A kung fu fighter in a disco

I think my favourite thing about I Am..., and the most key thing wrt B's artistic evolution, is its range - not just the concept, which could easily have fallen flat, but the emotional and vocal range she displays, and pulls off. An early criticism of Beyonce's persona, esp wrt her balladry, was that there wasn't a single chink in her armour - she was almost too perfect and poised to convince as vulnerable - but she's started using that to her advantage now. All her ballads still have that steel core - you still can't imagine her singing something as abject and broken as 'We Belong Together' - but now it reinforces the song's narrative rather than blocking it, whether adding to the chest-beating forcefulness of 'Halo' and 'Hello', or (more interestingly) in cases like 'Irreplaceable' and 'If I Were A Boy', when her innate strength functions both as something to be unexpectedly torn down, with the hitherto unimaginable fragility providing the first emotional blow, and then as the end point of the story, where despite the heartbreak she holds her head high and blinks back the tears because she's so strong.