Customer Reviews

4

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

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.

this album was absolutely great! the only song i wasn't really feeling was "Party"...idk how that song appeared on the album after all the songs she recorded but watever, the album was great, i enjoyed every song and a few songs are on straight up repeat for me especially "Start Over", "Countdown", "Run the World", "End Of Time", "Best Thing I Never Had" and "I Care". those are my absolute favorites from the album!!!!! beyonce's voice is still beautiful and powerful to listen to and this album is just amazing!

All I can say is VICIOUS! My husband bought this for me and I Love it! Each CD she has releases is better than the last. Beyonce has never let me down, but she has absolutely floored me with 4. It's hard to find a CD that offers something on EVERY cut, but I love every song on this album, even the bonus cuts!

I have been waiting for beyonce to release her fourth album and she didnt disappoint at all. Art first, it took some getting used to because it contains so many ballads and souinds nothing like anything on the radio. now, I love this album! This is the new and mature beyonce.People have to release she is married now and will continue to put out music she enjoys etc. It has uptempo but mostly slower songs which I love.
tops.
I miss you
I care
1+1
countdown
end of time
best thing I never had
girls
dance for you
Very good album. I would buy again and again

I bought this CD from Target and I love it; my review is of the price being offered buy this seller, 76% higher than the cost of the CD at the store! Absurd!

I'm not usually a CD buyer, but after listening to a couple of these tracks (1+1, End of Time, Best Thing I Never Had, Run The World) on YouTube I was hooked. I can actually listen to the entire album with out skipping any tracks. That is very rare these days, especially with the type of music being recorded. But I must admit, Beyonce did her thing on this album!!

This is by far the one Beyonce CD that I listen to over and over from top to bottom. I know that there are skeptics in relation to this new music from B but I know that personally I can't stop listening to it. All of the songs are wonderful in their own way. I must agree though that - Run the world - kind of not feels like it should be on this cd. Some of the songs give me an old school kind of feel.

Just give this cd a try, get to know it and enjoy it.

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.

(My review, posted here on the day of the album's release, has of course mysteriously disappeared, so thank goodness for backup drives, huh? Thanks, "impartial" editors...)

Ok... here goes...

I've decided to go past all the manufactured drama accompanying Miss Knowles' newest release, and instead of giving listening to the usual rumors about this album (she's a diva, she's an 'artist,' she's this and that, she's overreaching), I've decided to simply judge the album as it stands alone, because in the end it's about this album, right now, Summer 2011. So, I sat down and had a listen.

(This review is for the Deluxe Edition, 18 songs totaling almost one hour:)

01. 1+1 - Instead her previous mightily overproduced beginnings, she goes for the early 1990's hair-band ballad touch. It soared very simple, and I liked it - until she began to sing. It's almost laughable. I think her vocals are nothing special, but by using the Christina Aguliera's high-flying falsetto technique at the end of every line ("I got yooooUUUUU! ! !") it comes off here as desperate. For someone so independent - first coldly ditching Destiny's Child and the other members, running her own promotional empire and then helping hawk her mother's clothing through her music - she sounds here VERY much co-dependent here as well. Still, it's an interesting beginning, very ambitious. However, when she claims in the song that she "don't know nuthin' much about algebra" (nice grammar) and then says she knows "one plus one equals two" ... isn't that just basic arithmetic?

02. I Care - I really do like the music on this album, I'm not going to lie. This is only the second track, but the songs so far have come off simple, straightforward and fascinating. Then Beyonce begins to sing, and once again she sounds so needy and almost angry. How can I believe, by her admission, that she's "sad and in pain" when she's wearing $250 jeans, sitting around in VIP seating everywhere she goes, and flying around in a G6? The lyrics are very insightful, but if maybe Jennifer Hudson had sung them, or even Fantasia, wow this would be a winner - I mean, a Grammy winner, it's so powerful - it's just not her.

03. I Miss You - The music is keeping me going here, and it's so different, I've never heard such an ambitious project of such unique music, If this had come out as an instrumental, I'd buy it 100 times over. As it is, though, Beyonce's once again "kinda sad reaching out for you" lyrics come off as sad, and not the good kind of sad that makes you learn from it. And was it me or did I hear an 808 beat at the end of this track?

04. Best Thing I Never Had - Whoever produced the music deserves a Grammy. Two of them. The music is honest, deep, and wow is ever worth listening to. Now I'll admit this is the closest I've come to liking this album after hearing Beyonce here. The lyrics, about a failed relationship (hmm, that sounds familiar) and how she's better off for not being with him works for me here, and for once there is a real connection between the singer and the song. Hmm, is singing hard lyrics like a growling soul singer radio-friendly again, and has it been blessed from above by St. Beyonce? This is for me the best track on the album, but once again I felt Fantasia here - a LOT. (This was the second release from the album, too bad it wasn't the first...)

05. Party (f. Andre 3000 & Kanye West) - everytime I hear Kanye West my teeth grate, but I know he just wants the world to know he's better than Jesus, so I'll move past that for a moment. The electronic beats are great here, and the refrain "we like to party" is funny, as I think she might be a little too busy holding down a multi-million dollar business to just sit back and "party" - I just don't see it, but when Andre's wonderful soothing vocals kick in - filled with sexual innuendo, but heavily censored for the album - I'm good with it. Then Kanye's back, and the track ends so abruptly that I thought my CD was skipping or broken. Weird all the way around.

06. Rather Die Young - I genuinely liked this track, and Teena Marie - I mean, Beyonce, vocally dances around the fuzzy guitar and she gets sexy like - dare I say it? - a female Prince, and I loved the lyrics 1000 percent. Another winning track for me, too bad it's too far and in between the other duds.

