Music Review: Beyonce, “4″

Posted by staticblog

on July 8, 2011M at 12:39 pm

Rating: 83

Given that Beyonce is now singing with more power and expressive emotion than ever and taking real chances with the material on her latest album, “4,” it might be time to talk about her as a serious candidate for R&B’s pantheon. And that will still sound like sacrilege to the old guard, but “4” is a nearly flawless example of a singer achieving genuine growth by crafting the right songs at the precise moment when her voice is reaching its peak.

Just consider the opening ballad “1+1,” a truly spectacular testament to romantic devotion. “If I ain’t got something, I don’t give a damn/ ‘Cause I got it with you,” Beyonce sings, punctuating “you” with a piercing yelp as stately guitar arpeggios ratchet up the drama behind her. Produced and co-written by Terius “The-Dream” Nash, “1+1” can stand alongside the ballads from Prince’s golden age, and Beyonce simply kills on it. The first half of “4” is heavy on such ballads, but they’re firstrate, especially “I Care,” which builds to a crescendo of crashing percussion and guitars as Beyonce wails in the foreground. Unlike so many pretenders to her throne, Beyonce seems to know when to rein in her more outre vocal gymnastics and hit the notes with power instead of dancing around them. Her clarity and direct delivery on the retro rave-up “Love on Top” makes the song sound like a great “Thriller”-era artifact.

Beyonce quickens the tempo in the second half on brass band-punctuated jams such as “Countdown” and the closing “Run the World (Girls),” proving she was taking notes while listening to M.I.A.’s first two discs. Speaking of indie pop, Beyonce seems to be cribbing cues from her Of Montreal-collaborating

sister, Solange Knowles, bringing in Luke Steele of the Australian psych-pop band The Sleepy Jackson to co-write the stunning Philly soul ballad “Rather Die Young.” If only Beyonce didn’t send out for musical fast food late in the game on “4,” this would be a stone-cold classic. Tellingly, the Diane Warren-penned “I Was Here” is the only song Beyonce did not co-write, and it’s an atrociously bythe-numbers empowerment song that would make “American Idol” finalists wince a little. Beyonce is light-years beyond that level of material, a point that every other track on “4” makes abundantly clear.

- Lang

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