#Beyonce self titled album songs full
This is not another collection of songs but a true album, a full statement, a masterpiece. The record explores one dark, alluring mood and remarkably sticks with it throughout all 14 songs.
So singular is the musical vision - focusing mostly on Bey’s voice over relatively minimal production built around icy keyboards and chopped-up sequencers, serrated electronic dance beats, and a deep, gut-rumbling sub-bass. So, considering how many producers are attached to Beyoncé, the album shows admirable restraint. Typically these towering monolithic albums from enormous megastars tend to feel a little all over the place from song to song - if not within the same song (looking at you, “ Countdown”) - often as a result of patching together a bunch of tracks with the fingerprints of a billion different producers and guest verses. Needless to say, people are pretty geeked-out by the sudden pre-Christmas gift: new jams from Beyoncé.īut the most surprising part of Beyoncé, is not how it was so suddenly unleashed, but its cohesion. And despite Beyoncé’s sleek, almost-restrained electronic template to these songs, the record actually showcases a small battery producers: Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Noah “40” Shebib, The-Dream, Hit Boy, Terius Nash, Boots, and Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek on “No Angel.” Even Blue Ivy - Beyoncé and Jay Z’s now two-year-old daughter - makes a “featured artist” appearance on the song “Blue.” Simply titled Beyoncé, the so-called “visual album (her fifth LP as a solo artist, dropped overnight exclusively on iTunes to the surprise of practically everyone, and consists of 14 new songs coupled with 17 new music videos directed by a wide variety of directors, among them Hype Williams, Terry Richardson and LILINTERNET.Īs these megapop albums tend to go, Beyoncé includes a bunch of big-name guest spots from her husband Jay Z (“Drunk In Love”), Frank Ocean (“Superpower”), Drake (“Mine”), and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (“***Flawless”). Here’s a rundown of some of the year’s most notable.Ĭontinue reading The Year In Music: Pop Music’s Biggest Hype Of 2013 Posted on 17 December 2013 31 December 2014 Author Mike Katzif Categories helloMike, Lists, Reblogging Tags arcade fire, Beyonce, boards of canada, chvrches, daft punk, david bowie, haim, Jay-Z, justin timberlake, kanye, lorde, miley cyrus, My Bloody Valentine, savages Leave a comment on The Year In Music: Pop Music’s Biggest Hype Of 2013 Waking Up To A Surprise New Beyoncé Albumįor those who went to bed at a sensible hour last night - with your “Best of 2013” listicles locked and loaded - you likely awoke this Friday the 13th morning to a discover a strange, unfamiliar new world where a new Beyoncé album exists. Still, Beyoncé’s model almost seems like an outlier, especially at a time where long, drawn-out hype cycles are now commonly expected - not just with artists of this magnitude much smaller indie bands as well.Īll year, albums from pop music’s biggest names - and many mid-level and indie artists - were released after calculated, creative, and even mysterious marketing plans to help inspire fan interest, re-instill some fun in new music, and hopefully boost sales. Granted, a pop artist of Beyoncé’s stature is clearly able to generate massive interest just by being, well, Beyoncé. For most fans, the “visual album” was a total surprise and an instant success (it sold some 828,773 copies in the first three days - an iTunes record), despite a complete lack of advanced marketing, television appearances, or even a lead-up radio single. The Internet awoke last Friday to find that Beyoncé had airdropped an entire new album onto iTunes.
Many Beyonce fans woke up to a surprise new album, dropped to iTunes without any pre-release promotions, an outlier in 2013.