New Beyonce album in 2014?

There are like two billion Beyonce threads so I didn't know which one to post the preview for the "Grown Woman" video.

http://wearebeyhive.tumblr.com/post/69300382949/grown-woman-music-video-preview

ty for this. way more exciting than what he's doing but the end makes it sound like timbo is on the beat?

i'm so confused

Hope there's a version of the video without the '90s VHS tape aesthetic.

it's as if she felt she wasn't trolling hard enough with song snippets she had to start dropping video snippets

i hate her

i miss matthew :(

if "grown woman" ends up being the first single i'll be pretty fucking annoyed tbh

i mean, i know that sounds ridiculous and entitled, but, this song has been floating around for most of the year! why couldn't she have just released it earlier.

yeah same here -- "Grown Woman" never seemed remotely promising so if she's circling back to that, ugh.

someone posted a Hot 97 playlist recently that said "Standing On The Sun" is their #4 song right now -- did a full-length studio version of that song ever actually get released? i loved the snippet in the ad.

idk about its official radio release status but just in terms of hearing it then (short answer) yes. studio leak chronology goes like this afaiui

http://soundcloud.com/blessed-gabriel/standing-on-the-sun-extra
http://soundcloud.com/blessed-gabriel/standing-on-the-sun-sos
http://soundcloud.com/blessed-gabriel/standing-on-the-sun-the-mrs

http://soundcloud.com/blessed-gabriel/grown-woman-acoustic-countr

ooo and look what else is on that soundcloud... love it

haha all her little grunts and ad libs over just a guitar

yeah!! but like the semi-comedic ease with herself in that makes it seem way more truthfully, engagingly grown than the gameface bluster of the og

they play "standing on the sun" on hot 97 frequently, idk what version or if it's official or what

song is aight

it's gonna be funny watching people who were wretching over timberlake letting timbaland produce his entire album have to turn around and act like beyonce just dropped manna from heaven w/ an album that tim is gonna have like 6 beats on

yes when the strawman becomes a different kind of strawman, the fun they will have

oh my god the country version of "grown woman"!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

I LOVE THIS

it's so very "when i am old i shall wear purple"

grandma beyoncé gives no fucks <3

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a536967/beyonce-album-will-be-monumental-insists-record-label-boss.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=dsuk&utm_campaign=twdsuk

"obviously, at some point"

:(

C'mon bey

extension of that bloody never-ending album-avoiding tour :((((

surely there'll be a new single before the tour and the album will come out afterwards or during. SURELY.

^^a post from this time last year

so...

what the fuck is this

hahaha

they really went all out with this cover, stunning

omg

is this called "beyonce"

simple title/packaging seems like a pretty deliberate part of the 'statement'

'Temporarily unavailable' now?

Oh wait there it...how the fuck long is...wait what?

there's 14 songs of the album and then videos for every song

this has donna written all over it

Hey, without that digital booklet it would be nothing.

BTW, this tweet owns

https://twitter.com/MeLaMachinko/status/411366965916495872

donna?

OH MY BEYONCE

everyone's year end lists are going to be so fucked now

The amount of comments and posts I'm seeing already going "On iTunes? WHY NOT SPOTIFY" is honestly doing my head in.

"This visual album is available exclusively on iTunes" :)))

caroline polacheck wrote and produced a track on this https://twitter.com/carolineplz/status/411369657648418816

The amount of comments and posts I'm seeing already going "On iTunes? WHY NOT SPOTIFY" is honestly doing my head in.

I pretty much gave myself over to Spotify in 2013. I rarely listen to music any other way. I spend the $10/month or whatever for unlimited ad-free listening.

That said, I'm really tempted to buy this right now.

xp Wow!!

donna?

donda* lol sorry

had an iTunes voucher sitting in my account for like 3 years. Finally found a reason to use it!

so great to have a release actually be a surprise!

otm

The production on "Rocket" reminds me of D'Angelo.

damn it i bought the clean version by accident! *buys again*

this is cool

ROCKET WAS CO-WRITTEN BY MIGUEL

rocket was written by miguel, beyone and timberlake

prod by timbaland

#illuminati

ce*

how can anyone listen to stuff on spotify? interface is terrible and everything sounds like lossy shit.

also, this is nuts.

lol didn't see the JT credit

there's someone on here named "boots" who has credits on like 3 or 4 songs??? idk it's hard to read

one million video extras kept this record a secret

how can anyone listen to stuff on spotify? interface is terrible and everything sounds like lossy shit.

yes, please tell us how you can tell the difference between 320 kpbs ogg vorbis and and a 256 kbps AAC.

There's a spotify thread for that.

"Mine" feels a lot like Tracey Thorn (first half anyway).

people who bought this from itunes: what's the kbps?

256

word

Mastered for iTunes whatever that means

what the fuck is going on

how can anyone listen to stuff on spotify? interface is terrible and everything sounds like lossy shit.

yes, please tell us how you can tell the difference between 320 kpbs ogg vorbis and and a 256 kbps AAC.

― mygoodgomez, Friday, December 13, 2013 12:35 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't mean for _this_ album in particular. i thought spotify was just low-quality streaming stuff; maybe that's the non-subscription version?

i'm definitely not mad at miguel, timberlake, timbaland and beyonce doing a re-write of "untitled (how does it feel)"

but who is BOOTS

i've been downloading for 15minutes and i'm only halfway done

fortunately i just got a strawberry milkshake delivered to my house so i have time to kill

i like drake albums obviously but he's really distracting on other people's albums

this album is crazy so far

wait the one done by ryan tedder is actually pretty good

The Ryan Tedder track is really massive.

vocals on this are top notch

which is the tedder?

blow is not making me mad

tedder is "xo"

Excited about the idea of home delivered milkshakes.

i should have ordered like 5

woah yr no angel

lollll the credits for this say "miguel jontel pimento" LIKE THE CHEESE

honestly feels like a Bjork album right now

Wait, this thing has 31 tracks?

lol Rocket

No, 14 tracks with videos for every track and the "Grown Woman" video.

wow

tedder one is a little U2 meets fun

http://rocnation.com/artists/boots/

This is probably the best news I've ever read drunk.

can't tell if my shitty computer won't load rocnation.com or if there is no BOOTS info. not sure i wanna know the truth.

thanks james

there's a "coming soon"

Boots is Sasha Fierce's alter-ego

this does kind of make that "obviously, at some point" quote upthread scan TOTALLY different, no way he didn't know

WHAT IS GOING ON

I CAN'T WAKE UP FROM ZERO TO 100 LIKE THIS

yes i was waiting for the british to wake up

"She recorded all over the world for a year and a half but the initial recording started after the writers and producers gathered under one roof in The Hamptons, New York’s beach enclave, in the summer of 2012 to live together, work together and to immerse themselves into her world and into her head."

she clearly watched that Marina Abramovic documentary

so the whole thing about them scrapping the entire album was probably bullshit right

this album dropping out of nowhere is a nice bookend to a year that started with the surprise mbv release.

***** Flag Post *****

Confirming this will flag the post for the attention of the moderators.

Posters whose posts are repeatedly flagged may be limited from posting or banned.

Flag this post for moderation.

Imagine how different this album would be if Solange didn't have a falling out with Dev Hynes and Beyonce was hanging out with her sister like all siblings do and Solange was like, "you should work with my pal Dev Hynes, he was in a band called Test Icicles"

that probably would have sucked.

completely amazing

yes it would have sucked

lol @ a wikipedia page having been created 2 hours ago

"This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses."

true

it really is

PARTITION

YONCÉ ALL ON HIS MOUTH LIKE LIQUOR. YONCÉ ALL ON HIS MOUTH LIKE LIQUOR.

Loving this. She dropped a real Black Album, didn't she?

Pretty sure the closest thing this album has to a radio-friendly single is like, "Blow".

I love how we've had months of growing collective sighs and despondency regarding this album and suddenly like BOOM there it is.

Annoyingly I'm not sure I will get to listen to this today.

i think a lot of these songs would do well on r&b radio. and "xo" could be a pop hit (and a deserving one, though i was v skeptical when i saw both ryan tedder and terry richardson in the credits).

"rocket" just completely slayed me

'Partiton' is amazing

Just downloaded this, loading up for the trip to work. Not sure when I'll have time to watch the videos.

bzzz bzzz zhwap at the end of 'partition' is so cute/endearing

is 'pretty hurts' too much of a message song to be a single? i can see it being embraced by a tumblr/ONTD-type crowd

Guys the entire world is there buying this album at once I'm not sure Beyonce even cares about singles with this one.

I mean she probably understands the value of sudden unexpected joy and delight better than pretty much anyone in pop right now.

"Though an official single didn't precede the set, two tracks are expected to be announced as the lead singles for different formats next week. "

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/5827398/beyonce-unexpectedly-releases-new-self-titled-visual-album-on

I'm sure she'll release them, it's just that when you've just thrown the conventional promotional cycle out of the window they don't matter as much.

singles will just be victory laps whilst flicking the vees at the crowd

wish i'd opened this thread before i set off for work btw

oh my god the blue ivy song is actually beautiful

Contrast that with Jay's Blue Ivy song lol

What does this actually sound like?

