Beyoncé - 4

4 is an impressive step forward in almost every direction for Beyoncé, a pop musician who's already conquered the world twice over at the ripe old age of 29. But what's most endearing about 4 isn't necessarily it's quality, but how mature it comes across to the listener. This isn't just a cheap jab at a pop single (the lead single, in fact, is the album's last song) but rather an emotional left-hook lenient on flashiness and upfront with passion. Most notable is the albums production, which takes a backseat to Beyoncé's powerful vocals. Her belting cries of "Let's start over" transform a bland pop tune in "Start Over" to a fearsome track that bleeds tenacity; likewise, the majority of this album follows suit, differing the expected 21st century pop status and rather appearing as a late-night karaoke session that's both keen on it's r&b roots while simultaneously expanding to show 80's funk and neo-soul flairs.

When the album does get showy it never strays far enough to become self-indulgent. The one anomaly is the Major Lazer-sampled "Run the World (Girls)", the album's sole party-banger that seems remarkably out-of-place in the span of things. This is not to say that a pounding bass-drum or overall showiness is a bad thing -- Because let's be honest here, "Crazy In Love" might be one of the best songs of the past generation, and that song wasn't shy about itself -- but instead a noticeable deviation from the experimental formula that works so well with this release. 4 does have misses, including the lazy "I Miss You" and the over-cliched power-ballad "I Was Here"; but mishaps aside, 4 shows a different side to Beyoncé, one that will hopefully continue highlighting her own strengths rather than overshadowing them with studio production.

3.5/5

Recommended Songs: "I Care", "1+1", "Party", "End of Time"

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

The Lady Gaga "image" is hard to explain. On one hand, she's strangled the media with her bizarre costumes and outlandish performances. On the other, she's largely succeeded in creating catchy, well written pop tunes. "Born This Way", the self titled single from her upcoming album, is a mess of irritating breakdowns, uninspired lyrics, and (mostly) poor production.

This comes as a big surprise, not only because poor Gaga singles are uncommon, but mostly because of the huge amount of hype "Born This Way" has generated. You'd think that Gaga would have put more effort into the album's self-titled song, but instead, it comes across as a 20 minute brainstorm session with no real meaning. The hook is void of the "Gaga-synth" that is found on her first two studio releases, instead replaced by an abstract, guitar-like electronic sample that twinkles but never actually hits you head on.

On a whole, "Born This Way" is unusually empty. In fact, the song is almost entirely lead by Gaga's vocals; which, despite sounding completely fine, are spent by delivering a painfully PG-message of inner beauty and self admiration. Gaga sings "I'm beautiful in my way / 'Cause god makes no mistakes / I'm on the right track baby / I was born this way". Yeah, nothing special here, and when you add in the boring instrumentation and lacking hook, you got yourself a real stinker.

1.5/5

Song of the Day 8/26/10

Cee-lo - Fuck You




I admit, I've been a little unreliable with the Song of the Day's recently. It's a lot of work (no it's not), and on some days, I'm actually too lazy to find new music.

Cee-lo's "Fuck You" is a great way to bring this feature out of hiatus. "Fuck You" is instantly catchy; just a down to earth fun pop song that's hard to dislike. Cee-lo sings about gold diggers and cheating bitches, all the while calling them out with a nice chorus of "fuck yous". It's a fantastic pop song, which is sort of ironic, considering it'll only be known in it's edited form to the mainstream public. The edited version will be called "Forget You", and although I've yet to hear it, I can't fathom how it'll be better than this.