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Celeb News: Beyoncé best singer of the generation, says NY Times
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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Beyoncé best singer of the generation, says NY Times
FROM REVIEW THREAD:
Quote:
Originally posted by 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.
RATING: 80/100
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/ar...lves.html?_r=1
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Jon Caramanica from NY Times who praised 4 and gave it an 8/10, talks about Beyonce's '4' Click link for podcast. Praises her vocal ability, says Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kesha, GaGa and others doesn't have the pipes. like her.. Interesting listen. the first half is about King B.
Who else has one of the major news publications stanning for her...
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July 1, 2011, 2:00 pm
Popcast: Beyoncé Grows Up, and Half of Fiery Furnaces Gets Nostalgic
By JEREMY EGNER
This week’s Popcast focuses on a pop princess who is growing up and an indie darling who is striking out on her own.
First, Jon Carmanica discusses “4,” the new Beyoncé album that finds the artist mostly forgoing the pop trends du jour and embracing her inner torch singer.
“In an era of Rihanna and Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and Kesha, where those people are making hit after hit after hit,” Mr. Caramanica observes, “Beyonce seems to be looking at them and saying, ‘Yeah, I’m good. I don’t need to do any of that. I’m Beyoncé, have you heard me sing? I’m going to do this.”
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ets-nostalgic/
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Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 6,399
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Major publications rooting for her.
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Member Since: 8/24/2008
Posts: 35,091
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YASSSSSSSS
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Member Since: 10/27/2007
Posts: 7,915
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Isn't it too obvious?
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/8/2006
Posts: 42,086
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Well duh!
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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Today she also rightfully claiming that she's the "Talent of this generation"
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Banned
Member Since: 10/26/2010
Posts: 12,889
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The truth spilled out unto thy earth.
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Member Since: 11/6/2010
Posts: 27,791
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That's because she is. Whether you like her or hate her.
I never did understand why xtina is proclaimed the voice of our generation by some people, when she lacks something that beyonce has, and it's called "control".
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Member Since: 7/9/2010
Posts: 42,506
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Member Since: 6/15/2010
Posts: 14,318
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Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainMusic
That's because she is. Whether you like her or hate her.
I never did understand why xtina is proclaimed the voice of our generation, when she lacks something that beyonce has, and it's called "control".
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Because Xtina has a higher potential, learning to control your voice is within your reach (she's too stupid to do it).
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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She's not Katy Perry or Lady GaGa ruthlessly going for mass appeal, she brings people to her...
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Member Since: 12/20/2008
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THE PERFORMER & SINGER OF OUR GENERATION
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Member Since: 6/15/2011
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I agree she is. Xtina comes in a close second though, regardless of her lack of control and wishes of going higher than she's capable of.
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Member Since: 4/9/2011
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Member Since: 1/9/2011
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Yep Yep!
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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"No one of the generation is capable of doing the songs on 4..."
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Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 9,162
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Would he lie?
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Member Since: 11/3/2010
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Member Since: 12/20/2008
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Quote:
Originally posted by loghen
I agree she is. Xtina comes in a close second though, regardless of her lack of control and wishes of going higher than she's capable of.
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How can you be a great singer & NOT have control over your voice?
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Member Since: 12/28/2010
Posts: 26,529
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and they aren't lying either. they speaking the truth
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