Celeb News: '4' Review Thread (74 on Metacritic) - Page 26

satellites.™

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (UK)

Album: Beyoncé, 4 (LABEL: RCA)
Reviewed by Simon Price
Sunday, 26 June 2011

Heavens, Knowles is miserable now.

That's the first impression upon listening to 4, in which Beyoncé's strident triumphalism is displaced by muted heartbreak and the cookie-cutter R&B of her mega-sellers ditched for a subtle, stripped-down sound that suggests someone's been listening to Janelle Monae. It's as convincing as an album which opens with a multi-millionairess imagining herself destitute can be. A classy Beyoncé record? That wasn't in the script.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...a-2302770.html

---
Counts towards metacritic.

And yet again someone is judging her based on her personal life and not the music.

DG1

Quote:

Originally posted by satellites™

And yet again someone is judging her based on her personal life and not the music.

It's actually a positive review. Weirdly written.

satellites.™

Quote:

Sometimes, it's hard out there for a Houston girl.
When the Queen B unveiled Run the World (Girls), the Major Lazer-sampling first single from 4, the reaction was less Sasha Fierce and more sashay, away. Despite a militant, MIA-esque call to arms and an intricately choreographed video, the tune stalled outside the top 20 of Billboard's Hot 100. (Even a brilliant award-show performance barely seemed to help.)
Beyoncé debuted ballad 1+1 on May's American Idol finale, and her way with a few of the words ("Make love to me!") was almost too steamy for prime time. Still, it takes a certain kind of superstar to make wacky math imagery — "I don't know much about algebra, but I know 1+1 equals 2" - sound like pop poetry.
The disc's second official single, Best Thing I Never Had, was a return to form - Beyoncé as wronged woman who just isn't going to take it anymore (See Irreplaceable, If I Were A Boy). It has the regal sound of a radio smash,
"Sucks to be you right now," she teases.
Longtime fans, however, might be mystified by much of 4, online and in stores Tuesday. (Best Thing still is struggling for radio play.) It leaked in full three weeks ago, and opinions have been flying. Too slow. Too odd. Too much I Am … and not enough Sasha Fierce.
What 4 seems to be saying, then, is that Beyoncé has nothing to prove to anyone. Let those other girls try to out-Gaga each other. B has earned the right to just do her own thing.
And though she's sometimes hailed as the heir to Michael Jackson's throne, that's not a completely accurate comparison. Beyoncé's musical instincts draw as much, or more, from the odd genius of Prince in his commercial heyday. Her voice soars to new heights on 4, a guttural force at its best when the edges are raw and exposed.
Take I Miss You, which marks the halfway point. The gently pulsing, sci-fi ballad finds Beyoncé vocalizing an internal battle, alternately desperate and calm. It's one of the most fascinating moments amid a dozen tracks.
The thrashing drums, guitar and wild-eyed pleas of I Care could have been culled from the Purple Rain soundtrack. (Ditto for 1+1.) Beyoncé even manages to bring doses of edge and grit to the Diane Warren-penned, Ryan Tedder-produced I Was Here - no small feat. And she demands, all wide-eyed and throaty, a lover to begin again amid the thundering production of Start Over.
Love On Top finds our girl in feel-good diva mode. It's the kind of bouncy jam that might have turned up on early albums from Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey. Beyoncé rarely has sounded so charming, even as she soars through several key changes. And there's also a '70s swoop throughout Rather Die Young ("You're my James Dean / You make me feel like I'm 17.")
We'll likely have to wait awhile for a Destiny's Child reunion, but 4 offers a handful of girl-group gems. The '80s-esque Party teams her with André 3000, Kanye West and a Doug E. Fresh sample. You can almost smell the barbecue on the patio. Countdown boasts the frenetic club swagger of past DC hits (Bug A Boo and Jumpin' Jumpin'), a Boyz II Men sample and a Houston Rockets shoutout. (Who doesn't love that?) It's practically begging for an extended version. And End of Time calls on a marching band drumline to bring it to life.
Whatever your ideas, expectations or opinions of 4, it is an aggressively Beyoncé album in terms of style and commitment. She flips effortlessly from purr to roar on several tracks. And you can bet she will work every one of these songs until they are bona-fide smashes. (Prepare yourself for remixes, deluxe editions, video collections and the inevitable tour.)
"I really want people to think when they listen to my music," she says on her website. "I want it to be a conversation."
Mission accomplished.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1QSgyssvm

Does this count?

