no. enter than some on IASF. like I said the best thing 4 has going for it is beyonce herself and her singing

I'd trade all of B-Day for how well Beyonce sings on "I Miss You" and "Love on Top."

i don't get the overwhelming "Party" hate either, and surely people can admit it has a great vocal at least?

and Beyonce's vocal isn't bad either.

i think beyonce's singing is the thing i like least about "i miss you"

IT'S UGHRSOOOO SIMPGHRRRLE

overdoes it a smidge

favourite moment on 4:

I'D RATHER GIVE UP EVERYTHING
THAN TO LIVE MY
LIVE MY LIFE WITHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUT YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

yeah i don't despise 'party' or anything but it's kind of flat and kanye/Andre both suck. i kind of dig the multitracked vocals too

the "So in love/I don't care what they say/I don't care if they talking tomorrow" bit is just awesome imo

I will never think 4 is a great album because of "Countdown."

I will also never think ILX is a great critical nexus because of its completely flipping its shit over "Countdown."

favourite moment on 4:

I'D RATHER GIVE UP EVERYTHING
THAN TO LIVE MY
LIVE MY LIFE WITHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUT YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

... then again.

the singing on 4 kills the singing on B'Day imo. i think a lot of the songs on B'Day are great but for some reason it just leaves me a little cold.

i think beyonce's singing is the thing i like least about "i miss you"

IT'S UGHRSOOOO SIMPGHRRRLE

overdoes it a smidge

― uberweiss, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 8:26 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

>:[ i love that part + the relatively calm way she sings "it's everything" immediately following

4 for me.

some weird criteria itt, bonus tracks count as part of the album so it's not like she left them off - 4's bonus tracks ADD to its greatness.

"if" isn't the only great b'day bonus track - "creole" is amazing too, and "lost yo mind" is fun. plus, the extended version of "get me bodied" AND getting to have "check on it" on the album. i disagree that b'day is any more all-killer-no-filler than 4 though - "green light" isn't awful but it's a pretty uninspired redux of several other songs on the album, and i like "kitty kat" fine but it's hardly top-tier amazing. whereas the only song on 4 i'd ditch is "party", which is about as good as "green light" really.

so yeah i also reject the cohesion vs songcraft binary: it's not like b'day lacks in songcraft - "irreplaceable"! - and actually what sealed 4's #1 EOY spot for me is how incredibly its sequencing works. but 4 seems like a far more effective and affecting statement about beyoncé and where she's at, whereas b'day is this incredibly fun thing that she threw together in a fortnight.

i am...sasha fierce is way underrated btw - it's a touch bloated and the concept is useless but there's hardly a track i dislike on it.

also, x-posting from the sandbox - i LOVE this new mix of "end of time", just so exuberant

http://soundcloud.com/beyoncemusic/end-of-time-redtop-club-edit

and the original midtempo "best thing i never had", which is actually preferable to the album version i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ap9zvR8qM

i know you're probably thinking "what's up with B?"
i've been crying for too long, what did you do to me? i used to be so strong, but now you took my soul, i'm crying, can't stop crying, can't stop crying, you could have told me you wasn't happy...

:(

IASF isn't particularly incoherent, it's just inconsistent as hell.

Lex very OTM in this thread.

btw "Upgrade U" is still hot garbage

http://www.funnycoolstuff.com/images/hot-garbage-bag.jpg

it's not just that b'day doesn't have any lows--its highs are higher than 4's imo.

hmm top 4 on b'day, "suga mama"/"irreplaceable"/"ring the alarm"/"get me bodied (extended)" vs top 4 on 4, "countdown"/"schoolin' life"/"1+1"/"dance for you"

= i say that's still a victory for 4 (could've easily subbed in "love on top" obv)

alright fuck the lot of you – I voted 4.

speaking of "love on top" it took me until the xmas period to see the performance where she announced her pregnancy to the world (previously youtube kept taking them down) and HOLY SHIT it gives me life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IO1mlF13nI

I don't really care about any of the 4 bonus tracks all that much aside from the "Girls" remixes.

"I Miss You"/"I Care"/"Countdown"/"End Of Time" are all unfuckwithable tho

ha yeah I sleep on "Love On Top" a lot but what a great song

"Love On Top" is now my favorite Beyonce single.

btw did the audience not know she was pregnant before she performed that? b/c i'd been under the impression she revealed the bump on the red carpet beforehand

IIRC the audience doesn't actually get to see the red carpet

also I can't get over how much better "Flaws and All" is than "Irreplaceable", it will forever boggle my mind that the latter was a massive hit and the former wasn't

IIRC the audience doesn't actually get to see the red carpet

is this a euphemism for zygote

oh I can't even go where the shameful joke that popped into my head took me

well even if they didn't i assume word would still spread...

