Celeb News: '4' Review Thread (74 on Metacritic) - Page 34

DG1

music OMH - Beyoncé "4" Album Review:

Who are Beyoncé’s peers? Lady Gaga has a stranglehold on the teenyboppers, the gays and the art-school drop outs. Rihanna, despite her consistent hit-making, seems forever stuck in the second tier. Ke$ha is Ke$ha, Katy Perry is Katy Perry, Mary J Blige is long past her prime, and Erykah Badu has evolved into something of a distant hipster icon. That leaves Beyoncé, a pop singer in the most traditional sense, usually safe-for-work and never ambiguous. Her records and songs will never be mistaken as scene-friendly, yet still, the whole world, regardless of distinction, from Glastonbury to Pitchfork, pays attention when she releases a new album. She’s the queen of pop, universal, ranged, and refreshingly non-provocative – with a consistent knack for year-defining tunes. And 4 might be her most impressive collection yet.

Beyoncé announces her return with 1+1, a love song of love songs. Its direct, conclusive purity could be a culmination if the woman wasn’t only 29. Lyrically she references Sam Cooke while sonically she calls back to Otis Redding, Prince and U2, but vocally she is simply Beyoncé, stealing the stage and our ears with mainlined performer’s elegance. The guitar swells into a cresting solo, the piano’s undercurrent doubles over itself in drama; the whole thing could’ve been contrived if she didn’t sound so honest, so emotionally sincere – which is quite a feat for one of the most famous people in the world, especially when she’s ostensibly singing about Jay-Z.

It’s a showstopper that the singer wisely doesn’t try to follow. The next 11 tracks on 4, while still dealing with heady issues of monogamy, never aim for the chest in the same way. Instead we get the schizo-soul of I Care, placing Beyoncé’s voice over a rumble of primordial thumps. The desperate I Miss You is even more bare-bones, her voice in a half-whisper as she reveals the titular truth. Party and Countdown returns to Sasha Fierce irreverence, the former pairing the singer within the hit-churning company of Kanye West and Andre 3000. The record is surprisingly airtight of filler for a woman who could afford to phone it in; these songs sound thoroughly meditated with a strong writing staff (anchored by The-Dream) who just manage not to overdo it. The eye of the storm is always Beyoncé, the beats a mere bed for her voice.

4 is also a bit of a throwback. Although a few synths appear here and there as texture work, the record dodges the current chart-wave of beefy house pulses and electro-surge bridges. Instead Beyoncé is singing over brassy soul and understated studio-pets – it’s rare to see a pop star craft a headphones experience, much less invest much interest in crafting a cohesive record. 4 arches through the trials and rewards of a long-term relationship; not that it’s a concept album or anything, but the linear strain through the songs is obvious, even to a passive listener, rather like classic works of R&B from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. We should be happy that a superstar is still committed to delivering quality LPs in an environment that frowns upon such commercially unwarranted traditions, but we should be especially grateful that that superstar is Beyoncé.

RATING: 4/5

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/beyonce-2_0611.htm

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DG1

The GaGa shade: "Pitchfork, pays attention when she releases a new album."

DG1

Kisuke

Quote:

but we should be especially grateful that that superstar is Beyoncé.

DG1

Pop Matters - Beyoncé "4" Album Review:

Beyoncé: 4
By David Amidon 29 June 2011
Albums like Sasha Fierce, in which an artist willingly separates her various impulses into two or more distinct discs/“characters”, are rarely convincing. Either one turns out way more stimulating than the other, or both feel limp without the diversity and range of emotion a typical album would allow. If 4 is any indication, Beyoncé would mostly be willing to concede that point even if she’ll never say it out loud. This 12-track album is the result of 70-plus finished tracks submitted to the label for them to hand select, but, unlike her previous albums, 4 is mainly the work of two production teams. The main thrust is handled by Ne-Yo’s frequent collaborator Shea Taylor, while G.O.O.D. Music’s Jeff Bhasker, Symbolyc One, Luke Steele, and Kanye West work the majority of the other tracks. The-Dream and Diplo’s right hand man Switch round out the proceedings, along with a Ryan Tedder production.

