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Celeb News: 'BEYONCÉ' - Universal Acclaim on MetaCritic (86)
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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'BEYONCÉ' - Universal Acclaim on MetaCritic (86)
METACRITIC SCORE: 86 based on 32 critics (Universal Acclaim)
Eligible For Metacritic
The A.V. Club: 91/100
Quote:
Beyoncé’s surprise album is her most substantial and also her most human
Without playing into cheap “tortured by fame” tropes, she’s made an emotional album that’s dense and substantial but never difficult or self-important. “Beyoncé the impossible ideal” had a glorious run, but here “Beyoncé the real human” proves even more transfixing.
http://www.avclub.com/review/beyonce...tial-an-200652
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Pretty Much Amazing: 91/100
Quote:
BEYONCÉ provides a corrective to the year’s glut of pop tedium. By the time Bangerz, Prism, and ARTPOP were released in full, we’d already been beaten to a pulp by the ceaseless blitz of their promotional campaigns. The albums themselves seemed like afterthoughts, to the extent they had been thought of at all. Beyoncé waited for the last moment to unveil 2013′s finest pop album. It arrived too late to enter our top ten lists, but just in time to own the year.
http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/beyonce-beyonce
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Entertainment Weekly: 91/100
Quote:
What a gift. The new self-titled album from Beyoncé, surprised-released two weeks before Christmas, may not be the perfect stocking stuffer for your niece — not, at least, if you want little Madison hearing "Partition," a detailed narrative of sex in the back of a limousine. (Buy it exclusively on iTunes through next Friday. According to reports, physical copies will likely go on sale soon after that.) But it's a music-industry "event" with unprecedented value for fans: 14 dreamy new songs, each with videos, plus four other clips, dropped just like that into our laps.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20766081,00.html
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The 405: 90/100
Quote:
Though there are a million details about BEYONCÉ to examine--from the release strategy to the visual aspect and more--the strongest ideas are still found solely in the music. She addresses topics like beauty, body image, miscarriages, jealousy, sexuality, marriage, motherhood and self-worth. That isn't just the work of a diva, that is the work of a political figure. The personal is the political.
http://thefourohfive.com/review/article/beyonce-beyonce
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Clash Music: 90/100
Quote:
Beyoncé is one of the best damn albums of 2013, basically, however you’re looking at it: as an R&B record, a pop set, an electro collection. Whatever your tastes, you can’t question the quality here.
http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/beyonce-beyonce
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All Music Guide: 90/100
Quote:
Easily her best album since B'day, it's among her most entertaining and sexually explicit work, yet it's substantive in every respect. When the album came out, the release itself dominated the chatter. In time, it should be seen as a career highlight from a superstar -- one of the hardest-working people in the business, a new mother, in total control, at her creative and commercial peak.
http://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/beyonce-beyonce
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DJ Booth: 90/100
Quote:
I’m sure some are dissecting Beyonce with a scalpel, both musically, politically and socially, but for me those discussions are only minor distractions from the fact that we’re clearly listening to one of the most purely talented artists of our generation working at her peak, or at least somewhere close. Let’s appreciate what we have in Beyonce, it’s a true moment in music history. Bow down.
http://www.djbooth.net/index/albums/...beyonce#review
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FACT MAGAZINE (UK): 90/100
Quote:
What will persist when discussing Beyoncé’s self-titled fifth album, however, is how damn good it is: in a year of major rap, R&B, and pop releases, Beyoncé outclasses them all. A tour through Beyoncé’s backstory, a meditation on Third Wave feminism and a rejection of perfection, Beyoncé is the singer at her rawest, realest, and most personal, with a sound deeper and darker than ever before. Beyoncé is a stronger personal statement than Magna Carta… Holy Grail, less self-indulgent than The 20/20 Experience, and (in its own way) as dark and confrontational as Yeezus. Beating the boys at their own game — how’s that for feminism?
http://www.factmag.com/2013/12/17/beyonce/
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The Quietus (UK): 90/100
Quote:
Just like that, with no fanfare and no promo, the biggest star on the planet drops a new album, leaving music critics scrambling to update their end of year lists. Beyoncé Knowles doesn't do things like other superstars.