BnPac

I doubt it, I think I've never seen any of their review on mediacritic before.
What is the score btw?

BeamMeUp

Quote:

Originally posted by satellites™

Does this count?

Don't think so. Here's the list.

All Music Guide
Absolute Punk
Alternative Press*
American Songwriter
Austin Chronicle
Billboard
BBC Music
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Clash Music
CMJ
Cokemachineglow.com
Consequence of Sound
Country Weekly
Delusions of Adequacy
Dot Music
Drowned In Sound
Dusted Magazine
Entertainment Weekly
Filter*
The Guardian
Hartford Courant
HipHopDX
The Independent (UK)
Los Angeles Times
Lost At Sea
Mojo*
MSN Expert Witness (Robert Christgau)
musicOMH.com
New Musical Express
New York Magazine
The New York Times
No Ripcord
NOW Magazine (Toronto)
Okay Player
One Thirty BPM
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Paste Magazine
The Phoenix (Boston)
Pitchfork
Pop Matters
Prefix Magazine
Q Magazine*
Rock Sound
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin*
Sputnikmusic
The Telegraph (UK)
Tiny Mix Tapes
Uncut*
Under The Radar*
Urb*
Village Voice
The Wire*
XLR8

Mean Trees

Hip Hop DX gave the album 4/5 and it does count on Metacritic

Quote:

"4" does belong in the infamous "transitional" category as a result, but that transition goes smoothly for her even if parts of that audience may find it rough.

Beyoncé has a new album out but you know that already—she’s Beyoncé. Stars come and go, but Beyoncé is positioned to remain popular for the rest of her life. As hard she’s worked to get where she is and as effortlessly as she seems like she’ll stay there, she’s still an artist with an audience and decisions to make about how to manage it. 4 does belong in the infamous “transitional” category as a result, but that transition goes smoothly for her even if parts of that audience may find it rough.

After opening with a slow-paced vocal display, Beyoncé seems poised to explode with energy, but instead continues with several more ballads and love songs. By the halfway mark, the closest thing to “upbeat” comes in the form of “Party,” a light two-stepper with André 3000 and Kanye West that doesn’t quite have the impact that you might expect from this trio of heavyweights. Things pick up again towards the close with “Countdown”—a video-ready number built on a cute Boyz II Men sample—but the decided mode here is “adult contemporary.”

Luckily, though most of 4’s brief track-list is comprised of power-ballads; Beyoncé is better equipped than most to handle that weight. “Best Thing I Never Had” sounds a bit like a jewelry commercial, but should go over well with its intended audience. Meanwhile, “Rather Die Young” is 4’s best foray into grown-up music, channeling Anita Baker-era R&B before Beyoncé pays tribute to Luther over sunny-day synths and finger snaps on “Love on Top.”

There’s something for everyone on 4 but Beyoncé’s desire to crowd-please is ultimately what holds the album back. The Oprah set will respond well to the ballads but might be thrown off by the trendy, disorganized lead single “Run the World (Girls).” Fans of “Girls,” however, might be confused to find it all the way at the end of an album that instead starts with “1 + 1,” a passionate love-song that might normally close it.

In short, Beyoncé commands an audience that’s grown too big and diverse to have a singular taste. Ever the crowd-pleaser, she does her best to make sure no one is left out, but can only split herself so many ways while still giving each her all. 4 doesn’t necessarily stand so well by itself, but as part of the Beyoncé experience, there are enough vehicles here to keep her moving. Eventually, an okay song will become a great video and an amazing live performance, so even if every song doesn’t hit home at first, she’ll get them there eventually—she’s Beyoncé.