4 begins with a sort of startling sound—until the Kanye-helmed “Party” (featuring one of those rare “look how effortless rapping is for me” verses from Andre 3000 that have turned up in the strangest places since 2006), the music is largely reminiscent of late-‘80s diva histrionics. The backing tracks have no interest in her typical pursuit of forward-thinking, energetic fare, preferring to throw the emphasis on Beyoncé‘s radio-destroying vocal chords. “1+1” is the best result of this, finally providing Beyoncé a song that can compete with the favorites of this generation’s parents. But “I Care” (misplaced as it is, being a jilted lover track directly after such a pure love song as “1+1”) and “I Miss You” are equally competent, if safer, attempts at the same formula. It’s the sort of start that makes it clear why Beyoncé is head and shoulders above her Clear Channel competition in R&B. Unfortunately, she can’t sustain it forever.

Lead-single “Run the World (Girls)” is wisely hidden at the very end of the album here, almost like putting the song in timeout for flopping so embarrassingly out of the gate. The song was B’s least exciting and adventurous song in years, hindered all the more by its obvious insistence that it was a risk. The only risk it took was sampling (read: merely taking the beat for herself) a huge club hit that was barely more than a year old and turning it into an incredibly bland ode to her feminist contingent. That laziness reveals itself elsewhere, like the lyrical content of “Best Thing I Never Had”, in which the antagonist “show [his] ass” and Beyoncé confidently proclaims “it must suck to be you.” Somewhere, Rihanna is sitting in a darkened room slow-clapping behind Cavale shades, but the rest of us are wondering how such lame lyrics could be sung with such earnestness.

Likewise, Kanye actually has the nerve to coin the term “dripping swag-gu” as a play on the word “ragú” on “Party”‘s chorus. The song itself also sounds much more natural as a hip-hop track, and proves it by being the only song to feature a rap verse. Likewise, songs like “Start Over” and “Countdown” just don’t seem to be listening to themselves, and will get by on listenability more than lyrical wizardry if they get by at all. Beyoncé makes most of the flops on this album interesting at the very least, but a lot of the material here feels beneath a woman as talented as she is. In the case of “I Was Here”, a Diane Warren-penned ballad to the self about a faded star desiring the world remember her impact, it’s plain awkward to here a woman as in her prime physically as Beyoncé is to even approach such a tune. The dull music from Ryan Tedder and an army of co-producers doesn’t help matters.

4 is a welcome comeback for Beyoncé after the Sasha Fierce meltdown, full of silly ‘80s musical references and many of the strong vocal turns that made Sasha‘s banality such a frustrating reality. It’s not an album that’s as surprising or forward thinking as Dangerously in Love or B’Day, but it is for the most part a fun listen at worst and for her legion of fans it will probably translate to much more. Personally, the dance vibe that storms in on the final fourth of the album feels forced even if they’re the songs Beyoncé is supposedly best at pulling off. Especially “End of Time”, which feels like it’s here merely for the sake of filling a quota. I also can’t help but wonder what this album would have been like with more mature lyrics in the vein of “1+1” and “Love on Top”, but that’s endemic to pretty much all radio-oriented R&B, not Beyoncé specifically.

RATING: 6/10

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/144161-beyonce-4/

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***Chu

6/10?

