It’s been a great, if not surprising, year to be a Beyoncé fan.
She has thrown away the traditional pop rules and has done things on her own schedule. First she sprang her ‘Mrs. Carter’ tour on us and now, right in time for Christmas, the sudden release of her self-titled fifth album.
As an added incentive, it’s a ‘visual’ album, with each song (and interlude) getting its own music video. The videos are all unique in their own way, and are all pretty impressive, regardless of the quality of the song.
Beyoncé rarely plays it safe, and this album is quite experimental in its content. There are not many up-tempo songs and even they do not have the immediate impact that made ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘Crazy In Love’ such big hits.
Joint first singles ‘Blow’ and ‘Drunk in Love’ are arguably the catchiest of the lot but there’s plenty elsewhere to whet one’s musical appetite. ‘Partition’ is quite Aaliyah-ish and ‘Flawless’ is hard hitting RnB. On the poppier side of things, ‘XO’ and ‘Pretty Hurts’ are sure to scale the top of many charts worldwide.
‘Beyoncé’ isn’t all gems though, with some videos completely overshadowing the music; ‘Superpower’ for example, has too much of an outlandish video for such a simple song whereas ‘No Angel’ cannot even be saved by its ‘Beyoncé chilling in Brunswick’ storyline.
Nevertheless, Beyoncé should be congratulated for pulling this off. Unlike her contemporaries in Britney and Christina, she has stood the test of time and continues to up her game.
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