I'll leave the description of this album's sound to someone else but for those of us still wondering about Boots, this might be of interest: https://soundcloud.com/thisisboots/sets/boots-album-tracks/s-fhzJ6

Wake up after a big sleep in, scrolling lazily through Facebook and some high school friend of mine is posting about being in a video for Beyoncé called ROCKET. Then went to google, and literally LEAPT out of bed in excitement

wtf just woken up what is going on omgomgomogmogmomg i'm in tears

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls “you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man.” Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage I am expected to make life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Marriage can be a source of love, and joy and mutual support, but why do we do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same. We raise girls to see each others as competitors. Not for jobs or accomplishments which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the ways that boys are. Feminist; a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes."

I WOKE UP LIKE THIS
I WOKE UP LIKE THIS

Partition.

Also experiencing that unfortunate thing of flashing on Jay-Z during the slowjamz :/

jay-z's verse is the worst bit of this, worse even than drake on that good girl bullshit yet again

Wow

My week is totally transformed now

Shit that's just changed:

1. My PJ ballot may now be useless, need to hear this first
2. All those year end think pieces about the insane/random event album releases of 2013 is slightly less relevant

What's the Miguel track like? I've not heard it yet.

SURFBOARD

got through seven tracks on the way to uni, if the rest is as good as all of that then it's AOTY by miles and miles

calm down, guys. Beyonce wants us to behave, for after all she runs the world.

"Blow" continuing the "TKO" format of having Timbaland chant about vagina is pretty disturbing but otherwise this is pretty great so far

i trust these videos will make on to youtube at some point? d/l fucked up and idk if i can be bothered

the album itself is pretty great on two listens

Dear 乒乓,

Your Apple ID, 乒✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧, was just used to purchase BEYONCÉ by Beyoncé from the iTunes Store

http://i.imgur.com/F7xPK7z.gif

partition is _so good_

and yeah the full flawless (aka bow down) still rules all

at one point i feel like "rocket' samples "untitled (how does it feel)"

french part in partition was where i went from "wow this is amazing" to "wow this is AMAZING"

the videos are all like real videos. like overproduced fancy full stop different concept each serious videos.

we live in an age of wonders

Got to say I'm impressed that anyone could keep anything on this scale, with so many people involved, completely secret for the time it took to make it.

you crazy? this is BEYONCE

well yeah but she ain't the gestapo... or is she?

You know maybe 9/11 was in inside job...

I mean I wouldn't want to mess with an army of Beyonce lawyers either.

not really unique tho, the other members of Destiny's Child have released albums that no one ever talked about too

you crazy? this is BEYONCE

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, December 13, 2013 9:15 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually it's BEYONCÉ

so all that's left is for D'Angelo to drop his album on Dec 31st at 11pm, right?

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls “you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man.” Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage I am expected to make life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Marriage can be a source of love, and joy and mutual support, but why do we do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same. We raise girls to see each others as competitors. Not for jobs or accomplishments which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the ways that boys are. Feminist; a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes."

my jaw remained dropped for the entirety of this monologue -- just completely thrilling in the best way

that little pop before "flavor" on blow is insta-classic. i already see people miming to it on dancefloors for the next four years.

i know this is not literally true and perhaps not even figuratively true but i feel like this album basically reinvents modern pop music, synthesizing all the potentially interesting things that have been happening and figuring out how to make them just incredible.

^ that's basically the reaction I had hearing it on the radio this morning (local "hip hop and hits!" station played the whole thing).

partition is so thrilling. syncopated as fuck.

the word of the day is montage.

wait...Beyonce said that? omg bless her light

we need more people like Beyonce saying they believe in feminism to cancel out the Katy Perry/Taylor Swift "I'm not a feminist, I like boys" nonsense, leave it to B to say it perfectly ofc

this is like a dj screw mixtape of 80s new wave, prince, and everything else ever.

"freak 'um dress out my closet"

i'm definitely not mad at miguel, timberlake, timbaland and beyonce doing a re-write of "untitled (how does it feel)"

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Friday, December 13, 2013 2:02 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah wow this is really something

wait...Beyonce said that? omg bless her light

we need more people like Beyonce saying they believe in feminism to cancel out the Katy Perry/Taylor Swift "I'm not a feminist, I like boys" nonsense, leave it to B to say it perfectly ofc

― musically, Friday, December 13, 2013 10:45 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Its a sample of a talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that she uses on ***Flawless (i.e. what bow down turned into). I think maybe from a TED talk Adichie gave earlier this year?

not really unique tho, the other members of Destiny's Child have released albums that no one ever talked about too

― musically, Friday, December 13, 2013 10:13 AM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dead

album has a lot of realllllly high moments but jealous, mine and xo annoyed me

i think my onceover takeaway so far is yr no angel

jealous really grows, as does xo.

mine i'm on the fence about.

also the part where she sounds like nicki minaj was kind of weird

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls “you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man.” Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage I am expected to make life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Marriage can be a source of love, and joy and mutual support, but why do we do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same. We raise girls to see each others as competitors. Not for jobs or accomplishments which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the ways that boys are. Feminist; a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes."

my jaw remained dropped for the entirety of this monologue -- just completely thrilling in the best way

― dyl, Friday, 13 December 2013 15:27 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

placing this in the middle of bow down bitches feels like such a middle finger to the (white) feminists who gave her so much hassle for that track (amongst other things) this year.

also "est-ce tu aimes le sexe? le sexe? je veux dire l'activité physique. le coïte. tu aimes ca?. les hommes pensent que les féministes aimes pas le sexe" <3 <3 <3

okay i will go get this now

xposts

it fits perfectly with "don't think i'm just his little wife". this was obv implicit in the song to begin with (for those who had ears)

SURFBOARD

otm

yeah also feels like a pushback against the ridiculous controversy over her calling herself "Mrs. Carter"

"blow"'s recreation of "off the wall"-ish disco >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "take back the night", and the same assholes were involved in both

beyonce is more powerful than my mind can even digest

i'm all for pushing back but that monologue was a snooze sonically xp

drunk in love is good i just wish she had used a different word besides drunk

We raise girls to see each others as competitors. Not for jobs or accomplishments which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men.

considering how many people are sharing that gif of beyonce throwing a bunch of albums by other women off a table, and making jokes about taylor swift's birthday/lorde's single drop being ruined today, i have to wonder if they haven't gotten to this bit or if it just flew over their heads

beyoncé could release an album all about ending stan wars and declaring love for every female artist in the game and there'd still be stan wars.

yea jealous is sounding better a 2nd time around

reminds me of best thing i never had

80,000 copies sold in three hours

Got to say I'm impressed that anyone could keep anything on this scale, with so many people involved, completely secret for the time it took to make it.

The same year Bowie did the same thing.

beyoncé could release an album all about ending stan wars and declaring love for every female artist in the game and there'd still be stan wars.

― prolego, Friday, December 13, 2013 11:20 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"SEE!? Keri Hilson would never be that magnanimous! that's why she's THE QUEEN!"

i will always remember where i was when this happened

"SEE!? Keri Hilson would never be that magnanimous! that's why she's THE QUEEN!"

followed by "who's Keri Hilson again?"

ugh i almost forgot her name the other night when i wanted to listen to Energy

i think i typed in Keli

The same year Bowie did the same thing.

Oh come ON. Nowhere near as many people involved, on both the audio AND video front, and in comparatively far less 'in the public eye' circumstances.

In just a three-hour sales window (closing at midnight Friday PT), "Beyonce" reportedly sold over 80,000 copies, according to industry sources. It's still too early to judge what the set will do over the full three days left in the sales tracking week (which ends Sunday night), but with prior projected leader, "Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades Of Influences" by Garth Brooks, estimated to shift 150,000-160,000 units, Beyonce is already halfway to that sum. And in the time it would take someone to fly from New York to Miami.

love that last sentence

Haunted; best Beyonce song i've ever heard.

what about that ching ching ching

what about that

tbf there were constant reports over the past year about Justin, Timbaland, Miguel, etc. working on Beyonce's new album. and there were 3 full songs out during the year, although only one of them ended up on the album proper in a different form/title. the impressive thing is that there was no buzz in the last week of "something big is about to happen," and no news leaks at all that she was working on any videos (which generally require WAY more people working on them than the actual songs).

ROCKET

and Beyonce didn't retire like Bowie; we've had months of leaked tracks.

xxxpost

there were definitely info flying around on blogs that she was filming several videos across the world (i remember the story of the woman who got suck upside down on the shoot of "xo" :/), so there was a growing sense she was going to drop an album. i jimagine the directors and ppl involved in the videos were led to believe that would be in 2014 (and be released in the conventional manner), and only very very few knew of this itunes plan. and considering it's only been sent for phsyical production now i don't think that many ppl need to know.

