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Celeb News: 'BEYONCÉ' - Universal Acclaim on MetaCritic (86)
Member Since: 8/25/2012
Posts: 30,317
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Quote:
Originally posted by ianBK4
Clash Music Review: Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Surpasses the expected to deliver the extraordinary...
TThe pop album’s taken a beating by technology. It used to be that progression in the field enabled the furthering of music, facilitated creative evolution – but today’s digital culture has dissected the catalogues of pop’s greatest into compressed files, into bite-size samples. Ashes riding the westerlies, scattered shorn of the past’s sleeves-and-credits context.
‘Beyoncé’ defiantly rebels against type. The visual side of this project is just one way of encouraging a deeper exploration of the themes circulating the singer’s fifth studio collection. The presentation of videos for every album track is nothing new –Liars and Beck are just two acts to have done the same previously, for the albums ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ and ‘The Information’ respectively – but Beyoncé’s high-budget clips comprise something akin to a modern Moonwalker, albeit mercifully without any attempt to bind them narratively.
But it’s not just this contemporary, multimedia aspect that guarantees ‘Beyoncé’ is an album to enjoy from its opening comments on aspirations to its closing sample of Blue Ivy (who earns a ‘featuring’ credit) speaking to her mummy – sorry, hermommy. It’s also a brilliant record on its own, exclusively-in-your-ears terms. Produced and penned by what can only be considered a dream team of talents including Timbaland, The-Dream, Noah ‘40’ Shebib, Pharrell Williams and newcomer Boots – whose maximal minimalism lends ‘Beyoncé’ much of its textural appeal, low-end bumps balanced with bright top lines – it’s the sort of set that bottles lightning and proceeds to split every one of its billions of atoms.
Tracks like ‘Drunk In Love’ – featuring Jay Z, who’s a lot more fired up here than he sounded when guesting on Drake’s ‘Nothing Was The Same’ (review), drawing a parallel between himself and Ike Turner and ‘complaining’ about breasts in his breakfast – and ‘Flawless’ are very much of their time, this time. Their production is spiked enough to intoxicate listeners by the millions, and on the latter Beyoncé channels her feminist attitude in strikingly aggressive fashion: “Bow down, bitches,” she commands, before stating, “Don’t think I’m just his little wife… Don’t get it twisted.” At no point, despite the abundance of contributors, is this anything other than a Beyoncé Knowles album. Her personality pervades every second.
Elsewhere, there are more retro-flavoured arrangements. ‘Rocket’ is an explicit slow jam with more than a passing resemblance to a Prince (in his funky prime) track, a co-writer credit for Miguel coming as little surprise based on the sound showcased. ‘Blow’ is comparably throwback of tone, but with a more distinct disco edge – it’s one of two numbers featuring writing from Pharrell, the other being the sauntering-of-swing Frank Ocean-starring ‘Superpower’, a doo-wop anthem to blissful monogamy.
When Beyoncé truly unleashes her vocals on ballad-tempo moments ‘Heaven’ and ‘Jealous’, she immediately casts long shadows over singers who might have tried to shift her from the top table of pop during her maternity leave. Her power and control is breathtaking. The further she gets from the Destiny’s Child days, the clearer it becomes just why it was Beyoncé, over Kelly and Michelle, who truly conquered the global stage. Whatever the track, whatever the mood, Beyoncé can adapt to it. On ‘Mine’ she’s right by your ear, a relative whisper; next, come ‘XO’, she’s piloting one of the more affecting love-themed songs to have navigated pop’s turbulence this side of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.
While ‘Beyoncé’ does feature darkness – there are references to a period of postnatal depression – and some quite brazen descriptions of sexual shenanigans (keep it in your pants, #lads), it’s also very much an album of love. Less about love – anyone can sing songs about love. Hollow words, spoken coldly. More that this is made from the position of being besotted – with husband (‘Drunk In Love’), with daughter (listen to ‘Blue’ and gently melt), with life. Frequently, the pure joy of being in this situation is heard in Beyoncé’s voice. It’s infectious stuff, too – play this record on the journey home to your partner and who knows what might happen when you step through the door.
