Urgent and Key Sasha Fierce update

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

As you might expect, the album inlay booklet is split into a Beyonce half (subtle au-natural B with minimal bling) and a Sasha Fierce half - where she is WEARING A MOTORBIKE:



Also: the last track on the Beyonce side is a POST-ROCK epic (!)

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Gotta say, Sasha Fierce does a mean belt-ballad. I'm actually more meh about the kitchensinkpop in the second "disc" (I refuse to succumb to this bizarre ploy to double the album count on the charts with fewer songs total ACROSS BOTH DISCS than yr avg. album!)...but yes, your descriptions of her acrobatics in both "Disappear" and "Ave Maria" (my favorites, along with "Halo") are what's piquing my interest in this one. Just can't imagine keeping it on my hard drive without either (1) deleting most of it and pretending its an EP or (2) reordering it into a more straight-through listen.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Sasha Fierce bangers are much less exciting than the Beyonce ballads - 'Diva', 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Ego' are real standouts; 'Single Ladies' makes a lot more sense as a dance routine (like 'Get Me Bodied' before it), and every mental live performance makes me like it more; but neither 'Radio' nor 'Video Phone' have totally clicked with me, and the other top-level songs on Sasha Fierce are 'Hello' and 'Scared Of Lonely' ie BALLADS which have snuck on to the bangers disc.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Was going to say, "Radio" and "Video Phone" both make me think "tired," but I'm not sure why...someone on ILM mentioned Rihanna, but I don't hear Rihanna this way, and it's not like it's a bad derivative...I think it's just that, paradoxically, though I hate engaging with Beyonce's bigness, I can't engage with her when she's not going really big.