I can't imagine what those contract lawyers were paid.

tbf there were constant reports over the past year about Justin, Timbaland, Miguel, etc. working on Beyonce's new album. and there were 3 full songs out during the year, although only one of them ended up on the album proper in a different form/title. the impressive thing is that there was no buzz in the last week of "something big is about to happen," and no news leaks at all that she was working on any videos (which generally require WAY more people working on them than the actual songs).

― Reince The GOPer (some dude), Friday, December 13, 2013 11:27 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

well yeah people knew they were recording an album. that's why i'm wondering if that whole thing about it being scrapped was just a misdirection.

the synthwork on this really pretty

i think prolego's right too -- i doubt very many people involved knew it was dropping like this and not conventionally sometime soon down the line

you know, i'm kind of astonished that right now is the first time i even wondered if there was a release date for CD & vinyl. i guess i've become accustomed to the download world, finally.

that said, is there a release date for CD & vinyl?

Defintely remember reading reports about the Terry Richardson / Coney Island film being filmed.

Also the bits in the "No Angel" video where beyoncé is posing outside the ragged looking house was filmed in a student suburb of melbourne, australia. I recall seeing a few excited instagrams about that in october

definitely*

i wonder if she wanted to drop the album right after the Super Bowl and it just wasn't ready then. that maybe could've been the only way this could've been done bigger, although in a way the random timing element here is a big part of the fun.

"film being filmed" oh dear beyoncé what have you done to my brain

it's being released physically on the 20th.

just in time for xmas sales

"perfection is the disease of a nation" is such an audacious way to open an album given that beyoncé's entire career is/was about embodying perfection

it's being released physically on the 20th.

just in time for xmas sales

― prolego,

Time to give it the Walmart treatment: stack a bunch of CDs in the cart for family next weekend.

random timing was not a big part of the fun, it was everything

and it was also friday the 13th

it was like ... let me wrap my holiday toy for my nephew

o wait beyonce just came out with a new album

Does Bowie have a guest vocal on this thing?

that's either him or Timbaland going "turn that cherry out" on "Blow"

ugh I thought it was he wrapping about the breastesses

don't lean on me man if you can't turn that cherry out

basically all album releases should be surprises

Remember that Mos Def album that dropped with no fanfare, then everyone said it sucked, then they sort of recalled it?

basically all album releases should be surprises

yeah but i'm honestly still shuddering to imagine how awful this would be if it had dropped when i was offline and couldn't drop everything to listen immediately

^^ my life

i was excited about the news last night but rather than stay up i just went to bed and then looked for a stream first thing in the morning

Yeah that works real well for non-superstars.

Xp

I honestly think it'd be cool if we went back to an era of chart artists just releasing stand alone singles in the months and years between albums.

I'm just reminded of this thread from earlier in the year:
How many artists could drop a new album and get as much internet buzz as MBV is right now?

forgoing a social life in order to be home at all times for surprise album releases

...and access to ILM

How many artists could drop a new album and get as much internet buzz as MBV is right now?

― MarkoP, Friday, December 13, 2013 11:56 AM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark

lolllllllllllolololololololoooooooooooooooooooooooooooollll

I'm afraid that now I'll have to update iTunes for the first time in, idk, years?

*deletes drake track*

How many artists could drop a new album and get as much internet buzz as MBV is right now?

― MarkoP, Friday, December 13, 2013 11:56 AM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark

lolllllllllllolololololololoooooooooooooooooooooooooooollll

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Friday, December 13, 2013 10:57 AM (1 second ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, in fairness, the question _has_ been answered

The few people comparing "Rocket" to "Untitled" have only heard one D'Angelo song or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cL4leeORpY

it didn't need asking

i kinda wish haunted didn't have the stuff in front of it, that stuff is fine but i'd like to be able to just play haunted at will

tracy thorn mention upthread otm

parts of this are hella walking wounded

it didn't need asking

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, December 13, 2013 11:01 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wuz joking

reading this thread is so obnoxious while i'm at work, why am i torturing myself

xp even if those weren't beyonce's own words i'm glad that she's endorsing feminism in such a major way, such a fuck you to certain people who shall remain nameless in this comment because they don't deserve to be mentioned any more in this glorious celebration of beyonce's new album

the-dream's writing on this album is hilarious/amazing

has anyone sat thru all the videos yet?

Man somebody needs to hold a Beyonce viewing party

Just rent out a theater or something idk

just clocked the intro to XO as being from the live news reports after Challenger blew up. wonder what that's all about.

yeah i spent the whole afternoon watching them.

kelly and michelle (and pharrell, wut) join her for "superpower"

the grown woman video is great. kelly and beyoncé re-enacting old home videos. somehow the terry richardson one for XO isn't gross.

just clocked the intro to XO as being from the live news reports after Challenger blew up. wonder what that's all about.

― piscesx, Friday, December 13, 2013 11:17 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

young beyoncé recognizes her own mortality for the first time?

i saw this and i love it when things happen that seem to be happening just to make ILX happy

lol @ whiney: "Also, side note to Jay Z: Maybe pick a better metaphor than "Ike Turner" on a song for your wife's album"

Could we talk about Bey harmonizing with Frank Ocean and how beautiful it sounds

It is kind of killing me that I am at work and cannot download this until I get home.

Unless I pay $15.99 and d/l it via my iPhone and like okay eff that

no its worth it

Can I borrow $15.99?

I need to get an iTunes card today after work

one B to rule them all

one by one they fell into darkness

there will be a non-visual, non-iTunes exclusive digital release of this, right?

yep, it should be up now at http://torrentz.eu

i want a dvd of this. i want to see it in theaters.

http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q723/lion_area86/11auxsm_zpsbc8a1d4d.gif

physical CD/DVD should be out next weekend, if that's what you're talking about.

Listening on headphones on train. So many amazing production details. Everything about this feels so deliberate, every note and word, and there's so MUCH

And I haven't even gone in on the videos properly yet!

You've gotta feel really comfortable in your own skin to sit behind Beyonce at an awards show, because you know you're gonna be in every other shot. And likely look worse than she does.

(for all I know dude behind her in that clip is some superstar)

i want to see this in imax. i want to live in it.

Everything about this feels so deliberate, every note and word, and there's so MUCH

this has been my impression; this thing was put together very, very carefully.

yeah very much so. this is the warmest sounding pop album from a mainstream act in forever.

warm?

the videos kick so much ass

terry richardson managed one decent act in this life which was "i'm just going to film beyoncé having fun in coney island"

it's actually a really good video and i'm shocked that he directed it

i do find it depressing that terry richardson gets to kick it with beyonce

Is it really surprising that this feels "so deliberate, every note and word?" Isn't that her thing?

Or is it just that of other mainstream pop has been sounding rushed and easy and sloppy?

"I sneeze on the beat and da beat got sicker"!!

everything on this sound incred

i'm gonna be brave (but also cap'n obvious maybe) and say this is a little too long. it's amazing, but by a certain point i was thinking, "is this really still going?"

did i forget to mention it was amazing?

the drake track is where i start recognizing its length

I am enjoying this but my initial impression is that I enjoy Fantasia's album more

the drake track is where i start recognizing its length

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

as his girlfriends know all too well

I am enjoying this but my initial impression is that I enjoy Fantasia's album more

― SHAUN (DJP), Friday, December 13, 2013 2:41 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ditto

when I started checking the time left in "Rocket" I'm inclined to agree

the sprawl matches the audacity of the whole thing, i'm not mad

eh, people have been using that excuse since whenever. i say make a concise statement, through the iffier tracks on as B-sides or internet bonus tracks or whatever.

i prefer shorter albums in general, sure. i'm just saying, if you're gonna go long, own it. and this does imo.

how long is this? i've only watched a few vids.

i mean...4 was a pretty concise album, but the highs were higher and the lows were lower. it's possible for an album to be longer AND more consistent.

well, "Haunted" for instance begins with almost three minutes of sound effect cut-ups and samples, if that helps

xpost

the main 14 song audio album is 66 minutes. 20 minutes longer than the last album. xp

4 was a pretty concise album, but the highs were higher and the lows were lower

otm. It's become my favorite B album despite containing her worst material. When the great stuff plays I want to listen over and over again.

'party' is my fave beyonce song

oh

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/really_house_of_cards.gif

sorry, fellas~

i feel like rev may be with me on liking it

I think Schoolin Life might be my favorite B song, which is why I don't mind this album being so long.

I don't mind the instrumental track but Kanye smothers swagu over the rest.

oh right, that part. well, i'd never say it's the "best" beyonce song but it hits a sweet spot for me, idk.

I like Mine but it could be removed without much detriment to the album. I don't really notice the length until around there, but it's immediately followed by XO, which is bursting with so much warmth and joy that I immediately go back to not caring.

