BEYONCÉ: 4 (2011)
1) 1 + 1; 2) I Care; 3) I Miss
You; 4) Best Thing I Never Had; 5) Party; 6) Rather Die Young; 7) Start Over;
8) Love On Top; 9) Countdown; 10) End Of Time; 11) I Was Here; 12) Run The
World (Girls); 13) Dreaming; 14) Lay Up Under Me; 15) Schoolin' Life; 16) Dance
For You.
Beyoncé Knowles may be dumb, but she's not
stupid. Or vice versa. Whatever. In 2010, she publicly confessed to «killing
Sasha Fierce», saying that she was mature enough to merge both personalities —
a glamorized way of admitting that the whole idea just sucked, I think, and
that the producers did a boring job on the first half and a muckjob on the
second. To atone for somebody else's sins, she now decides to move from
«conceptually serious» to «spiritually authentic». A right decision if there ever
was one, but... too late, too late.
The main ideology behind 4 was to make a good old-fashioned R&B album. Not a sampler's
delight, not an electro-pop extravaganza, not a technofest, but a record that
would actually bring in some refreshing retro flavor. You know — real musicians
blowing real horns, strumming real guitars, a real emotional singer channeling
that gospel spirit to hit high notes at full power, that whole deal. The one
that made a star out of Aretha Franklin and... uh... Diana Ross? Tina Turner
seems a little too far out for Beyoncé's careful imagemaking. «Wild wild» does
not get you nearly as many fans, in terms of sheer quantity, as «gentle wild».
However, as you may well guess, there are
several problems here that are really
hard to beat. First, the trendy keyboards, digital procedures, loops, overdubs,
Jay-Z raps, and unbearably repetitive choruses are not really going anywhere.
Understandably, Beyoncé did not want to make a thoroughly «retro» album, but
rather one that would look forward to the future by means of looking back at
the past — a sensible decision for any progressive artist, provided the
futuristic component is every bit the worthy rival of the nostalgic layer. But
what good is it when a typically Seventies' piano melody is married to a
programmed beat and an assortment of carefully sliced, wrapped, and weighted
vocal strips?
And the worst thing about it, she can get it right when she really puts
her heart into it. ʽLove On Topʼ may be utterly derivative of Stevie Wonder in
the verses (and of the Jackson 5 in the chorus, for that matter — her pitch on
"you're the one I NEED!" is
just plain old little Michael), but it may be the only Beyoncé song in the
world that I can freely enjoy from first to last note, with a wonderful groove
and chorus that give off happy shiny vibes without sounding too self-conscious
or self-important. The song could use a little less obviousness in the
production department, for sure (those bass keyboards are way too adult contemporary, although Stevie did use a lot of them
in the 1980s), but in terms of melody and sheer emotion, it is beyond any
complaints I could think about. The build-up, the come-down, everything
perfect.
On the other hand, this is the same album that gave us ʽRun The World
(Girls)ʼ, which might just be the worst, tackiest, silliest idea for a single —
further developing the «aerobics-as-art» line of ʽSingle Ladiesʼ, only this
time in an even more repetitive twist, and with a martial rhythm to boot: G.I.
Beyoncé and her Girl Squad taking over the world. As «music», the song is a
non-song; as «groove», the song belongs in the gym at best; as «feminism», I'd
rather have Ani DiFranco, unless this is actually supposed to be parodic (at
least the video for the song definitely bordered on parody, going completely
over the top with all of its «military» imagery).
The rest of the record fluctuates between these
two points, never quite reaching the same high or sinking to the same low
(although the power ballad ʽI Was Hereʼ, donated by none other than the Wicked
Witch of the West herself — Diane Warren, sounds just like any other Diane
Warren song). The songs that are intentionally retro-oriented are generally
listenable — ʽ1 + 1ʼ works as an old torch ballad, tastefully arranged (pipe
organ!) and interestingly sung, with Beyoncé taking cute little falsetto «dips»
at line ends. But they are actually in the minority. More often, the «retro»
feel ends up confined to a few lyrical lines, like the James Dean reference in
the appropriately lifeless ʽRather Die Youngʼ, or the "killing me
softly" reference to Roberta Flack on ʽCountdownʼ, otherwise just a
robotic dance groove.
Retro references aside, 4 gets a special reprimand for containing some of the lady's worst
lyrics ever — every time she lays it down on Jay-Z, we get deeply poetic lines
like "still love the way he rock them black diamonds in that chain",
and songs like ʽPartyʼ do nothing but solidify the stereotype of «spoiled
rags-to-riches mentality» for the general public. You have to appreciate, of
course, the lady's being so honest with us — her and her folks are rich, posh,
decadent, loving it, and giving the people exactly what they want. But for
every ounce of real feeling that a song like ʽ1 + 1ʼ is working its ass off to
generate, a song like ʽPartyʼ produces two ounces of disgusted counterfeeling.
And what is the point of turning
"Who run the world? Girls!" into a mind-numbing mantra, if on
approximately half of the rest of the tunes she is explicitly "giving you
my life, it's in your hands"? "Not only are you loyal, you're patient
with me, baby"? ʽDance For Youʼ is neither feminist nor «humanly» sexy —
above all else, it sounds like a properly wound-up automaton for mechanical
sexual satisfaction. (At least Prince could make it sound humorous).
In the end, this is just another failure to
break out of the exoskeleton. ʽLove On Topʼ accidentally comes close to
artistic escape, and I have learned to really enjoy ʽ1 + 1ʼ, but the rest is
too full of clichés and stereotypes, too market-oriented, too safe-playing, and
too swamped with legions of faceless corporate «musicians», «songwriters», and
«producers» to even begin matching the surrealist claims made by the artist: "I
wanted classic songwriting... bolder than the music on my previous albums...
really focused on songs being classics, songs that would last..." — every
time I re-read that original statement, the only thing that springs up in my
head, for some reason, is the line "me and my boo and my boo boo
riding" from ʽCountdownʼ, and I cannot help but wonder exactly how long a
line like that would «last» in the musical world. Thumbs down.
Check "4" (CD) on Amazon
The challenge with Beyonce albums obviously is not to give them thumbs down, but to look for those rare moments where she actually uses here vocal talents. And yes, on Love on Top she is more or less on par with Diana Ross at her best in the 70's. I would like to have the rhythm section (programmed or not) a bit more funky though.
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