Lets gather up all your reviews here and turn them in.

We will not grade them, but look at your responses and agree or disagree.

[Edited 11/18/08 8:20am]

for a change i like her ballads. her fast songs are unlistenable outside of Single Ladies.

ehuffnsd said:

Really? . Thats why I want to buy it

ehuffnsd said:

Hell, Single Ladies is unlistenable if you ask me.

daPrettyman said:

That song gives me life

paisleypark4 said:

I can't stand the "uh oh ohs" throughout the song. To me, it makes up for writing a real chorus.

daPrettyman said:

It reminds me of doo wop...it has a memorable melody. I do hate after the bridge the chorus goes off track with the drum beat and it trips over itself.

As wrote in a previous post,I got an advanced copy of the CD a few days ago. I am sorry to report that it is not great. The "Fierce" side is so uneven in terms of material it is really hard to listen to. The other disk, is just typical Beyonce...nothing special. The track that was written by Face, is okay. But, the rest is just, BLAH!!

So far the reviews I've read are mixed...some critics think its a good album, others arent lovin it. Here are a few reviews:

BEYONCE 'FIERCE' A FARCE

Beyonce's apparent schizophrenia on her new record - where her bootilicious real self and her bootilicious alter ego Sasha Fierce share tracks - is a confusing, ill-conceived and ultimately silly concept.

What gives? If this album tanks, will Beyonce point a finger at Sasha for mucking it up with flash dance tracks, or is Sasha going to blame Beyonce for bludgeoning fans with a half-dozen self-examining nu-soul ballads in a row?

Dr. Freud might be able to straighten Lady B out, but the split personality of the album isn't the problem - it's merely a distraction. The real trouble is that this double disc needed to be edited according to the A&R man's record rule: good songs in, bad songs out.

Simple.

You don't have to have a golden ear to say with authority "Ave Maria" - which uses the hymn standard as its foundation - is a disaster. You'd have to consult "Velveeta" to make this song any cheesier.

"Halo" is another forgettable, easy-listening schlock track that tries desperately to be delicate and emotional, but fails. "Satellites" launches Beyonce into the dubious orbit of show tunes.

Where B gets an A+ is on the gender-bender opener, "If I Were a Boy," where she shows off sassy, breezy swing in her voice; then there's the equally fun, fast, upbeat syncopated pop tune "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." This is the kind of stuff she has always done best as a solo artist, and it still works here.

For the best of this two-disc collection, check out the slow scorch of "Video Phone," where Beyonce recalls the same vibe as the sexy overdrive of her old hit "Freakum Dress."

If there was ever an album that would be best heard by cherry-picking individual songs at a digital download site, "I am . . . Sasha Fierce" is it. To try out the songs, you might want to select "check out the record" for free at myspace.com/beyonce.

http://www.nypost.com/sev...139329.htm


Beyonce Knowles moves up a notch by lowering her guard with 'I Am ... Sasha Fierce'
Tuesday, November 18th 2008, 4:00 AM


Pay no attention to the drag queen-ready title of ­Beyoncé's new album. She may have titled her third solo CD "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," but the music seems hellbent on proving just the opposite.

It finds this battering ram of a star not just lowering her guard, but practically opening up a vein.

That's partially by design. Beyonce divided the 16-song double set in two, devoting the first half (dubbed "I Am ...") to aching ballads, the second ("Sasha Fierce") to her usual "I am woman, hear me roar" anthems. At least that's what Beyoncé stated. In truth, the "upbeat" section includes its share of ballads, too. And even the harder, faster section's songs express more yearning than defiance.


All this comes as more than a revelation. It's a relief — especially following Beyoncé's last album, 2006's hastily recorded "B'Day." That disk seemed primed to compete with the music of then boyfriend Jay-Z for hardness, anger and distance.

How ironic that only now that Beyoncé has married Jay has she released an album rippling with need and hurt.


The result has done wonders for both her character, and the breadth of the music. Avoiding the usual R&B clichés, Beyoncé's new songs draw on the wider palette of pop. The song "Disappear" has some of the intimate chord structures of a John Lennon ballad, while "Smash Into You" shows influence from the musicals ­Beyoncé branched into with "Dreamgirls." "That's Why You're Beautiful" even swipes some chords from grunge.