"Heaven" is a total drag.

otm. It's become my favorite B album despite containing her worst material.

when I think "worst of Beyonce" I immediately think of things like "Work It Out" and "Check On It"

heaven and mine are prob the two i would take off.

idek if i would agree that the highs on 4 were higher

that's because it takes a few seconds to remember "Run The World" even existed (xp)

Heaven came along at the exact wrong (right?) time in my life for me to be having any kind of not-positive feelings about it, unfortunately.

http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/560521_577701818957539_666509334_n.jpg?w=600&h=600

heaven is good. so is run the world.

it's okay to like things!!!!!

if the album/videos become available for streaming i would imagine that any/all the songs could become 'hits' under billboard's new rules

"yonce/partition" is an instant classic

yonce is amazing

"Heaven" isn't much of a song but she sings the hell out of it so I haven't started skipping it yet.

that's because it takes a few seconds to remember "Run The World" even existed (xp)

you forget that I have always and will always love "Run the World"

is "heaven" about her miscarriage?

admiring the work of beyonce's label or legal team, who appear to be forcing the removal of all (or virtually all) youtube rips of her album almost immediately.

been listening to it on tumblr

yeah i found a stream of it pretty easily. youtube seems like the absolute easiest piracy for labels to find and stop, everything else it's a crap shoot.

I got it from w@ffles but rest assured I will pay for it when it's on spotify

i'll pay for it, but do i have to get all the videos, too? (grumbling at being forced to pay for stuff i don't want or need)

this is just like obamacare!

i'll pay for it, but do i have to get all the videos, too? (grumbling at being forced to pay for stuff i don't want or need)

― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, December 13, 2013 4:20 PM (17 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're not really paying for something you don't need in any strong sense; it's $16 and chances are it wouldn't be much or any less w/o the videos.

do the videos gobble-up much ipod memory?

(that was my real issue, anyway)

The vids range from 45mb to 80mb each.

CAN YOU EAT MY SKITTLES? IT'S THE SWEETEST IN THE MIDDLE

PINK IS THE FLAVOR. SOLVE THE RIDDLE

I has to rewind that one haha

I can already hear the tsk-tsking from certain corners of the internet, getting ready to bombard us with their disapproving think pieces about Beyonce's sexuality on this record.

yeah some ppl are gonna work overtime to contrive some reason that they weren't wrong about "bow down" etc before

Is she channeling Kendrick on Haunted?

PURCHASED

Will listen once I'm done watching DJANGO

not like anyone should be shocked, but that Flavorwire review of the album is so bad

is there reasoning to that beyond "it's a negative review, protect the party line"

(I like what I've heard of the album so far -- I've been asleep for about 16 of the past 24 hours so "so far" is applicable, sorry for not being plugged into the feed 24/7 -- but I won't lie, when this thing leaked there was this twinge of "oh god what if I don't like it")

haha yeah

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/branding/5839718/how-beyonces-beyonce-stayed-secret-until-the-day-of-release-its

is there reasoning to that beyond "it's a negative review, protect the party line"

― katherine, Friday, December 13, 2013 5:22 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

/429583/why-beyonce-makes-me-want-to-die/

I exited out of that review the instant the dude tried to suggest Beyonce has no business talking about the pervasiveness of the beauty myth because she was on a GQ cover.

But anyone honestly trying to put out any kind of album review of this--good, bad or even just indifferent--when they've not even had 24 hours to sit with it is basically demanding that they not be taken seriously.

that doesn't answer the question

"But anyone honestly trying to put out any kind of album review of this--good, bad or even just indifferent--when they've not even had 24 hours to sit with it is basically demanding that they not be taken seriously"

see that's the other thing that bugs me -- anyone writing a beyonce review today is doing it because their alternative is getting fired. you cannot blame them. if you have a writing job that you're probably scared will disappear tomorrow, for it is a writing job, are YOU going to be the person who talks back to your boss saying "Actually, I don't think I've spent enough time with this, I can't write anything"? it's blaming the writers again when the blame rests elsewhere

anyway back to discussing the album

a day is long enough to decide that its utterly fantastic. not long enough to do a real analysis of how much is going on here, but then a year might just barely be enough time for that.

"“XO”

I mean, what do you want me to say? It’s a big ol’ power ballad with a fucking choir on it."

Does that answer the question? Or how about that it's yet another white dude accusing her of being a bad feminist because her lyrics are not about helping the poor and needy?

It's one thing to have to publish something because someone is twisting your hand, it's something else entirely to substitute snark (please don't bring up the Scocca thing now) for open-mindedness and not have a feminism that's intersectional if you're going to bring it up in the first place.

"the album, which was code-named “Lily” to avoid leaks." lol

the independent takes the same tack as flavorwire - she's too sexual so she shouldn't be complaining about body anxieties when she's perpetuating them for other women. just how are ppl still writing this stuff >_>

plus the usual nonsense that this is the most sexually explicit album since erotica, which is seemingly trotted out as a line every other year.

I'd say Black Panties is a tad more explicit.

it's not bad because it's a negative review, it's bad because "i've always hated Beyonce and this album doesn't change that" is pretty meaningless

Honestly, if the reviewer at least showed signs of trying to understand it beyond seemingly throwing it on and barely listening, then "i've always hated Beyonce and this album doesn't change that" wouldn't be such a bad takeaway.

Why is Erotic trotted out as some shining example of sexual explicitness when there are so many Lil Kim tracks that would make it blush?

”Foreplay in the foyer/ Fucked up my Warhol.” OH, BOO FUCKING HOO.

that line is p hilarious, anyway i think this guy's favorite album is probably wide swing tremolo by son volt

Honestly, if the reviewer at least showed signs of trying to understand it beyond seemingly throwing it on and barely listening, then "i've always hated Beyonce and this album doesn't change that" wouldn't be such a bad takeaway.

― Murgatroid, Friday, December 13, 2013 7:54 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh sure, coulda been done with a greater degree of flair or intelligence. just saying a negative review might actually be damning if someone who's listened to and enjoyed 4 or B'Day could explain why this one is bad in comparison.

My main problem isn't even that it's negative, it's that it functions largely as a demonstration of the reviewers hate towards Beyonce/her celebrity and nothing more. As a music review it's empty and doesn't offer anything to grapple with. There's no criticism of the lyrics beyond "ew sex" and "Beyonce's bank balance indicates she isn't allowed to sing about this". No discussion of the production, no takedown of the vocals. It doesn't start any conversation about the music or contribute to any existing ones. He could've wrote all his angry feelings about Beyonce and kept it in a draft folder somewhere with no loss to any wider conversation about this album. This review substitutes snark for observations about the music.

the reviewer chooses to write about the album track-by-track (already one of the more regrettable formats for a record review imo) and then chooses to write in response to one track nothing more than "meh"

This review constitutes snark in place of the music. Oh Lorde, really Greer?

Sorry. Irrelavant and silly.

”Foreplay in the foyer/ Fucked up my Warhol.”

as long as they don't fuck up the yellow basquiat in the corner of the kitchen, which, as we learned in "picasso baby," has already been handed over to blue ivy. it would totally not to be cool to fuck that one up.

so, how haven't we talked about how jay raps "your breastesses are my breakfast"

we've milked it

lmao

there'd better be a jay-z free edit somewhere out there by the end of the weekend

i'm only half-listening to this on laptop speakers, but this is kinda dull. too much beyonce rapping, for one thing

every male voice on the album is unwelcome -- jay, frank, drake, ESPECIALLY timbaland

read in that billboard article that they're sending "blow" to top 40 and "drunk in love" to rap/r&b

apparently they're saving "XO" for later but i already heard that on top 40 today, i'd be surprised if "blow" actually ended up overtaking it regardless of what the label wants

i actually didn't hate drake here

every male voice on the album is unwelcome -- jay, frank, drake, ESPECIALLY timbaland

― some dude, Friday, December 13, 2013 9:24 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah i had this thought that drake & frank both have very specific sounds/voices and that it sounds pretty distracting in a context of a real artist and persona-driven album

whenever drake starts singing it immediately feels like you're listening to a different album, it's very jarring i think

I don't mind Ocean so much because of the incongruity: they're singing two different melody lines that come together thematically at one point. It's not "I Miss You."

i actually didn't hate drake here

― k3vin k., Friday, December 13, 2013 10:26 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the hook sounds bad but his like one-verse verse is really nice!