So, let the guitar bores keep their ‘real music’, because they’re missing the point entirely. It’s not albums like ‘BE’, or whatever the new one from Jake Bugg is called, which will ensure the survival of the album format, recycling as they do the past with scant appreciation for 21st century audiences. It’s musicians like those who’ve shaped this collection who hold the album’s future in their hands, musicians who can breach their supposed comfort zones while retaining both self-confidence and quality control. Musicians who can reflect trends and take the mirrored images for themselves, changed and unique yet familiar enough to click instantly; who can see beyond the expected, embrace cultural and technological possibilities, and realise the extraordinary.
‘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 – it’s just so easy to hear, to feel, whether you’ve a dozen LPs in your personal collection or several thousand, whatever your own frame of reference. Bloody shame, then, that it came out too late to factor in Clash’s top 40 of the year.
RATING: 9/10; 90/100 on MetaCritic
http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/beyonce-beyonce |
What a great review 
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When Beyoncé truly unleashes her vocals on ballad-tempo moments ‘Heaven’ and ‘Jealous’, she immediately casts long shadows over singers who might have tried to shift her from the top table of pop during her maternity leave. Her power and control is breathtaking.
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Heaven vocals are indeed breathtaking.
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Member Since: 6/25/2011
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That Clash review is stellar!
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Member Since: 1/7/2012
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Originally posted by ianBK4
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Weak review imo. They didn't go past sexsuality and that's less than half songs and even less % of themes present on BEYONCÉ.
But I like this line
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Turns out, 2013’s pop wars were a whole lot of stage smoke. Watch the throne.
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Member Since: 9/16/2011
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I want this to climb to 87 before it's done. But still 86 is OUTSTANDING for a pop girl.
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Member Since: 11/30/2011
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Quote:
Originally posted by ianBK4
Clash Music Review: Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Surpasses the expected to deliver the extraordinary...
TThe pop album’s taken a beating by technology. It used to be that progression in the field enabled the furthering of music, facilitated creative evolution – but today’s digital culture has dissected the catalogues of pop’s greatest into compressed files, into bite-size samples. Ashes riding the westerlies, scattered shorn of the past’s sleeves-and-credits context.
‘Beyoncé’ defiantly rebels against type. The visual side of this project is just one way of encouraging a deeper exploration of the themes circulating the singer’s fifth studio collection. The presentation of videos for every album track is nothing new –Liars and Beck are just two acts to have done the same previously, for the albums ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ and ‘The Information’ respectively – but Beyoncé’s high-budget clips comprise something akin to a modern Moonwalker, albeit mercifully without any attempt to bind them narratively.
But it’s not just this contemporary, multimedia aspect that guarantees ‘Beyoncé’ is an album to enjoy from its opening comments on aspirations to its closing sample of Blue Ivy (who earns a ‘featuring’ credit) speaking to her mummy – sorry, hermommy. It’s also a brilliant record on its own, exclusively-in-your-ears terms. Produced and penned by what can only be considered a dream team of talents including Timbaland, The-Dream, Noah ‘40’ Shebib, Pharrell Williams and newcomer Boots – whose maximal minimalism lends ‘Beyoncé’ much of its textural appeal, low-end bumps balanced with bright top lines – it’s the sort of set that bottles lightning and proceeds to split every one of its billions of atoms.
Tracks like ‘Drunk In Love’ – featuring Jay Z, who’s a lot more fired up here than he sounded when guesting on Drake’s ‘Nothing Was The Same’ (review), drawing a parallel between himself and Ike Turner and ‘complaining’ about breasts in his breakfast – and ‘Flawless’ are very much of their time, this time. Their production is spiked enough to intoxicate listeners by the millions, and on the latter Beyoncé channels her feminist attitude in strikingly aggressive fashion: “Bow down, bitches,” she commands, before stating, “Don’t think I’m just his little wife… Don’t get it twisted.” At no point, despite the abundance of contributors, is this anything other than a Beyoncé Knowles album. Her personality pervades every second.