The loosening of Beyoncé's melodic structures allows her to circumvent the constricted, and rhythm-driven, shouts of her ­earlier work to access new parts of her range. She snakes up the crescendo of "Satellites" with fresh grace, and embraces ­operatic flourishes in "Ave Maria" with heavenly élan. The album's first single, "If I Were a Boy," presents an ideal marriage of Beyoncé's newly empathic lyrics and non-­cliché melodies, which studiously avoid the ­melodic limitations of post-hip-hop R&B.

Beyoncé even worked to undermine her famous perfectionism: In some songs she purposely hits bum notes.

Not every song mines the warm new mode. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" honors the sporty beat and in-your-face lyrics Beyoncé has drawn on since her days in Destiny's Child. Same goes for the tellingly titled "Diva."

But even a song called "Ego" avoids expectations by celebrating a man's cockiness rather than her own. More, the album ends the "Sasha" section with perhaps the most open-hearted ballad on the CD, "Scared of Lonely." It's a whole new Beyoncé here, bold and brave enough to finally let herself be weak.

http://www.nydailynews.co..._lowe.html
[Edited 11/18/08 13:05pm]

Ive had the cd now about a week, and its not doing anything for me. I have all her stuff, solo and DC, and this isnt really antyhing new. The ballads are ok, hit and miss, but the theme on every single one is the same for the most part, nothing stands out. The fierce disk, is nothing "fierce" its stuff she has been doing for years now, its just a seperate disk for types of music, something that xtina did 2 years ago, but at least then there was a totally different style in the music. So i dont hate it, but its nothing that holds my interest for very long

NaughtyKitty said:

This project sounds like it was written, performed and produced in 30 minutes.

Graycap23 said:

Like the last one.

http://idolator.com/50918...f-her-soul

Beyoncé Bares Just A Little Piece Of Her Soul:Our look at the closing lines of the biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to I Am... Sasha Fierce, the new double-CD, double-personality album by Beyoncé:



• "In the end, neither Beyoncé personality gets fully developed here. I Am... Sasha Fierce is supposed to be a declaration, but it sounds more like I Am... Not Sure." [Newsday] http://www.newsday.com/en...6691.story

• "I Am… Sasha Fierce is ultimately a more focused and less schizophrenic ride than the hype might lead you to believe, especially on the shorter standard version. And if you don’t really feel like you know this distant superstar any better when you’re done, at least it’s enjoyable spending time an hour with her, in any and all of her personas." [Chicago Sun-Times] http://www.suntimes.com/e...08.article

• "So consider I Am....Sasha Fierce Beyoncé's Obama album. Through it, she is imagining a pop sound that doesn't foreground race, but which still respects its roots in the black community. She's not there yet, but the effort is fascinating, and hopefully she will keep on this path. After all, the Obama that Beyoncé invokes with the name of her alter ego is still only a child." [LAT] http://latimesblogs.latim...ent-b.html
^^ are they being serious? Man, some critic must've got PAID for that!


• "The collection might have been better served had she edited it down to one disc, rather than belabor what ultimately seems like a marketing gimmick. And while fans will surely speculate, there's little in the lyrics that feels more revealing than previous emotional fire-starters such as 2006's 'Ring the Alarm.' But who said we had a right to that, anyway? For all the pop-fantastic satisfaction that Beyoncé the entertainer provides, the public can surely reward her by leaving Beyoncé the private citizen well enough alone." [EW] http://www.ew.com/ew/arti...10,00.html

• "Almost equally weird, but much better, is 'Video Phone,' which introduces us to the unlikely figure of Beyoncé Knowles, amateur pornographer: 'You want me naked? If you like this position you can tape it.' She doesn't make for the world's most believable Reader's Wife, but it doesn't matter, because the spare, eerie backdrop of groans and echoing electronics is so thrilling. There's a lesson in there you wish she had heeded while making the ostensibly soul-baring I Am...: in pop, honesty isn't always the best policy." [Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk...sha-fierce

^^Oh no please dont tell me she's trying to go the Janet raunch route now

the uptempo songs are growing on me rapidly, because at first i was quite dissapointed. the slow songs are never my cup of tea.

dawntreader said:

did u get the deluxe edition? They didnt have it at Target so i had to get the regular one

paisleypark4 said:

erm... i erm... didn't actually buy it.

paisleypark4 said:

this is why i hate "big box" retailers as opposed to the normal plain music stores which dont exist anymore. The "big box" stores alot of time dont realize there are different versions, dont put them out till later in the day, forget to order them, etc...