Like I said up above, Beyonce and Frank singing together is beautiful (I'm no Frank Ocean stan either, I realize his limitations)

i would be very surprised if Beyonce/Columbia's plans for the singles campaign dictate what songs actually hit and where. all the songs are available WITH videos right now, the market has total autonomy to pick the hits. also it seems weird to send "Blow" to pop radio and something else to R&B radio, that seems like the most obvious urban radio hit.

also it seems weird to send "Blow" to pop radio and something else to R&B radio, that seems like the most obvious urban radio hit.

yeah i thought this too, it seems like no one learned a lesson from "take back the night"

but yeah i'd be surprised if "XO" wasn't the huge pop hit off this and pretty quickly

B's always liked putting out simultaneous singles to watch them battle it out, though, this is just like the ultimate gladiator arena for that. "Single Ladies" stomped out "If I Were A Boy" really quickly, "Party" initially dominating "Countdown" and "Love On Top" until the latter eventually arose victorious.

the enduring single off '4' to me is "dance for you"

not from a preference standpoint, just in terms of what i feel like i still hear the most on radio

"party" is close tho

here it's "Best I Never Had"

i hear "dance for you" a lot on 99 jamz still (including tonight!)

oh I'm going by Hot 105 (which I know is adult R&B)

"Dance For You" was the last thing to hit so it got to stay around forever with no direct follow-up. "Love On Top" will be a recurrent forever though.

literally never heard "dance for you" on the radio, although if it is that frequently played it's yet another bonus-track hit

finally listened to the whole album and it is actually pretty great

i think i like/love every single track. it might be my aoty. even jay's rapping in "drunk in love," which i found horrible on first listen, now strikes me as bad in an endearing way that is ultimately essential to the track.

i would also be surprised if "blow" doesn't get some not-insignificant play on r&b radio (altho i'm sure "drunk in love" will do great). "xo" could be a monster on pop and i am close to thinking it's the best song ryan tedder has been involved in since 2007.

prob best thing he's done since "bleeding love"

'4' still sounds easily superior to this album to me

at its best 4 was amazing but it had its patchy/forgettable moments

i should probably revisit it sometime soon anyways

this album is just as patchy but is way more exhausting

well my version of 4 deletes "i was here" and "run the world" and adds in the three bonus tracks. front to back classic album that way.

i think this album is just a bit more attuned to my interests than 4, seems a little darker and edgier possibly.

obv b'day still her best album

I dunno. Tend to think 4 is. I don't love anything on B'Day like I do "Love on Top," "Countdown," "I Miss You," "Best I Never Had," and "1+1."

4>B'Day>Dangerously in Love>I Am...Sasha Fierce

yep

we don't gotta start ranking already. i'm with cad, though, the emotional space of this album is compelling to me (although "darker and edgier" is not how i'd sum it up).

yeah that was poor shorthand by me, it would take me some more time to fully articulate how this album feels different

well i think it's cool that beyonce saying she wanted to get this album to fans directly and without filter is backed up by this being easily her most personal album ever

what's "personal" mean? I've never known what that means.

intimate, open

for a phenomenon like Beyonce the personal vanishes in any kind of artistic context, I'd say.

it seems clear that the intent of this album is to appear personal

btw the synths on "No Angel" are crazy

i feel like she's always seemed pretty distant all things considered. def a great pop star but one whose music didn't exactly give you insight into her life or her feelings.

i think that wall has steadily been breaking down since sasha fierce

yeah "no angel" is a really good song

thank god beyonce ended up with that and not caroline polachek, there's no way she could've pulled off those vocals

She's probably the pop world's leading expert on euphoria and erotic loneliness (c/o 4).

xp was there any indication caroline wrote it for herself?

This is where we part company. In her best music -- going back to 1998 -- she sounds plenty human. When she commissions narrative songwriting like "Schoolin' Life" it's fascinating how it still sounds as euphoric as "Jumpin' Jumpin'." She sees her life as a procession of triumphs which luxury has deepened and, when she's sung about lows, the expensive beats underline.

It doesn't get anymore personal than a song about your miscarried child.

xp was there any indication caroline wrote it for herself?
--call all destroyer

can't link cuz phone but rolling stone posted an interview with her today where she said that "no angel" was a song she wrote on tour in Europe and got altered slightly once beyonce took control of it

surprisingly apt vulture comments section guy: "Is anyone else feeling a Madonna "Bedtime Stories" vibe from this album?"

she's pretty clearly pushing against her image on this, in a lot of ways the album is overtly ABOUT her being a perfectionist and a showbiz lifer and a sex symbol and commenting on that stuff. for her, being as personal as possible involves address the external artifice that is almost exclusive to her own life. her experience isn't universal but it doesn't mean it's not personal when she talks about it.

otm

can't link cuz phone but rolling stone posted an interview with her today where she said that "no angel" was a song she wrote on tour in Europe and got altered slightly once beyonce took control of it

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Friday, December 13, 2013 11:09 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah ok, thx

but they had studio sessions, it's not like beyonce just got passed a demo

surprisingly apt vulture comments section guy: "Is anyone else feeling a Madonna "Bedtime Stories" vibe from this album?"

― katherine, Friday, December 13, 2013 11:15 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've been thinking more janet. or The Velvet Rope.

Though I can see the "Bedtime Stories" comparison too.

This kind of feels like another rich person doing a 20/20 Experience :/

andrew sandwich in the house, watch your mouth

Is this the Kacey Musgraves thread?

sb

Is it really surprising that this feels "so deliberate, every note and word?" Isn't that her thing?

not really tbh - b'day was famously made in two weeks; both it and 4 sound very spontaneous throughout

Listen to this on random while wandering through a snowstorm, seriously

lengthy guide to all manner of 'hidden' stuff on the album/video http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/beyonce-videos-easter-eggs.html

ha, that was a fun read, even though i haven't watched all the videos yet

3rd listen somewhat disappointing. didn't find myself appreciating the samples or heavy-handedness. also don't know how i feel about Beyonce calling herself baby girl when she looks in the mirror.

still too early to tell though.

3rd listen was also the first listen on live speakers as opposed to headphones. not sure what that means yet

Really like this album

Esp haunted and no angel, kinda "last train to Paris"-y

no angel gets better every timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I think Heaven would've benefited from them hiring someone who actually knew their way around a piano.

I deleted that one after second play.

i'm hearing koganesqe free-lunches all over the production.

What does that mean?

http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/frankkogan/03.html

yea i noticed that too actually. i don't think it's a bad thing, but it's weird when the tune doesn't necessarily capitalize on it.

love the way the horns come in so late on blow, for example. or the passing one word sample on partition, etc.

direct transcriptions are so hard to read

Heaven followed by Blue is a great and really moving way to close out the album imo. Esp because of the way it connects with Pretty Hurts conceptually and the explicitly autobiographical nature of the album in general.

The sequencing on this album is so amazing. It's long but it just flows perfectly. And wow, there are some incredible songs on there.

"Blow" is my immediate fave. It was fun hearing it last night as the last song at a mostly-lesbian party.

this album is so good it almost retrospectively rescues her movie.

like the way the clips are woven around connects to her aesthetic both in the hbo docu and her tumblr/instagram really strongly. like she actually nails the kitty pryde thing and makes it more interesting by playing it against a life in the spotlight, so the tension between artifice and "personal" really becomes stronger.

partition maybe has the perfect metaphor here with the crowds teeming outside the limo while there's an incredibly intimate moment inside. "Over there I swear I saw them cameras flash / handprints and footprints on my glass."

"Beyonce’s self-titled surprise release, which hit iTunes exclusively on Thursday evening (9 p.m. PT), has now sold over 430,000 units in just over one day,"

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/5839787/beyonce-bound-for-no-1-as-sales-soar-past-400000?utm_source=twitter

can we also talk about all the different ways you can read "I Woke Up Like This" and how each time she says it I hear it differently. This is her prematurely air-conditioned supermarket.

holy smokes i was not expecting sales of this magnitude

yeah her last one only went platinum and this one's already nearly gold

can we also talk about all the different ways you can read "I Woke Up Like This" and how each time she says it I hear it differently

omg didn't notice this post before but yes, this struck me on listen ~3 and the line should become iconic for this reason.

It's an awesome line.

have we discussed the female empowerment angle?

-_______-

I think we can all more or less agree: BEY WINS 2014

I meant 2013 lol

it can be easy to forget how classy Beyonce is, but i think i've always appreciated the fact that her bar is set high, and i think this album is a good example of that

it is pretty hilarious that a week before the album dropped we were all "ok, album not happening this year, better start the 2014 thread"

shame because "i'm more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand" feels apt now.

PUNKED

bey wins 2014 as well

https://twitter.com/WhiteFeminist/status/411529821916004352

have we discussed the female empowerment angle?

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Sunday, December 15, 2013 4:01 AM (7 hours ago)

haha

First PEACHES album to thread

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i really dislike the drake song on this album

the loudspeaker vocal effect is such a bad look for him

and the Drake persona is exactly the sort of thing that Beyonce's existence refutes.

The dancing in the "Yonce" video was done in two takes with no choreography: http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/yonce-video-director-ricky-saiz

another thing i noticed is that this is her least vocally-bombastic record; we really only get some serious belting in "pretty hurts"

Blow and rocket are aite but they are def sorta outside the album's overall vibe

She sure belts in her section of "Drunk in Love."

I like the drake song, production is awesome

I'm not Beyoncé Stan by any means but the overall aesthetic of this record is up my alley in a way others weren't. Feels of a piece with the drake record

ew, god

complex stockholm syndrome

Beyoncé isn't rlly a complex core artist

And you're the one who's a take care fanboy!

because that record sounds little like A Drake Record

Deej iyo who are the top 5 complex core artists

http://www.complex.com/girls/2011/07/the-top-100-hottest-porn-stars/

fyi slideshow

because that record sounds little like A Drake Record

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Sunday, December 15, 2013 6:02 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think it sounds exactly like it or something but the minimal production style certainly says 2013 to me in a way that as I said feels "of a piece" with drake's album

i was talking about 'take care'

I'm talking about nothing was the same

i know. i was responding to this post

And you're the one who's a take care fanboy!

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Sunday, December 15, 2013 7:01 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

Take care doesn't sound like a drake record? What?

of course it sounds like a drake record but it's much more varied than his three other records and the sound that people romanticize & associate with him

i really like "mine" too. drake makes me roll my eyes about as often as i can tolerate or even enjoy him but i like where that song goes.

on that complex article, "you might also like"

The 25 Best Kanye West Verses OF ALL TIME!!!
21 Songs To Pregame To
Songs To Have Raunchy, Turnt Up Sex To
Kate Upton | Hot Complex
Lindsay Lohan x Kaws

also how do we read "i woke up like this" in light of the fact i don't think we've seen beyonce's real hair once this decade? (or maybe only once).

http://i.imgur.com/JHNurtQ.png

Complex Core Artist

the first 2 songs i heard on the radio from this record were "Flawless" and "Partition," which was pretty awesome, especially the former. i hope the 'there is no single, they're all singles' mentality persists for at least a few weeks before the inevitably particular songs take over.

oh man hearing "flawless" on the radio would be awesome. only ones i've heard are "drunk in love," "mine" and "blue," the former two several times.

"XO" is gonna be an immediate top 10 hit imo

really like that song as well

yeah it's just so joyous

I think "Jealous" might be my favorite track from this.

"XO" was the most prominently featured one in a new radio promo for her show here next week, certainly seems like the most likely big one.

the worst thing about "Drunk On Love" being a single is that i feel like it might outshine the much better "Part II (On The Run)" from the Jay album that was just released as a single.

this album just murdered my subwoofers

"XO" is interesting b/c it shows how much more enjoyable Tedderisms are when you add a slight Caribbean lilt - makes sense given how much dancehall is similarly unashamedly OTT sentimentalist.

Saw some performance art tonight that included dancing in fog to a slowed down "drunk on love". The choreography was undercooked but it had me looking forward to a chopped and screwed remix.

all "xo" is making me want to do is listen to "halo" at the moment. it'll work amazing live tho.

actually i feel most of the ballads on this wouldn't sound out of place on the first half of i am... sasha fierce. they're slushy in a way 4 avoided.

I've only listened to this one and a half times but I thought that for a (largely) ballad-based album it avoided slush almost entirely. Certainly nothing that approaches the worst bits of that first I Am... disc.

the best thing about drunk in love is how it is going to totally supplant the rihanna song of the (almost-)same name

55 seconds into XO, on the last 'baby' before the chorus, her voice just completely croaks! I love it, it's such a vulnerable, amazing moment. In general, she is really hoarse thoughout, and it's exactly what the song needed, and what very few modern vocalists would figure out.

XO is a bit Lion King-y.

I love her vocals on this album though. Has she ever sounded better?

another thing i noticed is that this is her least vocally-bombastic record; we really only get some serious belting in "pretty hurts"

― josh, Sunday, December 15, 2013 7:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it feels like "i miss you" off 4 was def a jump-off point for her

Blow and rocket are aite but they are def sorta outside the album's overall vibe

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Sunday, December 15, 2013 7:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i feel the opposite about "rocket", it's like this album's centrepiece and maybe most crucial song - it's not just an incredible epic bedroom song, every line is a discourse on her, her public image, what she should be/has been/is...

With online debut Beyonce upends music market.

every male voice on the album is unwelcome -- jay, frank, drake, ESPECIALLY timbaland

― some dude, Friday, December 13, 2013 9:24 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah totally. the "drunk in love" video makes jay-z...not welcome exactly because holy shit that verse contains SO MANY total clunkers, but he seems so relaxed and unguarded in the video that it kind of fits

and the Drake persona is exactly the sort of thing that Beyonce's existence refutes.

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, December 15, 2013 6:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly - it actually feels like the "this is a song for the good girls" sample is a refutation in itself, it's like it's c/ped from a different song in a mocking fashion. then he gets an actual verse as well? feel like "mine" is not only the album's weakest song sonically but also in terms of how much sense it makes

i haven't watched any of the videos yet, happy to just digest the music for now. kinda don't wanna watch them all on a little laptop screen. is a DVD coming out the same time as the CD or not yet?

I'm waiting for HD personally

"I've been a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad girl / tell me what you're gonna do about that" in "Rocket" made me lol in the elevator this morning.

Love the little interpolations towards the end of "Rocket" = "When I Get You Alone", "Ching Ching" etc.

55 seconds into XO, on the last 'baby' before the chorus, her voice just completely croaks! I love it, it's such a vulnerable, amazing moment. In general, she is really hoarse thoughout, and it's exactly what the song needed, and what very few modern vocalists would figure out.

― Frederik B, Monday, December 16, 2013 11:22 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes! I love this. And, right: maybe only Beyonce would figure out that on this song she needed to sound exhausted, physically spent, beaten in the best way.

i feel the opposite about "rocket", it's like this album's centrepiece and maybe most crucial song - it's not just an incredible epic bedroom song, every line is a discourse on her, her public image, what she should be/has been/is...

― lex pretend, Monday, December 16, 2013 7:04 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, rocket & blow both have pretty evident R&B precedents and from a sonic pov are both fairly traditional sounding

like...most of the rest of the album?

xp i believe the dvd and cd are being sold together. or if not i'd be surprised if they weren't available on the same day considering so much of the marketing angle is about this album being a multimedia experience etc.

i've always had a slight soft spot for beyonce's slush records but "xo" feels extra special to me compared to e.g. "halo"

I don't know if it's been discussed already but one of the things that annoyed me about this is, as one of the rare people on earth who still buy physical formats, having to buy the itunes thing without the possibility to buy the CD+the downloadable stuff at the same time.
so now, if I want to have the physical, I have to buy the album again when it's released on CD.
damn I'm old.

xpost I think "Blow" and "Rocket" are both more invested in genre tradition than the rest of the album; "Pretty Hurts" and "Heaven", say, are hardly setting out to startle you sonically, but nor do they feel like they're particularly deliberate sonically (it's more that "this are serious song" tends to constrain your stylistic options somewhat), and it's that sense of intentionality that marks out the first two tunes, makes them feel like they would have fit well on 4.

A lot of the other material obv sounds of its genre but more because that's the genre Beyonce happens to work in, I feel like this album is really slanted towards using genre to give effect to Beyonce's vocal charisma (is there a plural of "charisma"? I feel like you need a complex chart to map all of the characters, personas, moods, inflections etc. she moves through here), the different stylistic costumes changes are a means to the end that is the vocal performance.

4 by contrast felt slanted towards using Beyonce's vocal charisma to give effect to the most winning qualities of R&B qua R&B.

As distinctions go it's not particularly marked but that's what feels like the key point of difference between the two albums for me.

A great detail on Beyoncé's vocal styling from the writer behind "No Angel":

About two weeks ago, remembers Polachek, whose efforts on "No Angel" garnered her a songwriting and production credit, heard a version of the track. "It was slightly different from the album version," she says. Comparing Beyoncé's treatment to her original treatment, Polachek notes that, "Her groove was different—my vocals were jumpier, and her's were more like panting. And in my version the synths detuned really quickly for a second; she did the same thing but with her voice. It sounds like the whole song melts. It's amazing."

The "baby's" on No Angel actually remind of Ciara more than anything else, especially the "you you you's" during Promise.

I think what I love most about the "Drunk In Love" video is the looks on Bey and Jay's faces while he's rapping, like "honey are you sure you wanna go THERE?" And "oh yea I'm going there"

oh, this was a SURPRISE album, no wonder everyone but me is eggscited

ok i'm thinking about charisma and chiasmus now.

also does anyone else get mia vibes from xo?

do u think xo is about xojane? is beyonce promoting young teen thinkpieces

is it because MIA had a song called xxxo

Chris Molanphy with a killer piece:

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/161-beyonce-on-the-charts/

that garth comparison is useful cuz there's this weird possibility w/ beyonce that she's simultaneously rewriting the rules here but at the same time doing something that can only work once. it will be interesting to see what kind of legs it has, though presumably from this point forward you could use a traditional promotional model to give it a second wind. also somewhat difficult to measure how much this approach really did work since for all the talk of 'omg surprise!' she spent a considerable amount of 2013 on what was effectively a promotional tour for it, even if 'it' didn't exist yet. as much as there's an mbv (or maybe more to the point in rainbows) feel to this, the whole leadup also felt like the leadup to use yr illusion at times.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/12/16BEYONC-Shatters-iTunes-Store-Records-With-Over-828-773-Albums-Sold-in-Just-Three-Days.html

wow @ those numbers

the full video for "drunk in love" is now streamable on her vevo channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1JPKLa-Ofc

Wait she broke the US first week sales record with 3 days of sales??

xp I still can't believe that's a Hype Williams video

she broke itunes first week sales record w/ 3 days. timberlake still has the highest first week sales for this year w/ ~900k. back in the nineties the big releases could routinely do over a million first week. n*sync did 2.4 million first week sales for no strings attached.

