BEYONCÉ: BEYONCÉ (2013)
1) Pretty Hurts; 2) Ghost/Haunted;
3) Drunk In Love; 4) Blow; 5) No Angel; 6) Partition; 7) Jealous; 8) Rocket; 9)
Mine; 10) XO; 11) Flawless; 12) Superpower; 13) Heaven; 14) Blue.
Here is a question. If the first three or four
albums released by an entertainer like Beyoncé, despite having their «moments»,
never really made you believe in the entertainer
as «artist», what would it take,
then, to trigger that belief? Would it be downright impossible, or might there
ever be a chance of her sliding into a different, more respectable paradigm? After
all, people have managed to escape
the machine before, or, at least, operate with their head slightly sticking out
of the window. And now, with the money made and the fanbase established and the
name in lights all over the world, why not go for a small push-up of your
reputation among the «highbrows»? Not a bad idea at all — but how?..
Clearly, this was a subject of deep worry for
Mrs. Carter herself, and she embarked on the task with plenty of verve. The
self-titled record — «rebooting the franchise!» — came out without a single warning,
unexpected and unpublicized, dropped as a package of 14 audio tracks and 17
accompanying videos on iTunes and sending a perfectly predicted shockwave
through the fanbase. Physical copies of the album then arrived in an unusually
minimalistic shape (the Kazimir Malevich Estate probably settled out of court),
with none of the glamor that usually surrounds such releases (to be fair, there
is plenty of glamor in some of the accompanying videos, but I guess the day we
get to see Beyoncé without makeup is the day that her crypt is excavated by
archaeologists, and it wouldn't be a pretty sight anyway). And, most
importantly, the songs were almost «artsy» in their stubborn refusal to be
dominated by dance grooves — dark, soul-probing exercises in emotional
expression of the everyday cares, troubles, worries, comforts, and orgasms of a
grown woman: wife, mother, and superstar all in one.
So we should all «buy» it, right? The final act
of humanization, in which the blue-haired fairy comes down from the sky and
gives Pinocchio his well-deserved emotions chip? Having already sat through a
whole sack of five-star reviews beginning with constructions like «who would have
thought that...» and exclamations like «HOLY COW!» and statements like
«finally, Beyoncé comes up with an album worthy of her talent» and suchlike,
and, more importantly, having patiently endured three complete listens to the
record, I still would not want to be too hasty about that. Miracles do not
happen, and the whole enterprise, to me, smacks of just another well-calculated
move — «we got the average Joes hooked up, now let us conquer the demanding critics».
Well, congratulations, Mrs. Bey, you and your team got really smart this time: save
for a few renegade dissenters, well within the statistical margin of error,
congrats on a decisive victory.
In fact, I wouldn't mind joining the saluting
crowds as well — the only problem is that, three listens into the record, I
still cannot remember a single tune. Removing the hot dance grooves also means
removing the hooks, and removing the hooks means that the album is fueled
exclusively by «soul» and «atmosphere», yet where are the musical innovations
that make the «atmosphere» even marginally interesting? All I hear is same-old
same-old: same programmed drums, same electronics, same adult contemporary
sonic backgrounds, sometimes interspersed with same lonesome romantic piano
pop melodies. «Sonically experimental», Pitchfork called this record, but where
are these «experiments»? Oh, that's right, the proper context was «her most
sonically experimental to date». This puts stuff in a different light. Maybe
twenty years ago this kind of record, minus the benefits of cutting-edge
production à la 2013, might have been
called «experimental» — as it stands, its only braveness is in that it does,
indeed, sound significantly different from the lady's previous albums.
Different, for sure; but better? Not certain.
As far as my opinion is concerned, it is not
with the music that Mrs. Carter has
managed to sway the critics (who, as a rule, do not even begin to discuss the
actual music, and I can empathize, since there is very little to be discussed
in the first place), but with the attitude.
For that, she must be given credit. Briefly stated, there are few records in
the world that manage to share lines like "each day I feel so blessed to
be looking at you / 'cause when you open your eyes, I feel alive"
(explicitly addressed to her daughter) and "daddy what you gon' do with
all this ass up in your face?" (explicitly addressed to her husband),
fortunately, not within the same song, or she'd probably have child protective
service on her back in an instant.