I bought the walmart version which I prefer so much more. Most of the songs that I was feeling are on there, with a couple of extras I don't care for. I'm proud of her and even my sis who's hated Beyonce for years has warmed up to her cause of songs like If I Were a Boy and Ave Maria.

haha, I wasn't even aware it was allready released.

I listened to it today and i only like half the songs. I only like 3 songs from Sasha Fierce.

I listened on Myspace. I really expected to like her Sasha Fierce CD..

as predicted, the I Am... Beyonce disc was just too bland for my tastes


and "Single Ladies" was the only song I really liked on Sasha Fierce's side.

mmmmmaybe "Video Phone"


pretty disappointing considering she said they recorded about 80 songs for this album and narrowed it down.


I have no clue what else they plan on releasing as singles. I was really disappointed.

For your information I bought B'Day on the strength of "Irreplaceable" but there is nothing like that on the I Am disc.

Old? Two years ago!

NaughtyKitty said:

How does a reviewer know it was ON PURPOSE????

am i the only one who thinks the name Sasha Fierce sounds corny and played somehow?

wonder505 said:

Top Model....They always use the word fierce on that show....and that show is played! Every performer has a different personality on stage....it doesn't mean that they should give themselves another name.

wonder505 said:

EVERYONE thinks it's ridiculous

...but don't think that'll stop the record sales...

paisleypark4 said:

I'm pissed that I can't find the so-called "Deluxe" edition anywhere (so much so that I think I'm about to play the copy I didn't buy ).

I forget which resources a compact disk is composed of but, whatever they are, Beyonce needs to be forced to front the cost for research into how to recycle them into something more useful. Thousands of unpurchased "Regular" versions of her album will collecting dust from this day forward. And with good reason...

I mean seriously; people don't have to buy music anymore nor do they have to go to a store. What reason would a paying consumer have to buy the retail version of "I Am...Sasha Fierce" which has considerably less songs verses the version with more (unless they just couldn't contain themselves any longer)? I walked out of Best Buy empty-handed, went to Target, and walked out empty-handed once again.

Bonus tracks?
The "deluxe" edition is AKA: The completed version of "I Am...Sasha Fierce".
The regular might as well be 2 EPs packaged together.

...It just hit me that this whole situation is a world-class publicity stunt. Now she can brag about how many stores "sold out" of "Sasha Fierce" when really she probably divided the typical shipment of an album into two halves, making it hard to find the legitimate album and far too easy to find the illegitimate version that no one wants. Best of all, she'll probably be in the Top 5 for weeks.
[Edited 11/18/08 20:43pm]

soul4thought said:

It sounds like a marketing disaster to me She'll probably rise above it.

Cinnie said:

It can go the way I described and keep her in the Top 5 for weeks to come
-or-
It can make everyone log onto a message board and get it through "other ways"

We'll see what ends up happening

to be honest only like 2 or 3 songs from the album sound decent.

Single ladies and Sweet Dreams. I mean the slow songs are EXTREMELY BLANE, and BORING, and FORGETTABLE. and GHETTO.

This music is something that will probably NOT reach a large range of people or even a large age range. Beyonce truely limits herself with this hip hop and blane crap. The song Diva is so oh my goosh its bad.

You know what i noticed she is SOOO ARROGANT, its annoying, always has a song about how she is great, a diva, baddest women, and the best. ITS LIKE she is trying to tell and convince everyone she is the greatness. and a true DIVA, LEGEND, ICON, does NOT have to do that.

She is dellusional when it comes to music, she thinks because she likes it everyone else will.

maybe im being to harsh but oh well