Imagine if she'd had all week!

she'd have 5 BAJILLION units moved

"Yoncé all on his mouth like lick her" is p cute

liquor*

funny/sensible mondegreen tho

the double entendre hadn't even occurred to me until now.

What did you have for breakfast?

Well I mean I know it's "liquor" I was just pointing out the double entendre

I had Best Reese's for breakfast

These Reese's puffs are the best, thanks Yoncé

You were supposed to say rubber buns, jeez

omg seriously I cannot not giggle at the delivery of "tell me what you're gonna do about that" in Rocket

Does this song read like simultaneously filthy and cutesy adorable for anyone else? Like it feels so innocent

"We snax again the mornin, your best Reese's is my breakfast"

lololol

While Beyonce's new fast-selling self-titled album is sure to be on many Christmas wish lists, there's at least one major retailer that's opting not to sell the album: Target.

"At Target we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections," Target spokesperson Erica Julkowski tells Billboard.

She continues, "While there are many aspects that contribute to our approach and we have appreciated partnering with Beyonce in the past, we are primarily focused on offering CDs that will be available in a physical format at the same time as all other formats. At this time, Target will not be carrying Beyonce's new self-titled album 'Beyonce.'"

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5839840/target-wont-sell-beyonce-new-album-walmart-retail

what the fuck is that about?

Target relies on exclusive Target-only albums like Taylor Swift to boost their profits

lol. i wonder how many people will ask in-store where the beyonce album is during their holiday shopping.

That sort of thing is part of why this isn't the game changer some are touting it to be. Most artists aren't in a position to shrug at big retailers like Target refusing to stock their album like Beyonce is.

i don't understand exactly what you mean. target refusing to stock an album for that reason is not unprecedented btw: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/12/entertainment/la-et-ms-target-frank-ocean-channel-orange-20120712

that said i don't really understand what people are referring to when they say this is going to be a game-changer. do they mean the lack of pre-release promotion? the surprise release? selling videos as part of the package?

Target negotiates with big name artists to sell Target-exclusive versions of their album

http://www.target.com/p/taylor-swift-red-deluxe-with-6-bonus-tracks-only-at-target/-/A-14237117

The hypothetically game-changing part of this is that this surprise package release only works if the album is perceived as being strong enough as a whole. If Rihanna had tried to do this with her latest, people would complain that they couldn't pick and choose the best songs. But this package was strong enough to be considered an event. Therefore, it might be the first commercial 'trend' in god knows how long, which actually includes making good music...

i think it's interesting because there have been a whole string of 'surprise' releases in recent years and the way each differed has seemed specific to that artist and probably influenced the ones that came after. the Radiohead one made sense for them as an 'aor band' that isn't really about singles and was trying to become more independent of the major label system, the Watch The Throne and Frank Ocean albums established the idea of an early digital release to beat leaks, the Yeezus release was more about there being no advance single or traditional campaign, etc. obviously the number of artists who would benefit from doing the exact thing Beyonce did is short (I saw someone on Twitter suggest Dr. Dre release Detox like this, which seems like a cool way to salvage that mess). i think next year we'll get a few people trying new variations on the idea, though.

xp

anyone tempted to write a thinkpiece suggesting that the old model is over or outdated or not as effective cuz of beyonce vs lady gaga should remember that timberlake went totally the opposite approach and had comparable (bigger but w/ more retail outlets and time so i'll call it a wash) first week sales and the biggest selling album of the year. and obv this approach could only conceivably work w/ artists of a certain amount of aura and devotion in their market. lorde can't pull this off w/ her next release and while adele maybe could it's probably not the smartest approach (esp since she hits so many demos, many of whom won't be on twitter at midnight on a weeknight).

yeah i don't think this stuff kills off the 'old model' at all. but it's worth considering that the old old kind of WAS to just release an album, with maybe one advance single a month before (if not waiting until AFTER the album release to issue a single), and the interminable yearlong multi-single campaign preceding most major label albums only became standard in the last decade or so. Timberlake was actually going against the grain by putting just a 2 month window between the initial announcement and the album release.

I think nostalgia and thirst for new Timberlake music made his elaborate, full-on media blitz a venture that paid off, as it took the audience that was already there and worked them into a fever pitch. After all that media saturation anything less than those numbers would have been seen as embarrassing (incidentally Bruno Mars moved comparable numbers worldwide and had better performing singles this year with a less rigorous promo campaign).

the interminable yearlong multi-single campaign preceding most major label albums would very very much welcome the death of this model fwiw even if it means liveblogging instant response hot takes becoming the standard way major releases get reviewed and you have to wait until the year end roundup for anything w/ five minutes of thought put into it (and might not even get it then, eg 'mirrors' in the pfork countdown)

I think the marketing/sales angle on this album is less interesting in terms of big popular albums per se than in the specific world of R&B, where the death by a thousand buzz singles problem is much worse than in basically any other area of pop.

It's notable that up until a week ago it seemed like Beyonce had fallen into the very trap we previously could safely assume she was too big for, so her capacity to circumvent this is more interesting for the specific lessons it might bear for R&B artists.

Interesting how Beyonce is held to more typical 'pop star' standards despite largely being an R&B/hip-hop act with pop leanings and really doubling down on the R&B/hip-hop stuff with this release especially. Feels like a holdover from the fact that she came up as a solo act in a time when certain strains of R&B and pop were all pretty much the same thing and managed to mostly survive the creeping irrelevance of R&B on top 40 radio.

yeah she's kinda the last R&B singer standing that still operates on that scale. Usher is arguably still in that stratosphere, but his last album's total sales were less than what she just did in a day.

let me sit this

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssss

on you

maybe the GOAT opening two seconds of any song

A reference point for this album that maybe only Lex will appreciate: From The Choirgirl Hotel.

ha you'll have to expand on that one, i'm all ears though...

the significance of releasing it with no warning is being a bit overstated - you could argue she actually gave us a year's warning, people have been speculating about the exact possibility of a surprise release for months, it's not a game-changer if it's only an option for artists at a certain level etc.

but the most interesting aspect of the release is not unbundling the album as individual tracks, or even having an audio-only option (and no sign that this will change?). has any artist done that before? and it's not even an itunes/amazon deal, it's full price, £12.99 or nothing. it's an insistent "i am an Albums Artist now" move (seeing as actually making a superlative album-qua-album last time didn't convince people of this), it's a refusal to lower her prices...i think that was the biggest risk here.

i sort of feel like 4 leaking over a month in advance had a big influence on how beyoncé went about this album - haven't seen that mentioned much.

a lot of different reasons, but one is the consistent return of limpid piano that gets subsumed within enjoyably heavyhanded arrangements.

Also "Ghost / Haunted" reminds me a bit of "Cruel".

What do you think of this vis a vis 4?

i sort of feel like 4 leaking over a month in advance had a big influence on how beyoncé went about this album - haven't seen that mentioned much.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, December 17, 2013 4:30 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah tbh i totally forgot how early that one leaked. although its sales were still pretty strong and the early reviews were good, but yeah i'm sure that pissed her off.

Yeah this is just about Beyonce knowing she's bigger than any traditional promotional tactics and just letting people rush for it. Won't work with 99.9% of other artists. You pretty much need to be at the peak of your powers for it to work.

Or you need to be someone like David Bowie with a massive audience who didn't expect anything from you at all.

yeah it's ironic that much of the talk this year was about how she wasn't confident about her status, how her label wanted her to redo stuff.

this album feels really intimate to me, not necessarily in a more personal kind of way but it feels like it's the kind of album made after cocooning yourself away for a while (and having lots of conjugal sex). erotica is really off-base as a comparison point - in terms of mood i'm actually most reminded of vespertine - the structures and vocal delivery are so loose, but they change in the most intuitively spontaneous ways, and everything feels in the exact right place, and it's so immersive. in comparison, 4 was a very public-facing album. relistening to both, 4 just bursts out of the speakers with so much force; whereas beyoncé sort of envelops you inside itself. even the nominal uptempos like "blow" and "partition" - how sparse are they, how much space. "***flawless" is the exception but even that feels like a tactic to pull you inside a club banger to hear chimamanda's words.

but beyoncé ALSO feels like the culmination of everything beyoncé has ever half touched on in her career to date as well

(and of course we know that "cocooned away from the world" is exactly what she hasn't been in 2013)

it's an insistent "i am an Albums Artist now" move (seeing as actually making a superlative album-qua-album last time didn't convince people of this), it's a refusal to lower her prices...i think that was the biggest risk here.

