It’s only taken five albums, but we’ve finally got to the
real woman. She’s shed her Sasha Fierce
alter ego and Mrs Carter tour title; she is now simply ’Beyoncé’.
This album has been a long time coming what with almost
continuous speculation throughout 2013, advertisement campaigns for Pepsi and
H&M, and a sell-out world tour. It’s
been a struggle, as she bitingly claims on Haunted: “All these record labels are boring,
don’t trust these record labels I’m torn”.
Yet at fourteen tracks long, each with its own video, this ‘visual
album’ has been well worth the gruelling wait – clearly Beyoncé knows what
she’s doing.
But what is a visual album?
In the press release she explains: “I see music. It’s more than just what I hear. When I’m connected to something, I
immediately see a visual or a series of images that are tied to a feeling or an
emotion, a memory from my childhood, thoughts about life, my dreams or my
fantasies”.
Essentially, though, she’s filmed all the music videos in
advance – no mean feat alongside her tour dates. Each certainly complements the music with
some fascinating imagery, but whether they’re an integral part of the
experience rather than just a series of curiosities is up for debate. Moreover, will anyone watch them repeatedly?
Unlikely. What’s left, then, is the
music – does it stand alone?
The title may seem to be lacking in creativity, but
importantly she’s consolidated each aspect of her personality into one single
name. Here she is the sex-bomb, the
independent woman, the doting mother and the loving wife. Thematically it might tread on familiar
ground, but as with Timberlake’s ‘20/20 Experience’, ‘Beyoncé’ is her opus, her
ultimate album, her true statement of intent.
Pretty Hurts makes
for an incredibly strong opening track, even if it’s a typical Beyoncé power
ballad about the superficiality of image.
Here the target is plastic surgery - “Perfection is a disease of a
nation”, she sings with yearning melodies, “It’s the soul that needs the
surgery”. The video, meanwhile, is a
powerful story of a beauty queen popping pills and vomiting. It definitely establishes a gritty, adult
image of her that continues throughout the album.
This criticism of image is somewhat undermined by a number
of the videos. Drunk In Love, for example, sees Bey writhing around on a beach
whilst singing about how she’s “drunk in love” with husband Jay-Z (whose
feature rap includes an irrelevant mention of wife-beating Ike Turner). Essentially it’s her Rihanna moment, albeit
in a far more sophisticated form of sexuality than the Bajan singer. It’s followed by Blow, a lyrically vacuous song about oral-sex (“keep me coming keep
me going, keep me humming keep me moaning”) accompanied by a neon lit dance
routine (and a cheeky cameo for sister Solange). Later, Rocket
is an R&B slow-jam with a video full of laughable sexual imagery ("let me sit this ass on you" it begins). That said, it’s hard to criticise her need
for sexual empowerment when she looks so stunning. Nobody does sexy as well as Beyoncé.
You can also forgive her when the music is so good – Drunk In Love a hip-hop infused love
ballad, Blow a Timberlake-esque funk-disco
number. As a whole, ‘Beyoncé’ is a much
tougher effort than her previous material, with utterly contemporary production
that’s often cold, metallic and darkly sexual.
Take Partition for instance –
here Bey half raps, half sings over a finger-click beat and sparse, fizzing
synths, its sexual lyrics including the line “He Monica Lewinsky’d all over my
gown” before cooing “take all of me”.
The accompanying video fittingly plays out like some dark sexual fantasy.
Other tracks include the sinister Haunted; Mine, a duet with Drake, with a Virgin Mary referencing
video that’s a little overblown; breezy love song XO; and Jealous - an
intense, sincere power ballad that strikes a truly emotional note.
However, it’s important to note that, as if in answer to her critics
who claim her past albums are simply padding for her singles, ‘Beyoncé’
contains few discernible singles.
Instead it’s intended to be listened to as a complete work. As such, it’s lacking the usual big belting
tracks – the emphasis is on the production rather than her vocals, which remain
muted throughout. This may not be what
fans are expecting, but she’s doing something different – and that’s exciting,
right?
And then we get to ***Flawless. It begins with Bow Down that she released as a demo earlier in the year, where she
spits out “bow down bitches” to her competition. It soon morphs into a feminist monologue from
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (“we teach girls to shrink themselves
to make themselves smaller…because I am female I am expected to aspire to
marriage”), before Bey launches into her own diatribe where she sarcastically
boasts “I woke up like this”. Above all
her previous tracks, this is her most explicitly feminist song and her true
anthem for independent women.
It’s followed by Superpower
featuring Frank Ocean: a track that is significant predominantly for its militaristic video that sees Bey marching against police alongside everyone from her career,
including the likes of Destiny’s Child, Pharrell Williams and even her tour
support act Luke James. Penultimate
track Heaven is a poignant, piano-led
ballad (“heaven couldn’t wait for you”), whilst final track Blue is dedicated to her daughter. Its thematic significance is obvious,
rounding out the Beyoncé personality, but the album does tail off a little
towards the end.
Also noteworthy is the lack of the Sia-penned Standing On The Sun used on the H&M
advert – will this ever see release? Grown Woman, meanwhile, is
disappointingly included purely as a video.
As a whole, then, ‘Beyoncé’ is a tough, powerful and honest
album from the current Queen of Pop; a deeply personal work of art. The
lack of singles and modern, hip-hop tinged production may not be what you’d
expect from her music, but there’s only one woman on the planet that could
release an album of such high quality with no marketing, causing such an Internet
sensation. After all, she’s a grown woman – she can do whatever she likes.
4/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* Pretty Hurts
* Jealous
* ***Flawless
Listen: 'Beyoncé' is available now from iTunes.