Make no mistake, this is a typically offbeat, catchy soul album from Beyoncé. Expectation can cripple an artist, but she clearly thrives on it - she's delivered an album that is grown-up without being dowdy, weird without being trying and open without being a drag. It is a bold, expansive body of work that should have all the praise heaped on it because, without warning, she dropped one of the strongest albums of the year on us.
http://thequietus.com/articles/14122-beyonce-review
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SPIN: 90/100
Quote:
Beyoncé Outdoes Herself (and Everyone Else) With the Humanizing, Superhuman 'Beyoncé'
There are few artists who can unite our fragmented, disparate listening cultures on a mass scale; Lady Gaga succeeded for a while, and Kanye West has been trying for years, but one artist has got them — and everyone else — beat.
The result is artistic click bait, and its genius and connective power is that it doesn't treat music fans as factions. This one is for everyone, all at once.
With all due respect to the competition, Beyoncé is the biggest pop star on the planet.
http://www.spin.com/reviews/beyonce-...pin-essential/
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NY Times: 90/100
Quote:
The songs are alert to the current sound of clubs and radio, but not trapped by it; the refrains are terse and direct, but what happens between them isn’t formulaic. And while Beyoncé constructed the songs with a phalanx of collaborators, they all know better than to eclipse her creamy, soulful voice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/ar...and-sleek.html
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Billboard: 90/100
Quote:
But once the initial novelty and shock wears off of Beyoncé's impressive stealth-release feat, the brilliance and creative audacity of the album itself can sink in. Though there are a few songs with traditional pop structures ("XO," "Blow" and "Drunk In Love" chief among them), many of the tracks are more experimental, half-rapped/half-sung songs with suites and interludes that pack more ideas (and more sexually explicit dialogue) than radio-friendly hooks at times.
It's as impressive an accomplishment creatively as it is for shifting the industry towards a more nontraditional take on the "single-album-tour" strategy
http://www.billboard.com/articles/re...y-track-review
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Pitchfork: 88/100 (BEST NEW MUSIC)
Quote:
Beyoncé seized the powers of a medium characterized by its short attention span to force the world to pay attention. Leave it to the posterchild of convention to brush convention aside and leave both sides feeling victorious.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/...yonce-beyonce/
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Absolute Punk: 88/100
Quote:
Why is Beyoncé the Queen? It’s not because she married into the family, nor is it because she was crowned by some invisible force and granted unassailable rights to rule. Nor is it solely because of her place among a dwindling number of stars who were granted their seat at the table through sheer vocal power, though that’s certainly a factor. Her place at the head is assured because her voice and stories on Beyoncé conveys a nearly-unrivaled sense of what makes us human. There’s room in that word for anilingus as well as deep-eyed devotion to your child. It takes someone with immense talent to bridge the gap between the two though, and there’s few who could be better suited to it than Beyoncé Knowles.
http://absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=3590911
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PopMatters: 80/100
HipHopDX: 80/100
MusicOMH (UK): 80/100
Now Magazine: 80/100
Quote:
Who runs the world? Beyoncé’s visual album one-ups the music biz
Everywhere, Beyoncé’s buttery vocals are perfect, whether she’s growling on Drunk In Love (a follow up to Crazy In Love featuring Jay Z), unleashed on a ballad (Heaven), restrained on a Noah “40” Shebib-produced duet with Drake (Mine) or rapping an alt-hip-hop intro on Haunted.
Well played.
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/stor...content=195899
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New Musical Express (UK): 80/100
Quote:
What’s even more surprising, though, is that at a level of fame and wealth where many would just coast to now-inevitable adulation, Beyonce Knowles-Carter is genuinely changing the game, or at least her game. It’s not the ‘visual album’ release (something people have toyed with since the days of VHS). It’s that everything about this dark, complex and randy record suggests that despite the eponymous title, Beyonce is hungrily demanding more of herself than just being Beyonce.
http://www.nme.com/reviews/beyonce/1...SdMD1lO1ul4.99
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Exclaim: 80/100
Quote:
he album is best described as experimental in a mainstream context. Beyoncé raps, curses, drops sexual innuendo — basically looking to appeal to anyone and everyone. So you get a bunch of musical flavours but it somehow manages to hang together. Although there was a host of big names — Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, Drake, Timberland, Frank Ocean, hubby JayZ — one doesn't so much as collaborate but allowed to co-exist on Queen Bey's platform. Beyoncé is better than good, slickly packaged, created with the best of intentions yet still comes off as a postmodern mash of hubris, sincerity and gloss. It will be a hit regardless.