07. Start Over - For this song, I've got only one word to describe the tone, the feeling, and the sense of what it totally is for you - Fantasia.

08. Love On Top - El DeBarge would be proud of this wonderful remake, right down to the electronic drumbeats, the horns and vocals that seems to sound just like... (someone whispers in my ear) - oh, wait - really? Oh, ok... This TOTALLY ORIGINAL song by Beyonce is a nice fresh take on the previous 7 songs, uplifting and fun! I hope she releases this as a single, it will be an instant hit on the oldies stations, because it will fit there perfectly. Hel-l-l-l-o late 1980's!

09. Countdown - This song has a bit of a retro feeling, the background male vocals have that Earth Wind and Fire 3 part harmony, and the electronic drums and what is very close to a xylophone are everywhere, giving the sometimes 4/4 time sometimes 8/8 beat craziness a real go for it's money, and it really works. When she goes uptempo, she goes for the stratosphere. She's killing it here.

10. End Of Time - Shades of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" come out here at the beginning, but immediately go into a marching order of drums, and military-style precision vocals, swirling sounds and horns that will take this song to the endzone, because - she's - going - all - the - way! A seriously industrial declaration of love here. I have to say wow, as it sounds like something familiar, but how can I pinpoint it when it's everywhere? I did like this song, definitely.

11. I Was Here - I had to prepare myself, as I not only read in the liner notes but could smell the legendary inky stamp of ballad-master and hit-maker Diane Warren here. Will Pink Floyd get upset that the beginning of this song basically rips off the echoed guitar riff from their song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," down to the same 4 notes, strummed twice? Hmm...
As to the song:
Lyrics? Perfect, as usual. Diane did her job and Beyonce and the 4 other producers put this 4 minute track together very carefully.
Music? Slow and very much designed to make her fan demographic (and even new listeners like me) introspective and teary eyed. It didn't for me, though - does this mean I'm souless because I didn't bend to her lilting voice?
A final analysis on this one song - it's a perfectly crafted song epitaph for a self-eulogy about a woman who is just about to turn 30, yet written by another woman who is almost twice her age, about what happens after we die.
I really can't say anymore about that - that enough speaks volumes.

12. Run The World (Girls) - An industrial and aggressive track that basically takes the psuedo-anger of the Spice Girls, Gwen Stefani and Pink and uses that energy to scale the wall of domination by - well, girls. The song is heavily edited - oh, no cursing here, but you better pay me for - something). This song is a dominatrix' wet dream, as her lyrics scream out such female chauvinisms as "you'll do anything for me" and especially "hope you still like me, if you pay me." (This was the first release from the album - I can see how this song hit the charts, and within a month or so crashed down the charts.) Can you dance to it? No. Can you watch the carefully designed video over and over? Sure. Is that about it? Yes and no.

FOR THE DELUXE EDITION:

01 - Lay Up Under Me - I though I was hearing a slightly slowed down remix of Kylie Minogue 1988 song "I Should Be So Lucky," but then again Beyonce, who is again channeling Jennifer Hudson's vocal style, makes it fun for me, because I'm not thinking about Beyonce once.

02 - Schoolin Life - I liked this song, and it's a shame, because it's too little too late. Now if the whole album had this freshness, but... it doesn't.

03 - Dance For You - this has got to be one of the best tracks on the second disc, and at the same time the worst - she's trying to snatch up the Britney lovers with her own slow smoky stripper song that uses every hokey line in the book. This WILL be used in every strip club from Chicago to Moscow for a long time... so, thanks for that.

04 - Run The World (girls) (Kaskade Club remix)
05 - Run The World (girls) (Redtopclub remix)
06 - Run The World (girls) (Jochen Simms Club remix)

Out of the three above remixes, track four wins easily. Kaskade Club has always great dance remixes, and they made this song worth listening to, finally!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the end, I have to give the whole album 3 stars.

The album is on the one hand wonderful and on the other just too uneven and too odd to categorize. Is it an eager ambitious R&B/soul/late 1980's/early 1990's pop-rock artistic experiment gone haywire, or is it someone trying too hard to be edgy and musically forward and better off sticking to the usual formula that she has tossed out to her fan demographic that has made her millions?

I have to be fair, six songs on the album worth listening to several times: I Care, I Miss You, Best Thing I Never Had, Rather Die Young, Love On Top and Countdown. I can recommend the album based on these songs, but then... the other six songs are not very good, but they were wonderfully produced, though. It goes from okay to good to great to excellent, but Beyonce's vocals on most of them just got in the way for me.

I mentioned two other women who, if they had this material, would have knocked it out of the park: Jennifer Hudson, who could sing the phone book for me and it would sound angelic, and Fantasia, who has had every kind of obstacle thrown in front of her from almost day one but has smashed right through it with the power of a woman who is truly talented but has always been called the "ghetto girl with the good voice," but will always fight to show you that she's more than her past.

Beyonce? Well, she's good and all as a professional singer, but I personally can't wholeheartedly recommend this album - half of it belongs to someone else's voice, and it isn't hers. The music is inventive if a little too retro-sounding for me (I've got enough oldies CD's at home), but still the producers (over a dozen to stir this big pot of mush) gave it a shot.

Lastly, sorry to anyone who has bought her screensavers, her posters, her singles, her videos, her .mp3s on your Ipods and whatever else you have - although she does deliver here, and very inventive as it is, it's an only halfway done album in my opinion, and that's the real shame. Once you listen for yourself, you'll see why the initial selling price is so low on this one - it's new and different, but there's no real substance from Beyonce, no soul.

An ernest effort layered under too much, too much, too much...

(thanks for reading - I really welcome your comments on this review, and please don't forget to let me know if you liked or hated my review!)