Elsewhere, there are more retro-flavoured arrangements. ‘Rocket’ is an explicit slow jam with more than a passing resemblance to a Prince (in his funky prime) track, a co-writer credit for Miguel coming as little surprise based on the sound showcased. ‘Blow’ is comparably throwback of tone, but with a more distinct disco edge – it’s one of two numbers featuring writing from Pharrell, the other being the sauntering-of-swing Frank Ocean-starring ‘Superpower’, a doo-wop anthem to blissful monogamy.
When Beyoncé truly unleashes her vocals on ballad-tempo moments ‘Heaven’ and ‘Jealous’, she immediately casts long shadows over singers who might have tried to shift her from the top table of pop during her maternity leave. Her power and control is breathtaking. The further she gets from the Destiny’s Child days, the clearer it becomes just why it was Beyoncé, over Kelly and Michelle, who truly conquered the global stage. Whatever the track, whatever the mood, Beyoncé can adapt to it. On ‘Mine’ she’s right by your ear, a relative whisper; next, come ‘XO’, she’s piloting one of the more affecting love-themed songs to have navigated pop’s turbulence this side of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.
While ‘Beyoncé’ does feature darkness – there are references to a period of postnatal depression – and some quite brazen descriptions of sexual shenanigans (keep it in your pants, #lads), it’s also very much an album of love. Less about love – anyone can sing songs about love. Hollow words, spoken coldly. More that this is made from the position of being besotted – with husband (‘Drunk In Love’), with daughter (listen to ‘Blue’ and gently melt), with life. Frequently, the pure joy of being in this situation is heard in Beyoncé’s voice. It’s infectious stuff, too – play this record on the journey home to your partner and who knows what might happen when you step through the door.
So, let the guitar bores keep their ‘real music’, because they’re missing the point entirely. It’s not albums like ‘BE’, or whatever the new one from Jake Bugg is called, which will ensure the survival of the album format, recycling as they do the past with scant appreciation for 21st century audiences. It’s musicians like those who’ve shaped this collection who hold the album’s future in their hands, musicians who can breach their supposed comfort zones while retaining both self-confidence and quality control. Musicians who can reflect trends and take the mirrored images for themselves, changed and unique yet familiar enough to click instantly; who can see beyond the expected, embrace cultural and technological possibilities, and realise the extraordinary.
‘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 – it’s just so easy to hear, to feel, whether you’ve a dozen LPs in your personal collection or several thousand, whatever your own frame of reference. Bloody shame, then, that it came out too late to factor in Clash’s top 40 of the year.
RATING: 9/10; 90/100 on MetaCritic
http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/beyonce-beyonce |
 The acclaim.
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Member Since: 8/23/2010
Posts: 16,089
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Quote:
Originally posted by ianBK4
Clash Music Review: Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Surpasses the expected to deliver the extraordinary...
TThe pop album’s taken a beating by technology. It used to be that progression in the field enabled the furthering of music, facilitated creative evolution – but today’s digital culture has dissected the catalogues of pop’s greatest into compressed files, into bite-size samples. Ashes riding the westerlies, scattered shorn of the past’s sleeves-and-credits context.
‘Beyoncé’ defiantly rebels against type. The visual side of this project is just one way of encouraging a deeper exploration of the themes circulating the singer’s fifth studio collection. The presentation of videos for every album track is nothing new –Liars and Beck are just two acts to have done the same previously, for the albums ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ and ‘The Information’ respectively – but Beyoncé’s high-budget clips comprise something akin to a modern Moonwalker, albeit mercifully without any attempt to bind them narratively.
But it’s not just this contemporary, multimedia aspect that guarantees ‘Beyoncé’ is an album to enjoy from its opening comments on aspirations to its closing sample of Blue Ivy (who earns a ‘featuring’ credit) speaking to her mummy – sorry, hermommy. It’s also a brilliant record on its own, exclusively-in-your-ears terms. Produced and penned by what can only be considered a dream team of talents including Timbaland, The-Dream, Noah ‘40’ Shebib, Pharrell Williams and newcomer Boots – whose maximal minimalism lends ‘Beyoncé’ much of its textural appeal, low-end bumps balanced with bright top lines – it’s the sort of set that bottles lightning and proceeds to split every one of its billions of atoms.
Tracks like ‘Drunk In Love’ – featuring Jay Z, who’s a lot more fired up here than he sounded when guesting on Drake’s ‘Nothing Was The Same’ (review), drawing a parallel between himself and Ike Turner and ‘complaining’ about breasts in his breakfast – and ‘Flawless’ are very much of their time, this time. Their production is spiked enough to intoxicate listeners by the millions, and on the latter Beyoncé channels her feminist attitude in strikingly aggressive fashion: “Bow down, bitches,” she commands, before stating, “Don’t think I’m just his little wife… Don’t get it twisted.” At no point, despite the abundance of contributors, is this anything other than a Beyoncé Knowles album. Her personality pervades every second.
Elsewhere, there are more retro-flavoured arrangements. ‘Rocket’ is an explicit slow jam with more than a passing resemblance to a Prince (in his funky prime) track, a co-writer credit for Miguel coming as little surprise based on the sound showcased. ‘Blow’ is comparably throwback of tone, but with a more distinct disco edge – it’s one of two numbers featuring writing from Pharrell, the other being the sauntering-of-swing Frank Ocean-starring ‘Superpower’, a doo-wop anthem to blissful monogamy.
When Beyoncé truly unleashes her vocals on ballad-tempo moments ‘Heaven’ and ‘Jealous’, she immediately casts long shadows over singers who might have tried to shift her from the top table of pop during her maternity leave . Her power and control is breathtaking. The further she gets from the Destiny’s Child days, the clearer it becomes just why it was Beyoncé, over Kelly and Michelle, who truly conquered the global stage. Whatever the track, whatever the mood, Beyoncé can adapt to it. On ‘Mine’ she’s right by your ear, a relative whisper; next, come ‘XO’, she’s piloting one of the more affecting love-themed songs to have navigated pop’s turbulence this side of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.
While ‘Beyoncé’ does feature darkness – there are references to a period of postnatal depression – and some quite brazen descriptions of sexual shenanigans (keep it in your pants, #lads), it’s also very much an album of love. Less about love – anyone can sing songs about love. Hollow words, spoken coldly. More that this is made from the position of being besotted – with husband (‘Drunk In Love’), with daughter (listen to ‘Blue’ and gently melt), with life. Frequently, the pure joy of being in this situation is heard in Beyoncé’s voice. It’s infectious stuff, too – play this record on the journey home to your partner and who knows what might happen when you step through the door.
So, let the guitar bores keep their ‘real music’, because they’re missing the point entirely. It’s not albums like ‘BE’, or whatever the new one from Jake Bugg is called, which will ensure the survival of the album format, recycling as they do the past with scant appreciation for 21st century audiences. It’s musicians like those who’ve shaped this collection who hold the album’s future in their hands, musicians who can breach their supposed comfort zones while retaining both self-confidence and quality control. Musicians who can reflect trends and take the mirrored images for themselves, changed and unique yet familiar enough to click instantly; who can see beyond the expected, embrace cultural and technological possibilities, and realise the extraordinary.
‘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 – it’s just so easy to hear, to feel, whether you’ve a dozen LPs in your personal collection or several thousand, whatever your own frame of reference. Bloody shame, then, that it came out too late to factor in Clash’s top 40 of the year.
RATING: 9/10; 90/100 on MetaCritic
http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/beyonce-beyonce |
Now that's what you call a positive review, they just get it. Amazing work Queen.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 46,848
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Originally posted by Teezy
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That's lower then it should've gotten IMO
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Member Since: 1/3/2014
Posts: 6,966
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Originally posted by Lethal
That's lower then it should've gotten IMO
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Yeah, after reading the review, it seems like an 8/10 (80 on MC) tbh. But it's not
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Member Since: 1/7/2012
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http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/beyonce/
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And it's weird to hear female empowerment anthems like "Pretty Hurts" and "***Flawless" in the same album that's, well, also very indebted to Beyoncé's sex appeal. It's sort of like saying, "You don't have to be anyone's ideal of beauty, but let me tell you, it's AWESOME to be me."
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Oh look, another man who doesn't want to get it 
Still 86 on Meta
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Member Since: 10/2/2011
Posts: 4,285
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And it's weird to hear female empowerment anthems like "Pretty Hurts" and "***Flawless" in the same album that's, well, also very indebted to Beyoncé's sex appeal. It's sort of like saying, "You don't have to be anyone's ideal of beauty, but let me tell you, it's AWESOME to be me."