http://exclaim.ca/Reviews/PopAndRock/beyonce
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Consequence of Sound: 80/100
Quote:
All of that reads as a conscious and concerted effort from the longtime pop star to answer the question of what it means to be a woman, especially a woman of color, in America in the year 2013. Beyoncé‘s answer is to consider yourself a goddess in every facet of your life.
http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/1...yonce-beyonce/
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The Guardian (UK): 80/100
The Telegraph (UK): 80/100
Quote:
Beyoncé, album review: 'the most X-rated pop album since Madonna's Erotica'
Beyoncé's surprise album, BEYONCÉ, is X-rated, sensuous and thoughtful, says Neil McCormick. And Queen Bey's vocal gifts put the rest of 2013's pop stars in the shade
She’s taken the time to get it right, and the results put this year’s offerings from Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Britney Spears back in Beyoncé’s ample shade.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...s-Erotica.html
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The Observer (UK): 80/100
Quote:
The best surprise of all, in an autumn in which Beyoncé's closest competitors--Gaga, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus--made underperforming bids for the throne, is how thoroughly assured, immersive and substantial this album is.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...beyonce-review
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Paste Magazine: 79/100
Quote:
And this closing portion of Beyoncé is probably the best of her career, with first single “XO,” previously teased romp “Flawless,” the unabashed, uncompromising tribute “Heaven,” and “Blue,” which concludes the album with a striking similarity to how Arcade Fire’s Reflektor ends, mainly in the atmosphere of the song.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...e-beyonce.html
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Under the Radar: 75/100
Chicago Tribune: 75/100
Los Angeles Times: 75/100
Drowned In Sound (UK): 70/100
Quote:
This is bold stuff compared to chart music’s typically inoffensive pitter patter, so it’s no surprise that Dr Luke, Max Martin and Stargate are all absent from BEYONCÉ’s tracklisting. Instead the likes of Frank Ocean, Miguel and Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek have been anointed to hand Queen B a regal grasp over pop’s zeitgeist. This means genre-hopping forays across shrill, slinking funk and power-balladeering, although most of the album is concerned with downtempo slurps of bass and hi-hat.
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1...eviews/4147288
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Rolling Stone: 70/100
Quote:
Beyoncé may have gotten "bored" with the popstar routine, as she confesses in "Ghost." But only massive hubris could have made a feat like this album possible. And Beyoncé's hubris makes the world a better, more Beyoncé-like place.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/al...#ixzz2ndGhD7dy
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Slant Magazine: 70/100
The Independent (UK): 60/100
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YEAR END LISTS:
LA Times
Quote:
Los Angeles Times' Best Albums of 2013:
Beyoncé's stealth midnight release — a self-titled collection of new music and videos — may have arrived in near silence earlier this month, but it now rules the charts and The Times' Consensus Top Albums of 2013.
01. Beyoncé, “Beyoncé ” (Parkwood/Columbia) (26 points, three ballots)
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...#axzz2ozQpDpBK
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Billboard
Quote:
Best Albums of 2013:
01. Beyoncé - "Beyoncé"
Swept away in the hype? Maybe. But really, who isn't crazy in love with Beyoncé right now? It's been less than a week since her fifth solo album parachuted, without warning, into the iTunes store in the dead of night, leaving fans and critics alike in awe of the sheer ballsiness of the move — a superstar releasing their product with zero promotion. Wow, right? That could have been one hell of a failure. It was not.
Sure, a decent amount of time is needed to see past the fog of excitement. We had six days. Not much of a chance to live with it sans rollout (or lack thereof) reverence. But let's try to take a step back and talk music. "Beyoncé" is stellar, standing tall amongst the albums it leapfrogged to land at No. 1 here—accessible enough to appeal to pop ears ("XO"), bizarre and transformative enough with winds and ghostly warbles ("Haunted," "Mine") to qualify as a gorgeous art project. None of the other albums on the list cover as many bases as she does here at as high a performance quality.
