purplepolitician said:

BEYONCÉ was the most non-Beyonce thing she'd ever done, and that's why it was her best album. She tried to continue that on Lemonade, and frankly it's not a bad album at all. The plus of both of these records is that they don't rely on just a sample and singing acapella over it.

I mean, think about "Crazy In Love," "Single Ladies," "Run The World," "Bootylicious," and others - sample heavy, little instrumentation, and just her layered vocals. She was stuck in a seriously dry ass formula. Ever listened to the instrumental of "Single Ladies?" You don't know where it begins or ends. It's beyond repetitive.

4 was the better of all those pre-B albums, but still - it had some growing to do. You could probably get one really "very good" record from I Am... Sasha Fierce. (Good lord, that name! )

And while there were samples here and there, stuff like the Timberlake written "Rocket," "Blow," "XO," "Flawless," "Superpower" etc are actual songs. As I noted, it's a very non-Beyonce album. It's definitely why I gravitated toward it so much that I was playing it once, sometimes twice, a day back then.

Lemonade delved back into using more samples as with previous albums. But the album still seems to work as a new direction for Beyonce's music. Because frankly, a lot of that shit from older records hasn't aged well and it's boring as fuck. It's so much filler, and just bad filler, too.

So for me, it's BEYONCÉ that is the superior album, by far. Lemonade is a good second place, but will never bet BEYONCÉ. The rest - we'll put together one decent disk from all that.

Sidenote about BEYONCÉ: I was so obsessed with that record, that I incorporated an element of it in my bedroom. My bedroom is basically the same as Carrie Bradshaw's in Sex and the City: the Movie when she has her apartment redecorated (with the blue walls). (I even contacted the set designer for the movie & asked a few questions about where she got some things.) With all the photos over Carrie's bed, I had to do the same thing. One of them is a print out of my name, in the same sampled pink from the BEYONCÉ cover, and the same font. And since my first name has two E's in it, I made the second one with the accent over it. It's still there, too.

alphastreet said:

Thanks for sharing that, your frame with the name on it sounds cool! I didn’t realize single ladies had a sample, thought it was original though it shouldn’t surprise me

I didn't mean to imply "Single Lades" was a sample. I meant to say (and it was mashed up together) that it was basically an instrumental with acapella vocals over it (as was "Crazy In Love", because had it not been for that horn sample, there wouldn't have been much to the song at all).

TrivialPursuit said:

alphastreet said:

Yeah true, there isn’t any buildup in it but still a good song though I skip it these days. Have to be in the right mood for it

I have a Beyonce playlist on Spotify, but I find myself never using it. I think I created it so if I want to shuffle her music, I can skip the worst parts of it. I have zero desire to hear "Ring The Alarm," "Diva," "Halo" (not sorry, but that song sucks), "Countdown" (or whatever that one is), "Upgrade U", "Green Light," "If I Were A Boy" (plot twist: you're not anyway, move on), "Ego," "Video Phone," etc.

Yet as much as she disliked it, I kinda dug "Check On It." It had a funky little groove to it.

And one thing I forgot to mention was - how many fucking people does it take to write a song for this chick?!?! She touts herself as this uber-talented "it just came to me on a plane" phenom, but the writing credits on her albums are v-a-s-t. A simplistic and juvenile song like "Run The World" has a plethora of writing credits, including the samples, yet something like "Bohemian Rhapsody" has one band - one person - writing it. She even tried to cop that writing credit for "Irreplaceable" until Ne-Yo was like "Uh, I wrote that song, not you."

alphastreet said:

I remember the ne yo thing, he’s a great writer

Yeah, there are so many artists who don't quite make it as a solo artist as hoped, but they are good songwriters. That's where they often retreat to, writing and producing. That's sorta always been the case. From the HBO doc on BeeGees, people were anti-disco and somehow that translated to anti-BeeGees, so they just kept writing for other people. Their writing discography is pretty amazing.

TrivialPursuit said:

Beyoncé. I think this is her best album ever. However, I do think that Lemonade was a good album as well. Those are the only two albums of hers that I ever listened to more than twice.

MotownSubdivision said:

The-Dream is her best songwriter:

"Single Ladies"

"Partition"

"Love on Top"

"1+1"

"Flawless"

"XO"
"Dance for You"

"Schoolin' Life"

etc.

[Edited 1/25/21 16:30pm]

WhisperingDandelions said:

alphastreet said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

The-Dream is her best songwriter:

"Single Ladies"

"Partition"

"Love on Top"

"1+1"

"Flawless"

"XO"
"Dance for You"

"Schoolin' Life"

etc.

[Edited 1/25/21 16:30pm]

I also like his songwriting. Didn’t know he was involved with some of those

yah. His Mariah material is best tho.

.

Here's his demo of "1+1":

https://www.youtube.com/w...ugI-GKvUjs

.

Lil autotune but anything's better than those Beyonce vox. She's always yelling over the track. Even her genuine R&B ballads, genuinely soulful songs always got her yelling with zero nuance.

[Edited 1/27/21 2:00am]

Mariah's the gold standard when it comes to being able to perfectly balance/know when to use overt bombast vs. laid-back soulful R&B restraint. She can belt it or she can smooth it out with the best of both approaches equally... Beyonce's got one mode whether it's dance, ballad, pop, etc.

My fav album of Beyonce is still I Am...Sasha Fierce (2008)

Goddess4Real said:

alphastreet said:

Some of her best work is on that album

TrivialPursuit said:

alphastreet said:

Sure, scared of lonely, broken hearted girl, halo and sweet dreams are great

We get along, so I'm gonna give you a pass on missing my snarky joke. The words HER WORK was the purpose my gif. Good heavens, the level of cowriters on that album is redonkulous. I'll give you that there are good songs on the record. Perhaps a bit bloated overall, as an album.

TrivialPursuit said: