4

Now I'm not the biggest Beyonce fan, but there are a few songs of hers that I like, which is why I purchased her 3 previous albums. I must say that B-Day and I Am... Sasha Fierce disappointed me greatly. Those albums were much too immature for me considering that they both succeeded Dangerously in Love, which was a decent R&B album (not 5-6 Grammys worthy, but that's another subject altogether).

It seemed that Beyonce's only concern with her last 2 efforts was to cross over to the MTV audience and ditch the urban fanbase that supported her since the VERY beginning when she was still making music with LaTavia, Letoya, Master P, Scarface, Silkk tha Shocker, etc. And she succeeded in her endeavor, releasing pop-worthy singles while both albums contained nothing but filler music.

When I initially heard "Run the World (Girls)", my gag-reflex kicked into high gear. Here I was thinking, "Okay, Beyonce, you're 30 years old, you're married, you're a successful GROWN ASS WOMAN, why in the WORLD are you singing a song that was clearly written for Willow Smith?"

"Run the World (Girls)" is an extremely immature song and it seemed the mass population in America agreed with me. The song peaked at 29 on the Billboard charts before plummeting somewhere unknown. Even with the Sasha Fierce-reject video of her and her background dancers as sexy (skanky) Nazis didn't wow the American audience (Beyonce: we get it! You look great in a leotard! Now ditch it already! You say you're the Queen of ALL music, Queens are supposed to be able to re-invent themselves with each new album. You're recycling Sasha from 2008. Give us something new!).

I began to think that Beyonce's reign was starting to dwindle. Her fans have grown. Most of her fans since the late 90s are FULLY grown. If Beyonce's (supposedly) final album is anything like "Girls", then her time in the music business will definitely cease. Simple fact: grown people want to listen to "grown folks music" with a more mature subject matter. Is it possible for adult artists nowadays to create mature music as they mature as well? (Heck, even Usher reverted back to more pop-filler garbage in order to satisfy the mass public who happens to be tweens, since they're the ones consuming today's mess of music.)

Then Beyonce released "1+1" as a promotional single. To be honest, I didn't care for it at first because I thought that it was pretty boring. However, I watched the video Jay-Z posted on his website showing Beyonce singing the song acapella on the night she was supposed to perform on American Idol. Her voice was nothing short of beautiful, which prompted me to listen to the song again. I fell in love with it.

However I was still apprehensive about purchasing this album because of "Girls", but I downloaded it anyway. I must say that Beyonce sounds WAY more mature...more mature than she has ever sounded since her last 2 albums. It has an old school 90s feel to it and I LOVE that since all I've been listening to is 90s R&B due to the crap that's on the radio today. The majority of her fanbase aren't going to be pleased with Beyonce's latest effort because there isn't any ass-shaking songs on here. Her fanbase will not be able to relate to the majority of the songs because Beyonce is presenting today's youth with a sound they're not very familiar with.

I am VERY thankful for that! I mean, who really wants to listen to "Single Ladies" repeatedly within the span of an hour? It's headache-inducing!

I'll rate the songs 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent.

1. "1+1": 3 1/2. It had to grow on me, but when it did I fell in love with it. The lyrics are a bit cryptic, which reminds me of "Halo", but that's what I like about this song. I heard both versions from Beyonce, and the one from The-Dream (who wrote it), but I prefer Beyonce's version better (even though nothing really changed) due to Beyonce's superior vocal ability.

2. "I Care": 3. It seems a bit to filler, especially with the "la, la, la, la, la" and repetitive. Nothing spectacular really stands out to me with this song.

3. "Miss You": 4. Even though it's not even 3 minutes long, Beyonce shares her pain with her audience of a love gone astray. And the song ends perfectly with just the instrumental fading out. It gives a feeling of whether she'll reunite with the one she loves or forever live with the pain of not having him. (At least it did for me, lol.)

4. "Best Thing I Never Had": 3. I'm highly disappointed in Babyface (who wrote and composed this song), since I dubbed him, "The King of Urban Music". Anyone who's familiar with Babyface's catalog is fully aware of the master artistry he creates with music. However, Babyface failed to deliver with this song. Both artists could've done better with this song. While I understand the message, it just doesn't do it for me. And for Babyface (who I hold in an EXTREMELY high regard) to put his stamp of approval on it disappoints me. This song is only...okay. And "okay" isn't good enough for Babyface.

5. "Party" featuring Andre 3000: 5. This Kanye-produced track is one of my favorite songs on the album and an excellent standout! Andre 3000 is Beyonce's only featured artist and he delivers (like always).