Her voice both soars and rumbles about familiar subjects: female empowerment and love. But especially regarding the latter, she delves deeper than ever before--shoveling beneath surface level ditties. That's the key switch-up. Once slightly ajar, Beyoncé knocks the door into her personal life off the hinges on this appropriately self-titled set.
Want to know about additional strength her king provides his queen with an embrace? Conversely, how about the vivid worries she's had about splitting with him? It's all there on "Beyoncé," set to warm, well-curated production from a who's who of hit-makers. This is an album made by a fearless, grown-ass woman—somehow self-assured, stoic, fragile and thoughtful all at once. And for those reasons, she wears the crown. - Brad Wete
http://www.billboard.com/articles/li...=photo-vs-link
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HGN
Quote:
Top 10 Female Pop Albums of 2013:
01. Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Her most ambitious, cohesive and personal album to date, "Beyoncé" stormed iTunes and social media on Friday, Dec. 13th with no promo and no announcement, selling a whopping X copies in just X days. Featuring an ensemble of hit-makers including Sia, Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean, Timbaland and Drake, the lush, luxurious and irresistably sexy album is truly a celebration of Beyoncé and her womanhood, weaving seamlessly through anthems of unapologetic sexuality, anxiety, joy and heartbreak, culminating in the deceptively simple "Blue," an ode to motherhood and her daughter, Blue Ivy. Not to mention, all of the accompanying music videos are gorgeous and incredibly fun to watch.
My Picks: "Haunted," "Partition," "Rocket," "Mine (feat. Drake)," "***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)," "XO," "Heaven"
http://www.hngn.com/articles/19757/2...lbums-2013.htm
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The Associated Press
Quote:
5. Beyoncé, "Beyoncé": Yes, Beyoncé's new album was just released this month, but it's still one of the best offerings this year. The R&B queen gets major props for literally slapping the world in the face with an album full of progressive R&B tunes that feel fresh and appealing. The impressive batch of tracks — from the addictive numbers "Drunk in Love" and "Blow" to the beautiful and soft "Heaven" — showcase the singer's growth and easily puts her ahead of the competition. "Beyoncé" is larger than life.
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/ap-musi...ntsharebuttons
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HitFix/The Beat Goes On
Quote:
Top 10 Albums of 2013:
5. “Beyoncé,” Beyoncé: The beauty of doing my list so late is that I get to add in Beyoncé’s album that she dropped with no warning on Dec. 13. Sexy, potent, and powerful, the album’s 14 tracks show her breadth and why she is the Queen. Bow down and get drunk on Beyoncé.
http://www.hitfix.com/news/top-10-al...2ZEjewuDfET.99
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Bigger Than the Sound (MTV)
Newsday
[quote] 50 Best Albums of 2013:
VARIETY
Quote:
VARIETY's Best Albums of 2013:
08. Beyoncé. “Beyoncé” (Columbia)
While Beyonce's fifth solo album is likely to be remembered more for its sneak attack release strategy and kitchen-sink packaging, it's the music itself that deserves most of the attention.
http://variety.com/gallery/best-albu...once-columbia/
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Digital Spy
Consequence of Sound
Pitchfork
Quote:
Marc Hogan
Albums:
01. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Jillian Mapes
Albums:
01. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Tracks:
03. Beyoncé - Blow
Tim Finney
Albums:
03. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Corban Goble
Albums:
03. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Amy Phillips
Albums:
05. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Mark Richardson
Tracks:
10. Beyoncé - Blue (feat. Blue Ivy Carter)
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-...ums-of-2013/6/
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TRACK REVIEWS:
Pitchfork Names "XO" Best New Track
Quote:
"XO" is one of those big, boundary-obliterating pop songs that demands to be projected onto the sky, like the aural equivalent of a firework. There will be a supercut of people all over the world lip-syncing and doing cute hand motions to "XO" by the end of this week. It's the Beyoncé cut that Ed McMahon would ride for. One of the guys from Skeleton Crew is going to propose to his girlfriend while "XO" is playing and she will say yes. "XO" is the reason why anyone you know who has said, "Yeah, but where are the hooks on Beyoncé?" did not listen to the entire album. Chris Martin is listening to "XO" right now, crying. And, because perfection is overrated, all of the flawlessness here is brilliantly undercut by that gravelly croak in her lower register when she growls, "Baby love me, lights out." You kill us, Bey.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/16452-beyonce-xo/
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ATRL Contributor
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ATRL Contributor
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Ready for the praise 
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ATRL Contributor
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I can see this getting a 78-79. I'm officialy intersted in this era. 