DG1

TINY MIX TAPES - Beyoncé "4" Album Review:

If you've been patiently anticipating the release of Beyoncé's newest album, 4, then you've no doubt come across a fair amount of grousing, grumbling, and complaints. When she wasn't busy re-appropriating Major Lazer, she was ripping off Italian choreographers at the Billboard Music Awards and charting lower than Destiny's Child alumna Kelly Rowland. The commercial performance of "Girls (Who Run the World)" might've been dismal enough to depress even the sunniest poptimist, but one failed single — satisfying, though lazy as mixtape material — is hardly reason enough to condemn to the glue factory a workhorse who has, to date, enjoyed 15 years of success in a cruel, cutthroat industry. Beyoncé is one of the only remaining worldwide sensations, a diva who has more than earned her mononomial recognition; to underestimate her is to appear sour or stupid, or both.

And so it should come as no surprise that 4 is hardly the debacle some have predicted; to the contrary, it's difficult to imagine any long-standing admirer feeling even the slightest disappointment with the record. True, it does not contain a single as immortal or immediately recognizable as "Crazy in Love" or "Single Ladies," but it also contains far less filler than the albums that feature those blockbusters. In many ways, 4 most closely resembles B'Day, Beyoncé's sophomore stumble: neither record possesses a clear thematic concept or authorial voice, but both display Beyoncé's willingness to experiment with more adventurous sounds, sometimes at the hazard of irritating her more conservative fans.

Beyoncé hasn't produced anything as ferocious (or obnoxious) as "Ring the Alarm" on her fourth album, but "Countdown," a maximalist dancehall-***-Baltimore drum banger, comes close. Packing steel drums, regal fanfare, a stealthy Boyz-II-Men sample, and the most exuberant vocal performance of the album into a deliciously overstuffed three and a half minutes, "Countdown" sounds like the work of an artist who is trying too hard to produce a classic (see: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), but over-eager as it might be, the song succeeds at what it sets out to achieve: It annoys its way into your heart.

Aside from the aggressive rhythms of "Countdown" and "Girls," 4 is, for the most part, a slow-building, slow-burning growth spurt of an album. Of its 12 tracks, only "I Was Here" and "Best Thing I Never Had"are aligned along Nathan Rabin's "I'm awesome. **** you." thematic axis. In fact, over the first three songs — the strongest run of the whole album — Beyoncé sings with startling sensitivity and wounded humanity. Though her expressions of longing and regret are most likely contrived or altogether artificial, she sells them convincingly. If sung by anyone else, "I Miss You" — co-written by ascendant star Frank Ocean — would be a thin wisp of a ballad, all tinny drum pads and ambient synths, but Beyoncé allows her voice to crack at the right moments, moving tenuously, self-consciously through the soft, circular melody.

There's a clear sense of self-awareness at play on 4. The most emotional moments are designed to evoke Beyoncé's biography: her no-longer-secret marriage to "business, man" Jay-Z; the dissolution of the partnership with her svengali father; the fickle ebb-and-tide of super-stardom; and her fast-approaching expiration date, the one stamped, unfairly but inevitably, on every female sex symbol. The album credits reveal that Beyoncé's input into the writing and production of these songs was minimal at most, but regardless of that fact, these songs have been carefully tailored to fit her image, her persona, and on that level, they succeed better than most ghost-written autobiographies. The Dianne Warren-penned "I Was Here" is a heavy brick of a song — overwrought, maudlin, delusionally grandiose — but it is also disarmingly honest about the addictive, undignified dimensions of fame and celebrity. Even a trifle like "Love on Top" — straight-up 80s cheese homage — sounds like the work of an adult.

Not that the old, less polished Beyoncé doesn't peek through the curtain of maturity from time to time. When she strangles the words "it sucks to be you right now" on "Best Thing I Never Had," it's hard not to hear a middle-schooler telling off her boyfriend on the playground pavement. And the less said about the phrase "swag goo" the better; "Party," the song on which those unfortunate words appear — Kanye West providing that unfortunate pun — is otherwise wonderful, but yet some errors are too grievous to forgive.