"Kiddo say he looks up to me, this just makes me feel old
Never thought that we could become someone else's hero
Man, we were just in the food court, eating our gyro"

My favorite line from Andre because it gives me a nostalgic feeling from the humble beginnings of the 90s from both artists to what they've become today. And the production has a 90s sound to it as well. Kanye did great with this track. In fact, every artist present shined on this song. Now if Beyonce would've released this as the lead single, who knows what would've happened? Nevertheless, Beyonce still has time to rectify her mistake with "Girls" and release this song. It would be an intelligent move on her management team. Beyonce, if you're reading this: do it!

6. "Rather Die Young" 4: I like to call this song, "an ode to Jay" because that's exactly what it is, and there's nothing wrong with that. Every woman who's ever had amorous feelings for another man can relate to this track, especially with the opening lines,

"Boy you'll be the death of me
You're my James Dean
You make me feel like I'm seventeen"

That single quote took me back to my high school years when I feel for a guy who was nothing but trouble for me. Sometimes Beyonce overdoes it with her vocals, but the message is strong. I can't give it a 5, but this song deserves nothing less than a 4.

7. "Start Over": 5. Another standout track from this album. The harmonies Beyonce shares with her backup singers are breathtakingly beautiful. This song was on repeat so much, I fail to understand how I even manage to finish listening to the entire album. This song succeeds anything Beyonce has done in the past (in my opinion) because she sounds so MATURE (something we haven't heard from her in a LONG time), so passionate in the lyrics. I felt her desperation to salvage the broken relationship she's in with her guy. This song is single-worthy, but I wonder how today's music consumers will react to it?

8. "Love on Top": 4. More "classic" Beyonce. It's a fun, upbeat song that I believe her fanbase will appreciate. I find myself playing this song whenever I take my morning jogs just because of the sheer energy it exudes. I can picture Beyonce's team releasing this song as a single, but in my opinion it's best to remain on the album.

9. "Countdown": 5. Another "classic" Beyonce song that her fanbase will appreciate. It's fun, catchy, and clever. In 10 counts Beyonce tells her audience of the love she shares with her man. Normally this type of song is something I wouldn't listen to, but Beyonce delivers in such a fun way that I couldn't help but to pay attention.

10. "End of Time": 3 1/2. Beyonce satisfies her fans with yet another track they'll appreciate. Honestly it's an okay song, I really like the production of it. I'm a sucker for songs that have that "marching band sound" to it.

11. "I Was Here": 4. Beyonce teamed up with Diane Warren for this angst-y track where she basically tells her audience her time as an entertainer is ending (something I predicted anyway with her album title, so I wasn't surprised in the least). Beyonce has finally made her mark on the world and she'll never be forgotten. This song should've been the album's closer, yet we had THIS song to close it...

12. "Run the World (Girls)": 1. I won't waste time writing a review since I already stated how I felt in the above paragraphs. But I do have a question: How did this song make it to the final cut for the album, anyway?

All in all, my rating on this album is 3 1/2 stars. It's decent and more mature-sounding. Something that I can vibe with and reminisce about the great music of the 90s due to it's old school feel. I wish I could've given it a 4 (just like the title, lol) but the few filler tracks and that atrocious "Girls" knocked it down from a 4 to a 3 1/2.

I normally don't give reviews, but I felt that I had to on this one. If you managed to read everything I had to say, thank you for taking time out of your day to do so. And forgive any grammatical errors I have made. It's still early, lol.

I love this album! She made a record for herself. It was time for Beyonce: The Person to step forward. The result is a shape-shifting piece of musical work for Beyonce. It also sets out its vision as a radical sidestep from the era-defining club and pop hits of Destiny's Child. It is filled with 3 platinum-plated ballads to mid-tempos. She toured the world and it opened her up to the possibiilities of new genres and the magnitude of the festival experience. She had started looking beyond stadiums, watching Linkin Park and Muse and Rage Against the Machine whip up their adoring fans in different ways than Pop music intuits. She then started thinking about the possibility of re-writing her place in musical history. Her musical maturation is almost complete. Her personal ethics and work methodology stretch even further. This album is going to be successful like her previous albums.

BB with out a doubt has talent but her talent certainly does not reflect total focus in her music only frustration and lost of aggression and confusion. I must say that her vocals are horrible now and I can understand why she is half naked and striper pole dancing all over TV , because she simply does not have what it takes to be the best at what she started out doing... Now instead of trying to out sing Latoya, Mechelle and Kelly she is not trying to out sing the world and by YELLING abd Riffing all out of control, she is simply smashing herself into a brick wall of VERY DISAPPOINTED LISTENERS.. Somebody please give that girl some advice and tell her to slow down calm down and just sing pretty like you use to.

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