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OMG
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
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I feel critics are gonna either love this for being some of her more raw & abrasive material or tear it to shreds.
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On a scale from Britney Jean to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, I wonder where she'll be.
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Culture
Music
Beyoncé: Beyoncé – first look review
Mrs Carter trolled us all this morning when she released the follow-up to 4 straight on to iTunes. It's her most experimental and multi-layered album to date, says Michael Cragg
In the year of the internet troll, Beyoncé might just be 2013's very best. Having hinted at an album since she performed at the Super Bowl back in February, Beyoncé has spent most of 2013 releasing songs for films (Rise Up), adverts (Grown Woman for Pepsi and Standing On The Sun for H&M) and DVDs (God Made You Beautiful) but not, it seemed, for her fans. It was, frankly, turning into a complete mess. Then, early this morning, and without warning, she dumped her self-titled fifth album on iTunes, complete with 14 songs and 17 videos (it's a "visual album" because Beyoncé "sees music" you guys, keep up).
So why the delay? Rumours had been swirling that following the relative lack of success of her last album 4 (no top 10 singles in America, only one here), an early incarnation of the album simply didn't have enough singles on it, while snippets of interviews with various collaborators (The-Dream, Pharrell, Ryan Tedder, Timbaland), hinted at levels of perfectionism last seen in pop's halcyon days of Michael Jackson. Whatever the reason, it must be slightly galling for her ever-patient label to listen to the Janelle Monae-esque Haunted and hear Beyoncé half-rap the following, "All these record labels be boring/ I don't trust these record labels, I'm torn." They might also be surprised to learn that Beyoncé – by far her most experimental and multi-layered album – doesn't really contain an obvious Crazy In Love-style banger. In fact, only the opening Sia collaboration Pretty Hurts and the joyous, echo-laden heart burst of XO are immediate choices for singles, with most of what comes in between shifting from velvet-soft slow jams like the D'Angelo-indebted Rocket (opening line: "Let me sit this ass on you") and the swagged-up don't-you-know-I'm-Beyoncé-isms of ***Flawless.
As with Justin Timberlake's recent 20/20 Experience albums, a lot of the songs on Beyoncé unfurl slowly, stretching out to the six-minute mark and often feeling like two songs stitched together. So Haunted starts out as a minimal, weirdly robotic spoken-word section before morphing into the percussive, doom-laden second half. On Partition's first half she delivers another half-rapped verse with a delicious snarl, even delivering an overview of the album's raison d'etre in "Radio say speed it up/ I just go slower." As she coos "Yoncé all on his mouth like liqueur", flashing paparazzi bulbs take us into the second section, which is basically about having sex in the back of a limo ("He Monica Lewinskyed all on my gown").
In fact, sex crops up quite a lot throughout. It's all over Blow's delicious throwback funk and the atmospheric thump of the Crazy In Love sequel, Drunk In Love, which features Jay Z seemingly ignoring the pair's current vegan diet as he raps about how he likes Beyoncé's breasts for breakfast. It's not all happy families however; the dark-hued, Lana Del Rey-styled romance of Jealous casts Beyoncé as a spurned lover, while the icy mechanics of No Angel (a Pitchfork-friendly collaboration with Chairlift's Caroline Polachek) recasts the slow jam as something otherworldly.
Perhaps with radio stations having all but deserted her – in America at least – Beyoncé has realised that she doesn't need them. Her superstar aura is now strong enough to hide the fact that, 4 aside, the majority of her albums have been fairly inconsistent, almost like vehicles for singles rather than a cohesive body of work. With album sales stalling across the board and the focus shifting to touring, Beyoncé's got the tour out of the way first – with this year's Mrs Carter jaunt – and released a singleless, multi-layered, head-spinning album second. Maybe she knew what she was doing after all.
RATING: 4/5; 80/100 on MetaCritic
http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...m-first-review
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For comparison, Guardian gave "4" a 60. Off to a good start.