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/album-...itle.beyonce-4

DG1

METACRITIC SCORES:

Consequence of Sound - Positive - 90/100
Hip Hop DX - Positive - 80/100
The Observer (UK) - Positive - 80/100
BBC Music (UK) - Positive - 80/100
HOT Press - Positive - 80/100
Sputnik Music - Positive - 80/100
Entertainment Weekly - Positive - 75/100
Rolling Stone - Positive - 70/100
Slant Magazine - Positive - 70/100
CokeMachine Glow - Positive - 70/100
NY Magazine - Positive - ?
The Boston Globe - Positive - ?
The Independent On Sunday - Positive - ?
Chicago Tribune - Positive - 63/100
Guardian (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
NOW Magazine (Canada) - Mixed - 60/100
The Telegraph (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
New Musical Express (NME) (UK) - Mixed - 40/100
The Independent (UK) - Mixed - 40/100

DG1

Mostly positive reviews

BnPac

http://www.spin.com/reviews/beyonce-4-columbia

Beyonce
'4'
Queen B eases back, seeks king to settle down and count cash

Spin Rating
8 of 10

..Nearly 15 years into a career with all the indicators of a future lifetime-achievement award, Beyoncé is so sure of her place in pop's ruling class that she waits until the final track of her new studio album to present "Run the World (Girls)." "My persuasion can build a nation," she declares, relegating to postscript status a message most artists would position front and center. Then again, maybe Beyoncé relegated "Run the World" to last because it's the worst song here, a lumpy redo of Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor" that somehow manages to make the singer sound less powerful than she has in years. Beyoncé can do hectic just fine -- see the appealingly overstuffed "Independent Women Part II," from Destiny's Child's Survivor. But "Run the World" doesn't marshal its electro-dancehall intensity in the service of anything. It's all sound and no fury.

Happily, Sasha Fierce takes five elsewhere on this often-gorgeous collection of ballads and mid-tempo cuts rich with echoes of late-'70s/early-'80s pop-soul. (With its creamy keys and skyscraping vocals, "Love on Top" imagines a perfect genetic splice of Whitney Houston's debut album and Michael Jackson's Off the Wall.) The lack of in-your-face future-funk arrangements isn't a sign that Beyoncé has lost her appetite for domination; indeed, as a singer's showcase, 4 will probably end up bested this year only by Adele's 21.

But in slow-to-bloom songs that are as preoccupied by love's pleasure ("1+1," "Rather Die Young") as by its pain ("I Care," "Best Thing I Never Had"), this one-time single lady seems hungry for a satisfaction deeper than conquest. That she finds it before stooping to the hollow provocations of "Run the World" should warm the heart of anyone who still believes in putting a ring on it.

DG1

METACRITIC SCORES:

Consequence of Sound - Positive - 90/100
Spin Magazine - Positive - 80/100
Hip Hop DX - Positive - 80/100
The Observer (UK) - Positive - 80/100
The Boston Globe - Positive - 80/100
BBC Music (UK) - Positive - 80/100
HOT Press - Positive - 80/100
Sputnik Music - Positive - 80/100
Entertainment Weekly - Positive - 75/100
Rolling Stone - Positive - 70/100
Slant Magazine - Positive - 70/100
CokeMachine Glow - Positive - 70/100
NY Magazine - Positive - ?
The Independent On Sunday - Positive - ?
Chicago Tribune - Positive - 63/100
Guardian (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
NOW Magazine (Canada) - Mixed - 60/100
The Telegraph (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
New Musical Express (NME) (UK) - Mixed - 40/100
The Independent (UK) - Mixed - 40/100

BnPac

You can add Boston Globe 8/10. They didn't give a score but metacritic did. She has had so many 80, without those whack UK's 60 et 40, her score would have been close to 80 now.

BeamMeUp

More 80s

DG1

ABC NEWS: Beyoncé "4" Album Review

Review: A More Mellow Beyonce Still Impresses

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY AP Music Writer
June 27, 2011 (AP)
Beyonce, "4," (Columbia)

"Run the World (Girls)," the first single from Beyonce's fourth solo album, "4," has all the hallmarks of a signature No. 1 Beyonce smash — a bombastic, larger-than-life sound, a call-and-response hook, a heavy dose of girl power and a fierce drumbeat.

Surprisingly, though, it landed with a thud on radio, and the buzz around "4'' hasn't been encouraging — there's even talk that the multihyphenate diva could find herself dealing with her very first flop.

It remains to be seen how "4'' will do on the charts, but if fans pay attention to the music, then Beyonce should have no worries. If anything, "Run the World (Girls)" is the anomaly of the disc, which has few tracks geared for the clubs.