No matter how 4 performs commercially, the album is a perfect summertime treat, one of the most consistent and enjoyable mainstream pop records in years. Depending on one's tolerance for vocal histrionics — and, to be honest, R&B in general — mileage may vary; but putting matters of personal taste aside, it's refreshing to hear a pop album that aims for maturity, that doesn't hitch its post to the Britney/Gaga/Ke$ha Euro-pop bandwagon, and that satisfies despite some minor stumbles. Credit is due as much to the writers and producers as it is to Beyoncé; 4 wouldn't work without the presence of The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, or Shea Taylor. Their guidance ensures that every hook, no matter how silly or subtle, sinks in.

Pop music doesn't play by the same rules as other genres, and there is rarely, if ever, a purely artistic motivation or auteurist merit. And as far as pop music is concerned, Beyoncé is very nearly without peer; she sells the words and work of others, like it was the only thing that ever mattered to her. And maybe it is; stakes are high for Beyoncé, and as she gets older, they only get higher. But once again she has risen to the challenge, delivering an imperfect album, but one that is her least flawed so far. Despite some shortcomings, 4 is an unqualified success in the Hawksian sense: There are at least three great songs and no bad ones. So please, if you would, stop grumbling.

01. 1+1
02. I Care
03. I Miss You
04. Best Thing I Never Had
05. Party Ft. Andre 3000
06. Rather Die Young
07. Start Over
08. Love On Top
09. Countdown
10. End Of Time
11. I Was Here
12. Run The World (Girls)
RATING: 4/5

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/beyonce-4

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Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

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ONE THIRTY BPM - Beyoncé "4" Album Review:

Every once and a while, a major player in the music industry takes a creative leap for their own sanity. While 4 asks considerably less of its listeners than Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, it is no less a statement of an artist’s intent to be true to themselves. Instead of crafting yet another album of dance-floor ready hits, Beyoncé has delivered the twisted R&B album that she has always had inside of her. Given all of the love-making, heartbreak, declarations of mutual dependency, and Major Lazer sampling that runs amok throughout 4, what is this personal state of mind that Beyoncé wants her audience to see so desperately? In short, happiness and gratitude. Beyoncé has taken what she could from the industry that lifted her into the stratosphere of stardom and is now finally ready to breathe new life, both metaphorically and potentially physically, into this world.

It can hardly be said that Beyoncé has ever been anything less than a superstar performer. In terms of sheer singing and dancing ability, no one can dethrone her. What has held Beyoncé back from heaps of critical adoration to complement the praises of the rest of the world, is her often middling music. Occasionally, a song with a glimmer of originality will pop up on a Beyoncé album, but for the most part, each one of them merely serves the goal of showcasing its able-bodied performer while giving the listener something to move to. 4 is a major departure from this formula. While her first three albums often sounded like they were meant to please others, 4, is clearly made to satisfy Beyoncé, first and foremost. The result is her most personal album to date; an album that revels in its relaxed grooves but is totally unafraid to push musical boundaries that a pop-star of a lesser status could not even attempt. With the amount of success that she has had in her career, Beyoncé has nothing to prove to anyone anymore and so she allows herself to dig deeper, her voice to get gruffer, and her influences to span greater distances.

The majority of 4 consists of mid-tempo pieces, but unlike the filler that might have occupied this pacing on previous albums, many of this album’s greatest strengths lie in this realm. Perhaps best exemplifying this spirit is the André 3000 and Kanye West assisted, “Party,” in which Beyoncé relaxes into a beat that, while not be easy to grind to, still works perfectly as a party anthem. Beyoncé reminds us that a party is not only meant for dancing. It is a place where you go to enjoy the company of others and often times, that involves real human conversation and interaction. Echoing this sentiment, André’s verse is tranquilized from his customarily rapid-fire delivery to a drawl more reminiscent of Lil’ Wayne than his traditional work with Outkast. “Party,” like much of 4, is a conversation, and André 3000 wants to be heard. “Love On Top” employs a similar pacing, though tonally, this track reminds one more immediately of Michael and Janet Jackson, as well as Stevie Wonder. This effervescent throwback escapes corniness by reveling in its pure joy and as such, it becomes one of the highlights of the album. The numerous key changes that flood the end of the song could seem masturbatory, but Beyoncé isn’t proving that she can sing as high as Mariah or Whitney because we already trust her to. It is energy and not ego that drives the constantly rising progression.