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Hopefully the rest of the UK reviewers follow suit. They did 4 dirty.
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The Guardian better STAN.
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Good start. 
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The Telegraph
Beyoncé, album review: 'the most X-rated pop album since Madonna's Erotica'
Beyoncé's surprise album, BEYONCÉ, is X-rated, sensuous and thoughtful, says Neil McCormick. And Queen Bey's vocal gifts put the rest of 2013's pop stars in the shade
She may have dropped it out of the blue to bypass critics, bamboozle pirates and deliver her latest opus straight to fans but pop’s reigning queen has, at least, delivered the goods.
Beyoncé Knowles's fifth solo offering, titled BEYONCÉ, is an event album worthy of her superstar status: it's sexy and smart, with a stripped back modernity that allows the character in her voice to flourish, and stamped with visual wit and swagger. It is also rude enough to make young Beyoncé fans and their parents weak at the knees, although possibly for different reasons.
Previous albums have suffered from a tendency to show off across too many genres and use her powerhouse voice to cover up the weakness of material.
For all its length (16 tracks) and elaborate staging (with videos for every song), the album has a focus and intensity unusual in multi-writer ensemble productions, a sense of purposefulness that holds the attention even when the songs sometimes drift off in search of a chorus. Or maybe it’s just a classic case of distraction, with Beyoncé shaking her assets on screen every time the attention wanders.
It almost goes without saying that the singing is great. Beyoncé is one of the most technically gifted vocalists in pop, with gospel power, hip-hop flow and a huge range. What’s unusual is the restraint she exhibits here, letting melodies unfurl over subdued beats, and holding back from vocal pyrotechnics in ways that increase rather than release tension.
On the outstanding track Superpower (composed with Frank Ocean and the ubiquitous producer Pharell Williams), the way her low, supple vocal is suddenly coloured by multi-tracked Destiny’s Child-style harmonies is fabulous.
The beats exhibit a similar quality of restraint. The sound of the album is spaced-out electro R’n’B, with subdued pulses, ambient effects and throbbing grooves that sneak up on you, threatening to explode but only occasionally transforming into full-blown dancehall stormers.
Song structure is loose (which has been true of other Beyonce albums, with too many studio cooks possibly to blame), but it feels like a strategy rather than a failing. When a chorus does appear, singer and listener alike wrap themselves around it with a sense of relief that, judging by the videos, is intended to be orgasmic.
The bulk of the album is X-rated stuff, perhaps the rudest mainstream pop album since Madonna’s Erotica. Beyoncé has always seemed quite a clean-cut girl next to her husband Jay-Z's protégée, Rihanna – but it is as if, post-motherhood, Beyoncé now wants to assert some adult credentials. There are lots of sensuous, grinding slow jams about sex, accompanied by videos of her flaunting her backside, watched by her cigar-smoking husband as if he's a voyeur at a strip show. It’s not exactly subtle.
On Rocket, the video cuts between a power drill in action and Beyoncé shuddering with pleasure. Lyrics are crammed with double entendres (“Reach right into the bottom of my fountain / dip me under to where you can feel my river flow / Rock it till water falls”) and when Jay-Z joins her to rap on Drunk In Love, he dispenses with subtlety altogether (“slick your panties to the side, I ain’t got time to take your drawers off”).
You could get into a headspin about the mixed messages. Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers a feminist empowerment speech over the dirty groove of Flawless, while Beyoncé yells “Bow down b--ches”.
And the opening track, Pretty Hurts, is a fantastic smoky pop song with speechy lyrics about the tyranny of the beauty industry – set to a video of sexy girls in bikinis. It’s having your cake and eating it, and then throwing it up in the toilet afterwards.
Yet Beyoncé seems to understand that these tensions and contradictions are what keeps pop music interesting. This album was originally slated for release in advance of her 2013 world tour, but was held back amidst reports that she was dissatisfied with material. She’s taken the time to get it right, and the results put this year’s offerings from Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Britney Spears back in Beyoncé’s ample shade.
RATING: 4/5; 80/100 on MetaCritic
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...s-Erotica.html
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Coming for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy wig! 
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omfg
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Only 80 from Telegraph
what kind of flop
PRISM got 100
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