| |
Celeb News: '4' Review Thread (74 on Metacritic)
Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 9,162
|
As much as I love RTW, I can't help but think that she would be getting perfect scores if it weren't on there. That seems to be most of the critics gripe w/ the album.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/2/2010
Posts: 17,951
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Beyond Say
As much as I love RTW, I can't help but think that she would be getting perfect scores if it weren't on there. That seems to be most of the critics gripe w/ the album.
|
Closing with Schoolin' Life would have been more in line with the sound of the album. But I can't do without RTW after seeing it live.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/25/2001
Posts: 26,816
|
From TIME
Quote:
|
Beyoncé's '4' Muddles Its Message
When you listen to Beyoncé, try not to focus on her lyrics.
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” is jubilant dancehall pop at its finest, but the actual message—that she “cried [her] tears for three good years” because the man she was with didn't propose—sounds like something my grandmother would have supported. (Apparently Beyoncé has forgotten the lyrics to “Independent Woman” parts I and II from her Destiny's Child days, the latter of which preaches “No falling in love / no commitment from me.”)
In fact, Beyoncé's catalog includes a slew of seemingly empowering anthems for women that, when examined, don't actually empower anyone at all.
“Ring the Alarm,” her 2006 f-you to cheating men, is actually about a woman who's more worried about losing her chinchilla coats and beachfront property than her relationship.
And now her new album, 4, includes a thundering Major Lazer-sampling Girl Power-esque boot camp number called “Run the World (Girls)” that's about, well, how girls run the world.
There's only one problem.
Girls don't run the world. The week that I first heard this song was also the same week that I read about this summer's **** Walks, allegations that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have used mass rapes as a war tactic, and that two former New York City police officers were acquitted of raping a woman, even though one of them had been caught on tape telling the alleged victim that he used a condom.
I'm not saying that Beyoncé needs to perform songs about human rights. It's just difficult to read the news and then turn around and listen to a song in which someone hollers “Who run the world? Girls!” over and over.
It's hard to know what Beyoncé really thinks about this; she's a famously inaccessible pop star.
In interviews, she gives bland, seemingly prepared answers and often refuses to talk about her personal life. “I know you don't want lots of personal questions, like ‘How's it going?'” Barbara Walters joked when Beyoncé appeared on The View last November and bristled at a question about her husband, Jay-Z. The most revealing anecdote she offered during the entire interview was that she loves her body but still wears Spanx.
The new album 4 is similarly veiled.
Oh, there are love songs, un-love songs, and songs about heartache. The opening track “1 + 1” is probably the finest ballad Beyoncé has delivered in years (If you haven't already seen the backstage rehearsal video Jay-Z posted, you should watch it) and the “End of Time” is just screaming to be covered by an earnest high school a capella group and posted to YouTube.
But that's all the album offers: well-executed songs performed by a talented woman who refuses to scratch anything more than the surface.
Beyoncé is good at four things: singing, dancing in high heels, avoiding questions about Jay-Z and crafting superb pop songs with either hypocritical or meaningless messages.
“Run the World (Girls)” is probably supposed to be a feel-good song and not a political statement. But you can't just declare “Nobody's Poor!” and pretend that it's true.
|
Damn they were harsh. 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/1/2010
Posts: 65,177
|
Luckily, that one doesn't count on Metacritc because ch... 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/2/2010
Posts: 517
|
Pitchfork review of '4' >>>>>>>>>>>>
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/2/2010
Posts: 17,951
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Cap10Planet
Luckily, that one doesn't count on Metacritc because ch... |
!!!
After reading it yesterday, I rushed to Meta quick to double check! 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 7/19/2009
Posts: 16,809
|
 Is it bad that she doesn't want to talk about her personal life? I cannot. But it doesn't count.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 11/21/2010
Posts: 3,809
|
LOL@ TIME. A bunch of bitter old cynical uptight bitches.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
|
Quote:
Originally posted by TonyBee9119
|
Girl stop that gif...
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Rainbows
From TIME
Damn they were harsh. |
Don't count 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 6,399
|
Quote:
Originally posted by BeamMeUp
|
Boy, did they clock her haters' tea or what? 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
|
ALL MUSIC - Beyoncé "4" Album REVIEW:
Beyoncé reportedly delivered over 70 songs to Columbia for her fourth solo studio album. The dozen that made the cut, combined with their sequencing, make it plain that straightforward crossover-dance singles and cohesion were not priorities. Taking it in at once is mystifying, even when little attention is paid to the lyrics. The opening “1+1,” a sparse and placid vocal showcase, fades in with a somber guitar line, throws up occasional and brief spikes in energy, and slowly recedes. It’s the kind of song one would expect to hear during an album’s second half, certainly not as the opener -- not with the (fittingly) slight sonics and heavy lines like “Just when I ball up my fist, I realize I’m laying right next to you, baby.” Three additional ballads follow. Each one features its own set of collaborators and contrasts both sonically and lyrically. “I Care” rolls in on pensive percussion and low-profile synthesizer drones, surging during a cathartic chorus. “I Miss You,” alluringly bleak and hushed, is a codependent confessional. The only one that’s rote, “Best Thing I Never Had” is a bombastic kiss-off saved by Beyoncé’s ability to plow through it. From there, the album restlessly bounces between tempos and moods: a desperate midtempo chest thumper, a couple cyborg marching-band dancefloor tracks, an ecstatic early-‘90s throwback, yet more ballads. What’s most surprising is that a song titled “Party,” co-produced by Kanye West with a guest verse from André 3000, quickly settles into a low-watt groove and remains there. Wildcard interludes and a Euro-pop party-anthem cash-in would be the only ways to make the album more scattered, but the strength of most of the material, propelled by Beyoncé’s characteristically acrobatic vocal skills, eases the trouble of sifting through the disjointed assortment. No one but one of the most talented and accomplished singers -- one with 16 Grammys, nothing left to prove, and every desired collaborator at her disposal -- could have made this album.
RATING: 3.5/5; 70/100
http://www.allmusic.com/album/4-r2213783/review
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 6,399
|
Quote:
|
No one but one of the most talented and accomplished singers -- one with 16 Grammys, nothing left to prove, and every desired collaborator at her disposal -- could have made this album.
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/23/2010
Posts: 16,089
|
Really DG1, I don't know if I already thanked you but you're really doing a fantastic job!
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/2/2010
Posts: 17,951
|
There's so many 80s that have yet to be added to Metacritic 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/23/2010
Posts: 16,089
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Rainbows
From TIME
Damn they were harsh. |
As long as they praise 1+1, I'm okay. Plus the review shouldn't even be taken seriously, the way she acts on interviews and her personal life should not be judged when analyzing her music.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 11/21/2010
Posts: 3,809
|
Quote:
Originally posted by DG1
Looking at the scores this will be Beyonce's most critically acclaimed album...
 |
So already with the scores in now, it already is her most critically acclaimed right??
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Chemist
if Tiny Mix reviews this |
They did
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/4/2011
Posts: 2,385
|
Quote:
Originally posted by DG1
ALL MUSIC - Beyoncé "4" Album REVIEW:
Beyoncé reportedly delivered over 70 songs to Columbia for her fourth solo studio album. The dozen that made the cut, combined with their sequencing, make it plain that straightforward crossover-dance singles and cohesion were not priorities. Taking it in at once is mystifying, even when little attention is paid to the lyrics. The opening “1+1,” a sparse and placid vocal showcase, fades in with a somber guitar line, throws up occasional and brief spikes in energy, and slowly recedes. It’s the kind of song one would expect to hear during an album’s second half, certainly not as the opener -- not with the (fittingly) slight sonics and heavy lines like “Just when I ball up my fist, I realize I’m laying right next to you, baby.” Three additional ballads follow. Each one features its own set of collaborators and contrasts both sonically and lyrically. “I Care” rolls in on pensive percussion and low-profile synthesizer drones, surging during a cathartic chorus. “I Miss You,” alluringly bleak and hushed, is a codependent confessional. The only one that’s rote, “Best Thing I Never Had” is a bombastic kiss-off saved by Beyoncé’s ability to plow through it. From there, the album restlessly bounces between tempos and moods: a desperate midtempo chest thumper, a couple cyborg marching-band dancefloor tracks, an ecstatic early-‘90s throwback, yet more ballads. What’s most surprising is that a song titled “Party,” co-produced by Kanye West with a guest verse from André 3000, quickly settles into a low-watt groove and remains there. Wildcard interludes and a Euro-pop party-anthem cash-in would be the only ways to make the album more scattered, but the strength of most of the material, propelled by Beyoncé’s characteristically acrobatic vocal skills, eases the trouble of sifting through the disjointed assortment. No one but one of the most talented and accomplished singers -- one with 16 Grammys, nothing left to prove, and every desired collaborator at her disposal -- could have made this album.
RATING: 3.5/5; 70/100
http://www.allmusic.com/album/4-r2213783/review
|
I don't see any review in the link 
|
|
|
|
|
|