4 will likely be criticized for its lack of immediate singles and danceable tracks but while there are an awful lot of ballads to be found, those willing to look past this initial disappointment will find that many of these potentially dismissed songs are among the album’s strongest tracks. Opener “1+1″ might be the crown jewel of the bunch in its own Prince meets Slash sort of way. Opening the album with such a confessional piece of R&B is a stroke of genius as it immediately alerts the listener that s/he will not be receiving the usual Beyoncé treatment. Both “I Miss You,” and “Start Over” will earn deserved spots in the Beyoncé pantheon once fans take the time to grow attached to them. Even the place-fillers such as the nearly Vanessa Carlton-esque single “Best Thing I Never Had,” are vastly superior to the majority of the trash being churned out by Beyoncé’s peers. Unfortunately, not all of these ballads do work and sadly, the Diane Warren penned, “I Was Here,” is the sour apple of the bunch. It is the only moment on the album that feels false and perhaps not coincidentally, it is the only song not co-written by Beyoncé herself.

So much talk of tempo and expectation must not overshadow the greatest triumph that 4 has to offer: progression. After 4 threatens to become syrupy, “Love On Top,” comes along to pep the mood up before bursting into “Countdown,” arguably the most experimental song that Beyoncé has ever been a part of. The lead-off to the verse features a tonal progression that cannot be followed lazily and the vocals laid on top of such an audacious piece of composition are skillful and assured. The minimalistic synth that appears next may sound a bit familiar, but even if only for a few measures, Beyoncé is touching new ground here. “End of Time” follows by revisiting the kind of girl-power territory that she found more often with Destiny’s Child, but this time around, the Fela Kuti inspired track is crisper, more tightly wound, and brimming with confidence that feels natural in a way that Beyoncé has never showcased before.

Bookending 4 with “1+1″ and the tenacious, though eventually tedious, “Run the World (Girls)” seems to demonstrate a lack of musical consistency; but such squabbles are more than compensated for by the thematic commonality that is imbued in each track. Beyoncé Knowles is growing up and she wants you to know it. Her voice is the best it has ever been. Her music is the best it has ever been. She looks the best she ever has. With so many accomplishments evident on what she is so keen to remind us is only her fourth solo album, it would seem that all Beyoncé wants now is to lay back, enjoy a mid-tempo groove with her husband, and maybe, if this critic is not reading a bit too deeply, start a family of her own.

http://onethirtybpm.com/reviews/album-review-beyonce-4/

RATING: 85/100

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DG1

Quote:

Originally posted by KanYe!

One of my friends knows someone who works at onethirtybpm (which counts on metacritic) and said to expect an 85% for 4

idk if I was supposed to say that though

I think the review comes out today lol

U were right

Sept

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

They have good taste

Barbarella

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

DG1

Looking at the scores this will be Beyonce's most critically acclaimed album...

Kisuke

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Looking at the scores this will be Beyonce's most critically acclaimed album...

fitting using a gif of grammy night.

BeamMeUp

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

A 0?

I hate reviews like that, so unprofessional!

BeamMeUp

Quote:

Beyoncé is one of the only remaining worldwide sensations, a diva who has more than earned her mononomial recognition; to underestimate her is to appear sour or stupid, or both.

TonyBee9119

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/beyonce-4

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-re...-gaga-born-way

I just ....

Jeze

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Looking at the scores this will be Beyonce's most critically acclaimed album...

Album Of The Year !

BeamMeUp

It's too early guys...

Jeze

Quote:

Originally posted by DG1

Tiny Mixtapes gave GaGa a 0/5 and Bey a 4/5

0/5

Bey 4/5