Actually, some
do, but very, very few make an active point of it. Beyoncé essentially comes across as a sort of concept album — an
«honest» glimpse into the life of someone who has to combine several distinct
personalities, not in an artificial Sasha Fierce-like way, but out of pure
necessity. First, there remains the glamorous star personality (ʽFlawlessʼ);
second, there is the lady of the family, committed to behaving like an angel in
the spirit and like a slut in the body; third, there is the responsible loving
mother; fourth, there's all sorts of interactions between the three
(ʽPartitionʼ, which fuses the public star with the private slut and feels no
remorse). I'd be lying through my teeth if I said that this whole concept were
completely fake, primitive, and devoid of interest. I'd also be improperly
insinuating if I said that Beyoncé's almost «salivating» depiction of sexual
scenes with her husband (ʽRocketʼ is the quintessential example, but it's
really all over the place) betrays an unhealthy fixation and should rather have
been left in their bedroom — I mean, it's a world of free choice, and if you invite me in your bedroom, it'd probably
be impolite to refuse the invitation. I'd probably even fall into the
perennial trap if I started doubting the album's feminist stance — since almost
every second song here can be interpreted both as an anthem to the equality of
the sexes or to sexual
objectification of woman, that'd just lure us into another round of the
never-ending, long-boring discussion.
All this, yes, and much more, but in the end,
all it really does is distract us away from the musical qualities of the album.
And the good musical qualities, as
far as I can tell, are limited to a tiny handful of non-trivial vocal
modulations (usually on the ballads: ʽHauntedʼ, ʽHeavenʼ, and ʽBlueʼ all have
their moments), which are still heavily set back by unimaginative arrangements
(usually confined to ideas like «okay, let's make the synth loops on ʽHauntedʼ
sound real dark, bass-heavy, and distorted, it's a sound that's been used fifty
billion times already, but we do need to focus on "dark", right?»).
Say what you will, but Beyoncé is simply not enough interesting either as an
«artist» or as a «human being» to save it all just on the strength of conceptuality
and atmosphere. She is nowhere near «proverbially dumb», of course, but neither
is she some sort of modern day Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, or even Lauryn Hill.
In pitching for this sort of maturity, she overstepped her boundaries, and
made a record which, while striving to be «respectable», has ultimately landed
in the area of «dull». As entertainment, this does not even begin holding a
candle to B'Day; as «serious art», I
have a hard time understanding why I should be spending my time trying to
digest it as such.
Naturally, for someone whose musical world does
not extend far beyond the likes of Beyoncé, The Black Album might be a
spiritual revelation — more power to you if it helps you become a better human
being, or solve your conjugal sex problems, or whatever else. But it'd be even
better if it helped such people understand that there might be a better musical
world out there somewhere: like Amazon.com says, «if you liked this album, you
might also like...» — not making any suggestions here, of course, just a small
hint at the reason for which I am giving the album quite a violent thumbs down
here. And this does not negate the fact that she does have a very cute, adorable
daughter, or that having wild sex with Jay-Z cannot serve as a basis for
writing exciting songs. It can! It just didn't, that's all.
Check "Beyonce" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Beyonce" (MP3) on Amazon
I just gave this album a few more chance and a few tracks have begun to grow on me, especially the 80s funk-pop attempt at Blow and the spacey-sounding XO.
ReplyDeleteAnd the best vocal moment of the album comes at Jealous, when she unexpectedly drops her voice low in the refrain for the first time—going for that "my heart just sank" tone instead of the predictable diva way of belting high notes over their cheating partners.
I don't think it has converted me from my initial assessment into a thumbs up, but it's certainly her best since B'Day.
And of course, for better or worse, the lyrics here are super-raunchy:
- "I'm in my penthouse half-naked / I cooked this meal for you naked" - Jealous
- "I fill the tub up halfway then I ride it with my surfboard, surfboard / Grinding on that wood, grinding, grinding on that wood" - Drunk in Love
- "Can you lick my Skittles, it's the sweetest in the middle" - Blow
- "Driver roll up the partition, please / I don't need you seeing 'Yonce on her knees / ... / He Monica Lewinsky-ed all on my gown" - Partition
"...the lyrics here are super-raunchy"
DeleteAnd really bad too!
Honestly, reviews of these sorts of releases shouldn't even be labeled as reviews of individual "artists". They should just be labeled "Machine Product #48080, release date 11/2014", or something of the sort. When you purchase this sort of stuff, you aren't even getting the work of a real artist anymore. You're just paying to hear the hum of The Industry. "Hmmmm whirrrrrrrr psssssssshhhhtt!!!" Seriously, "Metal Machine Music" has nothing on these merry puppeteers.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wait a little bit more for computer AI's to become good enough to start contributing to writing the arrangements for this music, then it will really be machine-product.
DeleteConfield was 13 years ago; surely we're already there technologically.
DeleteI'd say the album cover is more Spinal Tap than Malevich.
ReplyDelete