― lex pretend, 17. december 2013 10:30 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, and I'll contend again that this move can only work if it's made with an(other) superlative album-qua-album, which is what makes this so exciting to me. Also, could it be that 4, while never having an impact on the charts, actually helped her reputation as a 'serious' artist, given that so many of the songs turned out to be growers on the radio?

I won't bother looking up its Metacritic score but, yeah, I've heard more critics say in the last two years that it's her best than I remember at the time.

judging by the metacritic score for this one, it's getting pretty much across the board raves - i think partly because she's not only considered a 'serious artist' (which 4 no doubt helped but also a sense she's paid her dues having been around for 15 years), but also she's considered an ~important~ artist now.

fwiw, re "much of the talk this year was about how she wasn't confident about her status, how her label wanted her to redo stuff." -- there's the same talk, equally unsubstantiated, this year

happened this year also

For better or worse, this album has been keeping me going the past few days...

wait what was the talk _this_ year i'm confused

So this was the band that beat Girls Tyme on Star Search...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n95GdcNJsg

SFJ's review.

hoooooo that lede

"death of several paradigms" rolls off the tongue like Skittles

that's the sweetest in the middle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIv1z6n3Xxo

ok, now I'm all choked up

<3 this girl

seriously

I just bought the album yesterday, hadn't heard anything really at all...cannot stop listening to it. SFJ was right about one thing -- it gets better every time I listen to it

girl made a fucking ALBUM and a half, hell yes

heard "xo" on the radio for the first time driving home as the sun was setting and promptly got chills

p. cool video

Good job SFJ

fyi:

1. "Drunk in Love"
2. "Rocket"
3. "Jealous"
4. "Flawless"
5. "Blue"
6. "Pretty Hurts"
7. "Blow"
8. "Ghost" / "Haunted"
9. "XO"
10. "Yoncé" / "Partition"
11. "No Angel"
12. "Superpower"
13. "Mine"
14. "Heaven"

Heaven is kind of a snooze

Clutch Cargo mouths in the "Grown Woman" video are v creepy
but that super incredible beat dropping at 3:08 would be THE BEST moment on the album if it was on the album, like god how could they leave that off the album proper

I love everything abt the "***Flawless" video so much

not ready by a longshot to rank anything but "Heaven" is lovely and emotionally powerful imo

ugh god it sounds like a memorial youtube video

1. Ghost / Haunted
2. Yonce / Partition
3. XO
4. No Angel
5. Flawless
6. Jealous
7. Rocket
8. Blue
9. Heaven
10. Drunk In Love
11. Mine
12. Pretty Hurts
13. Blow
14. Superpower

10? Seriously?

Everything before it is amazing, and it would be higher but for the rap.

superpower and mine are clearly the weak tracks on the album. outside of that its all up in the air for me.

surprised you're so down on blow though tim -- i'd be interested to hear why.

I'm not really, i basically like everything here.

Basically I've ranked the songs by how interesting I find Beyonce's vocals on them

gotcha -- its a standout track for me, but her vocals are very little of the reason why.

blow
flawless
yonce/partition
????

it keeps changing. Blue is starting to really kill me and ROCKET, fuck

This album is something else.

is it weird that i want the physical copy on this one?

it would be higher but for the rap.

The less I hear from Jay Z in any context these days, the better.

is it weird that i want the physical copy on this one?

Nope. I plan to buy it on Friday.

I could swear I read it was coming to stores on December 20, but now I can't find it for sale anywhere. (That's when you can buy the digital files separately tho.)

Yeah I heard Friday is release date, no idea where that came from tho

i've avoided listening to it till now; haven't had the experience of buying a disc unheard in maybe a decade and wanna give it a nostalgic shot

Part of me thinks that "Heaven" would have benefited a bit more if it switched places with "Superpower" because both of them are emotional in kind of the same way despite one being about love and the other being about loss, but the latter is way more powerful to me so going from that to "Heaven" is a bit of a step down.

According to industry sources, a physical version of the album will start arriving to some U.S.-based brick-and-mortar retailers by Wednesday, Dec. 18. Most physical retailers will receive it by Friday, Dec. 20. (link)

i am going to buy a copy too

i don't really like "drunk in love" at all, sounds like one of the bad new the-dream songs

also the secondary synth melody in the chorus of that song sounds so chintzy to me, i hate it

13. Blow

Tim, I excommunicate you.

Now, I'm gonna be the real heretic and and say nothing after "Partition" has mad a big impression on me. This album is basically tracks 2-6 for me right now.

Oh except "***Flawless" obv, I can't believe I forgot that. smh

i totally love "rocket," as shameless an exercise as it is

Heaven is surprisingly beautiful and unsettling to me, and the sequencing is v. important - Blue sounds so much more desperately powerful for following it. I guess a great deal of sentimentality creeps in at the end of this but somehow it feels... earned?

didn't think i liked "drunk in love" at first and that really is a stinker of a rap but i love beyoncé herself on it, her voluptuous wailing is kind of "baby boy"-like

sentimentality of last two tracks is definitely earned and when you listen to them they're actually pretty good songs but tbh i'm quite likely to end the album at "superpower" as well

don't get what's shameless about "rocket", it's the centrepiece of this

very much not set in stone yet:

1. no angel
2. yoncé/partition
3. rocket
4. ***flawless
5. ghost/haunted
6. blow
7. superpower
8. drunk in love
9. pretty hurts
10. xo
11. jealous
12. blue
13. heaven
14. mine

"My aspiration in life... would be... to be happy"

I listened to this on headphones for the first time and really I can only cosign everyone else who has said the SOUND of this record is amazing. Like the production and textures are off the fucking hook, every single sound has been thought about and even things that would sound cheap in the work of even another A-lister (ie big bass drops) just sound really full and luxurious.

It helps because I don't think the songwriting is quite up to the standard of the best bits of 4 - a song like No Angel would be a fairly standard breathy slow jam in the hands of anyone else but the sounds underneath keep changing throughout in a way that most other purveyors of breathy slow jams just wouldn't bother with.

Listing tracks in preferential order is boring but I'm enjoying the second half slightly more that the first at this stage, it just seems to really slip into another register from Rocket onwards and everything just seems huge in its scope, even when the subject matter is largely intimate. The structure of the album reminds me a lot of Hounds of Love in that regard. It's all great though.

I can't work out whether the non-Flawless spoken word excerpts are thematically essential or just annoying. The first fifteen seconds of the album are probably the worst though, and that includes the bit when Drake appears.

partition > haunted > flawless > xo > blow > no angel > rocket > drunk in love > jealous > blue > pretty hurts > heaven > superpower > mine

the spoken word stuff only works for me in so much as it works in the videos, so it... reminds me of the way the videos theme each song? Which is as much limiting interpretation as deepening meaning.

i love you dudes who are ranking tracks but seriously if your favourite tracks aren't changing every time you listen (or even as you listen) idk if we can truly be friends.

oh, yeah. i've woken up with a different song in my head every day since i bought this. the top 2 are definitely my favourites and the drake song is definitely my least favourite, but everything from 3-13 is basically interchangeable

OMG she apparently recorded "no angel" DOWN THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE at this place: http://russellsofclapton.com/

why didn't she text??

Very well -- I'll relisten to "Blue" and "Heaven" b/c you guys say so (I'd already deleted them from the playlist).

That might have been the same period when she and Jay just randomly decided to wander into the coffee shop down the road from me. They were in London quite a bit a while back.

so is the album called Beyoncé or BEYONCÉ ?

(keeping in mind Jay-Z recently changed his name to JAY Z)

Critics got special keyboards with which to type the accented e

capitalising album titles has been one of the worst trends in pop this year

tho BANGERZ just about gets away with it

Bangerz isn't capitalised! (It should be tho)

Accents are easy and important, no excuses for ignoring them

Beyonce'

I like how someone ignores the accent at the very beginning of track two.

OMG she apparently recorded "no angel" DOWN THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE at this place: http://russellsofclapton.com/

why didn't she text??

― lex pretend, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 12:22 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The ramshackle cottage she sings in front of the video clip for this - theoretically in Houston - is actually down the road from my house.

UGH GOD I WANT THIS SO BAD

http://us.shop.beyonce.com/index.php/apparel/pink-name-fleece-crew-neck.html

ghost is a cool song, there's something going on there

it's like pj harvey or tori amos or something, it's cool

there are also definitely elements of this record that do what "government hooker" was trying to do about 50 million times better

all i want for xmas is this:

http://skreened.com/qtees/liberte-egalite-beyonce

Hmmm... just realized the lyrics are "What goes up, ghost around" - that's... not great.

It's a cool track though.

yeah i realized that. i kind of don't mind it. it's like, whatever.

Weird that she filmed in Brunswick, I used to live around the corner as well on Albert St!

Also didn't know that ‘No Angel’ was written and produced by Caroline Polachek from Chairlift.

my favorites and least favorites are always shifting