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Originally posted by Schoolin' Life
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But he kind of has a point  And I say that as a fan… 
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Member Since: 1/7/2012
Posts: 5,043
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Originally posted by Extra Espresso
But he kind of has a point And I say that as a fan… |
No, the point was not to give a damn about ridiculous standards other put on you and just feel ***Flawless and be proud of who you are. I don't like when people deny Beyoncé right to say things like this just because she's beautiful and successful.
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Member Since: 8/25/2012
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Originally posted by Extra Espresso
But he kind of has a point And I say that as a fan… |
Not really...
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And it's weird to hear female empowerment anthems like "Pretty Hurts" and "***Flawless" in the same album that's, well, also very indebted to Beyoncé's sex appeal. It's sort of like saying, "You don't have to be anyone's ideal of beauty, but let me tell you, it's AWESOME to be me."
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Is being beautiful a fault? Is showing off your body anti-feminist if it's in shape? If she was overweight would he have found it "weird" to see both ***Flawless and Partition on the same album? Somehow I doubt it. He'd call it "brave" probably.
***Flawless
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We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are
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Partition
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Men think that feminists hate sex but it’s an exciting and natural activity that women love
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Member Since: 8/23/2010
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No, she is not saying it's awesome to be me, she is saying all women are flawless with their defaults and insecurities. I don't understand how people don't get this. And the idea that a feminist should be any less of a woman in the expression of her sexuality or the love of herself is just sexist.
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Member Since: 10/2/2011
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Originally posted by Ressti
Not really...Is being beautiful a fault? Is showing off your body anti-feminist if it's in shape? If she was overweight would he have found it "weird" to see both ***Flawless and Partition on the same album? Somehow I doubt it. He'd call it "brave" probably.
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Originally posted by BnPac
No, she is not saying it's awesome to be me, she is saying all women are flawless with their defaults and insecurities. I don't understand how people don't get this. And the idea that a feminist should be any less of a woman in the expression of her sexuality or the love of herself is just sexist.
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Good points. Beauty and to a certain degree, what feminism is, are subjective. We're having the conversation, which is probably her goal with this subject of the album anyways. 
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Member Since: 1/3/2014
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Really long review, but since it's so amazing and accurate I'm going to post the whole thing here.
http://thefourohfive.com/review/article/beyonce-beyonce
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Beyonce's fifth studio album BEYONCÉ was probably not made for you. Beyonce is a black woman living in America-- albeit an incredibly rich, beautiful and powerful one--and on this record, more than any others, she has honed in on her personal experience. BEYONCÉ is a blueprint for the struggle and joy she has experienced, but it is also a repurposing of that blueprint. While it's not for me to say whether the album succeeded as a black feminist work, it's refreshing to see an album with this much cultural cachet be directed firmly at the demographic our nation has historically disenfranchised the most. As a feminist, I found BEYONCÉ to be an uplifting, political text in a year that was particularly bad for women and filled with white artists gleefully appropriating from marginalized cultures. In my estimation, when critically examined, BEYONCÉ functions as a highly successful feminist manifesto.
Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan harps on the idea of the medium itself as the message and Carol Hanisch (infamous beauty pageant protestor) helped postulate that the personal is the political. By turning her own personal life inside out on this album Beyonce funnelled her strongest political statements into one of the year's most anticipated pop albums. That a pop album features this kind of sculpted feminism and unveiled personal intimacy also speaks to the age of social media we live in, the proliferation of information and level of sharing that we now expect from artists. 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. The music of BEYONCÉ is a political text that holds forth on the most important issues in a woman's life by delving into Bey's personal experience with them.