Instead, Beyonce — just a few months shy of 30 — offers a bewitching blend of ballads and midtempo grooves that show a maturation in the singer's sound. She strips away the much of the musical pyrotechnics that have anchored some of her biggest solo jams for an album more heavy on ballads, and danceable hits that charm, instead of strong-arm, their way into your psyche.

"Love on Top," a buoyant, old school jam that recalls the days when Billy Ocean and curl activator were in, stands among the album's best songs, mixing the sound of horns, synthesizer and Beyonce's beguiling voice to dreamy effect. There's more 1980s inspiration on the sexy laid-back tune "Party," co-produced by Kanye West, thanks to a Slick Rick sample and a retro bass line that slows down the pace, but not the fun. Though the reclusive Andre 3000 offers a verse on the track, Beyonce remains the star on the song, seducing listeners with her powerful pipes.

The Boyz II Men-sampled "Countdown" and the marching band feel of "End of Time" will satisfy those looking for the typical Beyonce frenetic bounce. But it's a love-struck Beyonce, not the dancing diva, who is featured on the bulk of the album, which finds the singer passionately emoting about the love for her man, either from a position of confidence or fear.

"I'm addicted to the rush," acknowledges Beyonce on the semifatalistic "I'd Rather Die Young," while on "Start Over," she offers to reset a relationship rather than lose it. But the most dramatic ballad is the best — "1+1," featuring a blistering Beyonce on a back-to-basics R&B groove that smolders despite its simplicity.

The same applies for "4," an album that has fewer fireworks, but still leaves you starry-eyed.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: It wouldn't be a Beyonce album without the obligatory "you go girl" anthem, and she duly supplies it in the rousing "Best Thing I Never Had," which shows again why every man should appreciate what he has — especially if he has Beyonce.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/...ry?id=13941050

Chemist

My final prediction: 73-76

The US reviews have been better than I expected

DG1

NEW YORK TIMES - Beyoncé "4" Album Review

A Farewell (for Now) to Old Selves
By JON CARAMANICA
Published: June 27, 2011

Beyoncé's new album, “4.”
Soon after, shaky rehearsal footage shot in her dressing room by her husband, Jay-Z, made the rounds on the Internet. What secrets lay within this samizdat video? What thrills were hiding in her exposed seams?

Oh, just Beyoncé, with a keyboard player and a pair of backup vocalists, nailing the song even more impressively than she would on the show. No laughs, no breaks, no slip-ups. Behind-the-scenes Beyoncé is just as spot-on as on-camera Beyoncé. Her public self is her true self.

It should really come as no surprise — Beyoncé has made a career of impeccability, even as she’s swum in pop waters that no longer demand such a thing. But no longer is she interested in taking the temperature of the room. This week she releases “4” (Columbia), her fourth solo album, and one that all but relinquishes Beyoncé’s claim to the pop here and now.

She must be relieved. As modern as Beyoncé has allowed herself to be over the years, from tech-savvy club R&B with Destiny’s Child to the insistent pancultural stomp of “Run the World (Girls),” on this new album, she has always been a torch singer in waiting, anticipating the day when she could just get down to business.

On that count, “4” is impressive, though it’s executed in perplexing fashion. It has far more in common with soul albums of the late 1970s and early ’80s — the poppier side of Jennifer Holliday, say — than anything by her so-called peers; it’s a position statement in the age of Rihanna. What’s clear now is that the Beyoncé of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” of “Get Me Bodied,” of “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy” — that persona — was a homework assignment, a concession to the world around her by an artist with an astute ear and a gift for mimicry.

Those were also songs that other singers could have plausibly released and made their own. Most of “4,” though, no one else could get away with, or would even want to try. Beyoncé will turn 30 in September, and judging by the mood of this album, it couldn’t come any more quickly.

“1+1,” written by Beyoncé with Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, is a promise of fealty enacted as an insistent rant, requiring a vocal muscle few singers possess, and even fewer would care to deploy. “I don’t know much about guns/ but I’ve been shot/ by you,” she sings, taking the last word of that line and kicking it up an octave without sacrificing any power.

