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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"Classy" definitely fits, though I never thought DC were restrained by their classiness - social status was just another means by which they were Better Than That (or Better Than You, where "you" = the triflin' good-for-nothing type of brothers and nasty trashy females that they concerned themselves with), along with their cold self-possession and their prioritisation of flawlessness, which is why I loved it all.

I guess warmth started to creep into Beyonce's voice (all of their voices, really) with their solo careers - Cis and I discussed ages ago how females in girl groups are permitted to be feisty and bad-ass to the point of misanthropic, especially when it comes to dissing males; but as solo artists, female pop stars rarely mine this territory and tend to sing love songs or sex songs instead. Anyway, on Dangerously In Love Beyonce was clearly still getting used to the idea of warmth, hence its mere handful of good tracks, but I think she realised on B'Day that bringing out her love of melodrama, her propensity for being a ridiculous mental diva, was the best strategy. So we have the same classiness and flawlessness as at the start, but it's metamorphosed into a more open, generous persona on record. Which is neither better nor worse for me, but it means she can do amazing ballads now.

[koganbot]

What do you think of Michelle Williams? "We Break The Dawn" is one of the great songs of the year, and there's other good stuff scattered through her album, but I'm getting very little out of her voice, even on "We Break The Dawn." No character, no verve, not even an interesting blankness.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ha I completely forgot about her album. 'We Break The Dawn' wasn't much more than "good" for me, definitely not "great", partly because she just didn't sell it - I fear she is doomed not just to Beyonce's cast-offs, but to Kelly's as well. I've enjoyed her on DC tracks, partly because her wimpy softness is a good counterpart to the Beyonce Express that so many DC tracks are (I think her finest moments are probably 'Soldier' and 'Survivor'), but...I haven't heard anything suggesting "viable solo artist" from her yet. Though I said that after Kelly's first album, then Ms Kelly turned out to be awesome, so who knows.

[koganbot]

It took me months and months to realize the greatness of "We Break The Dawn" simply because Michelle was barely even adequate for it. But it did eventually kick in, the strength of the song itself and its arrangement.

This is, like, her third solo album? (Checking Wikipedia, I see it is her third. Her first was a gospel album; those tend to get overlooked.)

[koganbot]

Oh, and my point about this being Michelle's third solo album is that I don't think I heard even a note from her first two, so I don't know if she's had a history of interesting achievement/nonachievement beyond DC.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Neither had I, I thought they'd both been gospel albums? ie, not for the pop market. As it is she still comes in below LeToya Luckett in the post-DC solo career stakes.

[koganbot]

Ah, you're right, they're both gospel albums. Maybe they're good. Haven't heard either, as I've said.

Almost everything on her new one is pretty good, and other tracks I particularly like besides "We Break The Dawn" are "Private Party," "Hungover," "Stop This Car," and "Unexpected." But it's still hard to connect to them, her singing being so not there.

[pointyelbow.livejournal.com]

I love "We Break the Dawn". I listened to that over and over again this past summer (along with Keke Palmer's "Keep It Moving"). I actually think Michelle William's album kick's Beyonce's new record's butt. True, Michelle's use of the autotuner on almost every song makes for a cold sounding record, but overall there are more great songs on her record than on Beyonce's (admittedly I only bought the regular edition of B's record) and both have some stinkers that keep them from being great albums. I just can't get enough of "Hello Heartbreak", "Unexpected", "Lucky Girl", and "The Greatest". I also love the weirdness of "Until the End of the World". I think the coldness of her autotuned voice also works for an autumn record, at least for bleak grey chilly November days in Chicago...