Album opener 'Pretty Hurts' begins Bey's agenda immediately, seeking to readjust America's flawed focus on beauty as a product it can sell to women. Beyonce prods her own success in pageants and their ilk to reveal that praising girls solely for their looks can inflict deep wounds. This spotlights a cultural blind spot: just because society values or praises beauty doesn't mean being praised for it isn't harmful. Bey's critique of societal shallowness goes hand in hand with the self-confidence and body positivity found elsewhere on the album. Even while acknowledging the ways that pageantry, warped body image and female infighting can be harmful to women, Bey is equally unafraid to glory in her own beauty. On the first half of 'Partition' (video form 'Yoncé'), 'Rocket' and '***Flawless' in particular, she revels without any hint of faux-modesty in her physical self. She's been attacked for not being feminist enough--or at least not displaying it correctly--so she gives us Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's lecture as the crux of what's arguably her best song to date '***Flawless.' It doesn't feel like the vaunting of a pop star but the happy, self-assured posturing of a woman. This song advances the kind of self-exaltation and self-acceptance that makes all women feel beautiful, even the ones that don't fit into society's mold or preconceived notions. By owning her own beauty Bey is paving the way for her fans to develop a similar self-love, one that isn't even necessarily focused on what the mirror reflects. Indeed, her assertion (and now a cultural meme and mantra) "I woke up like this" assumes that the speaker is asserting their perfection before even leaving the sheets. In essence, this phrase is the bookend to 'Pretty Hurts' dismissing the entire empire of beauty culture and putting agency back in the hands of barefaced and unkept women existing naturally. Self-assurance apropos nothing but existence--that's the message she's instilling. Once self-knowledge of beauty is laid as a foundation, sexual expression becomes an act that strengthens this confidence instead of serving as a battlefield for power plays in relationships.
Beyonce has never been one to shy away from detailing the struggles of sexual and romantic relationships. She's worried about her partner being an equal ('Upgrade U'), about unfaithfulness despite her superiority ('Irreplaceable') or even the inability of men to comprehend women's feelings in relationships ('If I Were a Boy'). Her songs often felt like they were made to spite men, or at the behest of deep wounds endured at the hands of men. In contrast, BEYONCÉ seems to exist despite men, using them as props in a love affair that's centered on a bigger one: the one she's built with herself. Even though a huge portion of this album revolves around her public relationship with her husband-rapper Jay-Z, her voice is nearly always active, taking control and assuming power. Every song that focuses on sexual pleasure on BEYONCÉ places her at the center of the narrative, she has complete agency in these transactions whether it be her name rolling off tongues, "all on his mouth like liquor" or her riding the 'SERFBORT' on 'Drunk in Love.' She's been criticized for being a sex object so she objectifies herself, projecting a prolific sexual goddess in complete control of her own portrayals. Every action in 'Rocket' is dictated by Bey as she commands her subject to be a prop for her ass to sit on and commands him to watch her striptease--this shift of power changes the whole dynamic of an interaction that traditional reduces the woman to an object providing sexual pleasure for a man. Not only is Beyonce not an object, but her impassioned cry that she feels comfortable in her skin on 'Rocket' encapsulates the desire of every woman made to feel too fat and too ugly--a direct refutation of a society that bombards women with messages that they aren't good enough even in childhood. On 'Blow' Bey's the one returning home to a waiting man and her assertion that she'll "let you be the boss of me" exhibits deep assurance of her usual freedom. In 'No Angel' her partner is "no angel either," the second thought in a comparison that begins with her own ability to transgress standards of purity or celestial perfection. 'Partition' is Bey taunting a male subject for how much she turns him on, and she even turns the most masculine sexual event of *********** into a woman-centric action with "Monica Lewinsky-ed" standing in for more standard descriptions. This language is political in nature, stripping down the expectations we have of women in pop music and rebuilding them with female pleasure and agency at the center. It also portrays a romantic relationship in which women use the physical act of love as a form of agency instead of acting passively as objects during sex.
It's the two split in 'Partition' that hold the crux of the album and emphasize her constantly shifting image reveals a political agenda. Divided into 'Yoncé' and 'Partition' itself, the track begins with a live section in which Bey celebrates her marriage to Jay Z, demanding the audience call her "Mrs. Carter." She ironically named her latest tour "The Mrs. Carter Tour," strange since people know her mononymously and she has absolutely no need for her husband's last name. But referring to herself as "Mrs. Carter" is a political statement, one made by a woman who is honouring herself as part of one of American culture's most famous black married couples. She doesn't deny herself the power that marriage invests in women, but flips it by using her tour name to reveal the very discrepancy that her status as wife comes second to her own empire. The rest of 'Yonce' could be as much a single lady's anthem as 'Single Ladies' itself, as Bey exalts turning heads in the club while rapping a verse that many argue outshines the majority of Jay's latest Magna Carta Holy Grail. Bey melds arias with club beats and gritty, grisly Southern production--she marries the carnal lust of the club with monogamy.