I'm convinced. My hatred of "Countdown" aside, 4 really is the best of this lot.

best performance from the 4 era imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hovFYj4SFvc

whoaaaaaa.

I don't really care about any of the 4 bonus tracks all that much aside from the "Girls" remixes.

"I Miss You"/"I Care"/"Countdown"/"End Of Time" are all unfuckwithable tho

― Much Ado About Nuttin (DJP), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 12:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

why you say the opposite of right

lex's top 4 otm tho

yeah generally the VMA performance was a total surprise -- maaaybe there was some chatter on twitter or whatever for a couple hours beforehand but i didn't see it. even before the reveal i was already like holy shit this is one of the best live TV performances ever just for the way she was going in on those key changes.

i love how they threw in an extra key change for that performance

the video version & the live performances work so much better with the full stop ON TOP! at the end too, really wish the album version didn't fade out.

the bilboard awards performance of girls with all the crazy video stuff was pretty rad too

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Changed my vote to 4.

i wonder if Dangerously In Love will get any votes. does that have any album tracks worth hearing at all?

4

B'Day is one of those rare albums i'd pick if i had to put on an album during a party and not be able to skip any tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvxMVKnlY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5eVSOYVads

^jams imo

basically i've spent the past 9 years slightly disappointed beyonce doesn't do sexytime shit 24/7 on the basis of those two joints

I like "Be With You," which is not dissimilar to Ashanti joints from the same era.

B'Day is one of those rare albums i'd pick if i had to put on an album during a party and not be able to skip any tracks

― some dude, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 9:14 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i mean i kind of agree with this but i also kind of feel that listening to the whole thing is kind of like listening to a sledgehammer for an hour

"Be With You" is fantastic, yes.

Surm is right about the experience of listening to B'Day.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

http://presidentelect.org/images/e1984_ecmap.GIF

Hey, I voted 4, so don't point any fingers at Minnesota.

B'Day is one of those rare albums i'd pick if i had to put on an album during a party and not be able to skip any tracks

― some dude, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:14 PM (5 hours ago)

otm

smh @ results, ugh

i also kind of feel that listening to the whole thing is kind of like listening to a sledgehammer for an hour

― surm, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:45 PM

Just experienced the same thing.

a) it's 37 minutes long and b) not every song is "Ring The Alarm"

I did eventually vote for it but I played it now and -- oof. I wasn't in the mood for it.

4 is beyonce's black album - more hit-to-miss than some are willing to admit, gimmicky, not going to age as well as some of her earlier material

hmmm but 4 has got the Introspective Moments.

pop died, didn't cry vs. no more manager daddy

These are the ones.

this is almost to opposite of my version.

it's quite difficult for me to love "lemonade". songs like 'dont hurt yourself', '6 inch', 'forward' or even 'freedom' are quite replaceable for me. but it has 'all night', which is one of my favourite ever. and the subtle approach to country in 'daddy lessons' is also amazing.

1. beyoncé
2. 4
3. b'day
4. dangerously in love
5. lemonade
6. i am... sasha fierce.

DIL better than Lemonade? Bold.

i should have put them in the same place, tbh.
i just can't understand all the love with 'lemonade'.
i don't listen to DIL for years. there's a big possibility of regreting this decision.

(for this decision I mean this list)

An update on this poll would surely have Lemonade at the top and s/t on the top 3. I’d personally rank them as:

Lemonade
4
S/t
Bday
I am...
DIL

In a sign of the times, pop radio moved away from Beyonce as her singles sounded even better on the radio.

I think it's the opposite, this is Beyonce moving away from pop radio. 4's her pivot point and probably the most important in career trajectory.

The thing that I like about Beyonce is that she's stealthily weird. Noone sounds like her. Many of her songs don't follow traditional structures or rhythms, she's good at applying dissonance to create tension when needed, her words don't fit properly, they're loose, messy, wordy, funky... and that's when she's at her best, when she's "Sasha Fierce". Her traditional pop/r&b moments are her least interesting to me, but they prove she can do a play-by-the-rules hit effortlessly.

4 has 'Countdown' and '1+1' which is Beyonce at her best, at her 'Sasha Fierce' but there's still plenty of "I am..." in there. Self/Titled is perhaps her best pop album for the larger-than-life vibe it exudes, it sounds like she's finally fully embracing her inherent weirdness and fierceness. By the time we get to Lemonade it's all Sasha Fierce, there's not a song in there that would get compared to Kelly Clarkson a la Halo. She has achieved a fully actualized artistic statement.

I'd probably go

Beyonce
4
Lemonade
B'Day
Dangerously in Love
I am...Sasha Fierce