Beyoncé is best when her emotional radar is set to loyalty, for better or worse — sometimes that loyalty is rewarded, and sometimes it’s been betrayed, but over all, she operates on the axis of faithfulness. “Maybe it’s over, maybe we’re through/ But I honestly can say/ I still love you,” she protests on “Start Over.” On “I Care,” which suggests the early Janet Jackson, Beyoncé gripes, “You’re immune to all my pain.”

But where Mary J. Blige has made scorned pain her art, Beyoncé delivers heartbreak with purpose: to remind us just how overwhelming love can be. Even her breakup songs are advertisements for romance.

For Beyoncé, content always trumps structure, and she’s so relentlessly perfect that she’s able to appear to adapt to any sound or scene when she’s really just applying her signature gloss atop it. She’s tough enough for “Run the World (Girls),” which outright pilfers the Major Lazer digital dancehall semi-hit “Pon de Floor” and also coy enough for “Party,” a Kanye West production that recalls the tinny, casual early work of New Edition. “I’ll give it all away/Just don’t tell nobody tomorrow/So tonight I’ll do it every way,” Beyoncé coos, in her best impression of naughtiness.

But she’s not a chameleon. “Best Thing I Never Had” has optimistic, coffee-commercial pianos that place Beyoncé squarely in Lilith Fair territory, and “Love on Top,” slinky but nowhere near sexy, sounds like a song a young Brandy would have released. But Beyoncé remains untouched above both of them, not conceding to their style.

After all, she has had more formidable competition and not given in. Initially, her collaborations with Lady Gaga over the last two years — “Video Phone (Remix)” and “Telephone” — promised a new direction, but all Beyoncé did was show up to prove she could out-Gaga Gaga, then return to her comfort zone.

In some ways, the certainty of “4” is a rebuke to the flashes of maturation Beyoncé has shown in recent years, where it appeared she might be breaking free of her outline. Her 2009 tour, in support of her last album “I Am ... Sasha Fierce,” was a flawlessly executed version of a porch singalong on arena scale. Despite the show’s size and ambition, it was clear Beyoncé was learning how to make herself accessible amid the moving parts that a huge machine requires. And earlier this year, she said she was breaking management ties with her father, who’s controlled her career since she was a child.

But all Beyoncé really wants to do is sing, to control the narrative, to remain at arm’s length. It’s fitting that in the run-up to this album’s release, she’s been best ingested in a series of video clips. There was Beyoncé backstage at “Idol,” Beyoncé stealing the show with an outrageous Pop Art-inspired performance at the Billboard Awards, Beyoncé in a Busby Berkeley-meets-college-graduation setup at the “Oprah” finale, Beyoncé covering Prince and the Kings of Leon at the Glastonbury Festival, Beyoncé surprising some Harlem schoolchildren during a dance event by showing up to shake and stomp along with them. They were dressed in black, she in white. She did not sweat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/ar...lves.html?_r=1

Cap10Planet

Her score is at 67 right now:
http://www.metacritic.com/music/4-2011/critic-reviews

DG1

METACRITIC SCORES:

Consequence of Sound - Positive - 90/100
Spin Magazine - Positive - 80/100
Hip Hop DX - Positive - 80/100
The Observer (UK) - Positive - 80/100
The Boston Globe - Positive - 80/100
BBC Music (UK) - Positive - 80/100
HOT Press - Positive - 80/100
Sputnik Music - Positive - 80/100
Entertainment Weekly - Positive - 75/100
Rolling Stone - Positive - 70/100
Slant Magazine - Positive - 70/100
CokeMachine Glow - Positive - 70/100
NY Magazine - Positive - ?
NY Times - Positive - ?
The Independent On Sunday - Positive - ?
Chicago Tribune - Positive - 63/100
Guardian (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
NOW Magazine (Canada) - Mixed - 60/100
The Telegraph (UK) - Mixed - 60/100
New Musical Express (NME) (UK) - Mixed - 40/100
The Independent (UK) - Mixed - 40/100

NY Times was very positive, so I expect at least an 80

BeamMeUp

Quote:

Originally posted by Cap10Planet

Her score is at 67 right now:
http://www.metacritic.com/music/4-2011/critic-reviews

All the mixed reviews are in.

Drais.

67

Beyond Say

Quote:

Originally posted by Hi.Def

67

They haven't added all the positive reviews yet.