Transitioning into the second half of the track, the ability to be "the girl he likes" is easily contained in the morphing skin of Beyonce, queen chameleon. In the backseat of a car with her husband, she maintains her status as mother, sexual powerhouse and culture-dictating artist in her right all while giving head. She catapults herself out of her very femininity into personhood by positioning female sexuality as a powerful, amorphous construct--one that transcends the female body even while uplifting it. It is this power, the self-bestowed ability to call herself "King" and to reclaim female sexuality with barely a backwards glance at its horrific past that makes BEYONCÉ feel like a tour de force. This isn't a woman exalting herself to become the highest sex object or an egotistical pop princess. This is a woman anointing herself as sexual goddess, she is at once desiring and desired, fulfilled and fulfilling. As Beyonce exists in these multiple realms, flipping through them with uncanny ease, she claims this ability for women as a whole. This record is self-titled in the truest sense of the concept; it is delivered at the height of her career and life and it was stripped of media accoutrement to offer an intimate, even imperfect look at the singer. Offering up her flaws and insecurities in 'Jealous' and 'Haunted' she sheds ****-shaming, the shackled role of uptight matriarch or calculated star. She claims female pleasure as pure and grown, something dominant that can coexist with monogamy and marriage and her own status as an artist. There is no guilt nor fear: Bey never apologizes for her desire for pleasure, not for her power or her desire to please her man.
Because the groundwork of all this has already been laid, the album's crowning track of 'XO' feels like even more of a triumph. There's a reason why 'XO' comes to us couched in warnings of malfunction and tragedy. As far controversy, denying Beyonce the ability to embrace the intertextuality of incorporating a historical recording like the Challenger explosion is an attempt to relegate her art to a lower form of political discourse, one that's not "worthy" of interacting with an event of cultural significance like this. But this is not just a "pop album," it's a woman holding forth on the role of women in our society, how they should approach the nuances of their life and most importantly, how they can choose to value relationships. While most of the album leans personally on her own experience, for this song Beyonce strips away signifiers to provide an almost universal love song. 'XO' demands the listener consider the full spectrum of tragedy and magnificence that life can hold. This ballad is devoid of pronouns or even "romantic" intention--it is a love song in the fullest sense. It's a love song for those who exist outside of a white capitalist patriarchy that's still dominated by those who wish to uphold hetero-normative standards. In the darkest night of hate and intolerance we see impossible love stories conquering what our governments and societies declare is legally "allowed" to be love. 'XO' is a love song for humans, for sisters and friends, lesbian, trans and gay couples. It is for love that transcends the romantic conception of man and woman and stretches out into the impossibilities of the cosmos. It leaves room for failure but hopes for success. It feels like there is no one who the euphoric strains of 'XO' cannot encompass. That isn't just the work of a diva, that is the work of a political figure. The personal is the political.
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Rating: 9/10 ---- 90/100 on Metacritic
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Member Since: 8/25/2012
Posts: 30,317
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Member Since: 6/25/2011
Posts: 28,853
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That review though!
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Member Since: 5/2/2012
Posts: 15,418
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EXCELLENT review. I love the consistency in the reception; the reviews that are coming in now after some time has passed are on par with/better than the reviews that were cranked out the following days/week. It definitely speaks volumes that the ones that are giving fully digested reviews after spending some time with the album and not being still swept up in the initial release excitement feel the same way about the project as the early reviewers. Another impressive thing about the critical reception is this now stands as the 2nd most reviewed and critiqued work behind 4 and she still has such a high average. 86 with 32 reviews and counting is really, really remarkable. If you look at Metacritic's main list of high scorers and hover over each of the titles, you'll see most of those 80-90 something reviewed albums rarely even have more than 5-8 reviews.
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Member Since: 9/1/2013
Posts: 20,022
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***Flawless 
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