It's more like which sample do we like more: The Chi-Lites "Are You My Woman" or the near-blatant rip-off of MJ's "Off The Wall?" (She also lifted the bassline from "I Can't Help It" for her own "End of Time.") But that's what Beyonce does, she creates catchy hooks by mimicing and borrowing other people's material. If sampling weren't allowed, half of her early career wouldn't have existed. Facts.

Hell, she's flat out taken looks and concert aesthetics from other artists (let's not forget her "homage" to MJ in the Super Bowl show w/ Bruno & Coldplay, wearing the same outfit MJ did for his Super Bowl show).

That rant aside, "Deja Vu" is probably the stronger song. Darkchild purposely went for an older vibe with it, using live instrumentation - an element Beyonce is not known for. She said she wanted to start adding live instruments to her music. (Sorry, Bey, but that didn't occur to you before being an alleged musician and all?) The drums aren't live but the bass and horns are, so that's a plus. No, it's not a full on live cut, but it comes across as more genuine than "Crazy In Love," which is basically a drum track with acapella vocals over it, and then an old ass 70's sample.

And yes, there are vocal moments where "Deja Vu" strongly lifts from the aforementioned "I Can't Help It." But I guess we don't have to guess which MJ album is her favorite.

TrivialPursuit said:

It's more like which sample do we like more: The Chi-Lites "Are You My Woman" or the near-blatant rip-off of MJ's "Off The Wall?" (She also lifted the bassline from "I Can't Help It" for her own "End of Time.") But that's what Beyonce does, she creates catchy hooks by mimicing and borrowing other people's material. If sampling weren't allowed, half of her early career wouldn't have existed. Facts.

Hell, she's flat out taken looks and concert aesthetics from other artists (let's not forget her "homage" to MJ in the Super Bowl show w/ Bruno & Coldplay, wearing the same outfit MJ did for his Super Bowl show).

That rant aside, "Deja Vu" is probably the stronger song. Darkchild purposely went for an older vibe with it, using live instrumentation - an element Beyonce is not known for. She said she wanted to start adding live instruments to her music. (Sorry, Bey, but that didn't occur to you before being an alleged musician and all?) The drums aren't live but the bass and horns are, so that's a plus. No, it's not a full on live cut, but it comes across as more genuine than "Crazy In Love," which is basically a drum track with acapella vocals over it, and then an old ass 70's sample.

And yes, there are vocal moments where "Deja Vu" strongly lifts from the aforementioned "I Can't Help It." But I guess we don't have to guess which MJ album is her favorite.

TrivialPursuit said:

alphastreet said:

Thank you! "Deja Vu" is definitely the stronger song, I like the live sound she used, which she also went for on her 4 album. I didn’t catch "I Can’t Help It" on "End of Time," but it definitely has an MJ vibe to it. I hear that she's also done a lot of songs without samples and those are the ones I enjoy the most. Even though she did great with her first album, I thought she was slightly overrated then, and B’day and onwards was an improvement

Yeah, and her songs without samples were basically garbage. Zero mood to them. And honestly, a lot of her early work was just singing over a beat. VERY little instrumentation. If you've ever heard the instrumental to "Single Ladies," it's boring as hell. But yet something melodic like "Irreplaceable" wasn't even written by her (despite her trying to take credit for it on an award's show before Ne-Yo jerked a knot in her tail about it).

I think the BEYONCÉ record is the most un-Beyonce thing she's ever done. It's probably why it was so wildly popular as a whole (coupled with the fully-fleshed out video album, and the affair that came to light just after). When these artists step out of their comfort zones, they can create really interesting music. Janet Jackson did the same thing with Unbreakable. It's solidly Janet, yet it's something we'd never heard before (and still gave us The Velvet Rope vibes in some ways). Beyonce did the same thing with BEYONCÉ. Personal, textured, light on samples, heavy on new sounds, methods, mood, aural aesthetics, etc. And while those two albums are full of "live" arrangements, they aren't ridden with samples from forty years ago.

In fact, the only samples on BEYONCÉ are spoken segments from a movie or something. Of course, it also lists 13 producers, and almost 30 writers which doesn't add to her claims of writing songs on planes or just whistling them on the way to the pool. In contrast, Lemonade probably has more samples than any other album she's done but still comes off as more organic and quasi-original than anything before the previous album.

PS After the big intro segment on "End of Time," it breaks to a bass line before going into the verse. That sounds like "I Can't Help It."

alphastreet said:

I will have to re-listen to "End of Time" for the sample though I’m trying to imagine it and can’t. It gave me "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" vibes if anything. Her self-titled album was well done but I couldn’t get into the full thing right away, though. It took some time, and now I like most of it. I think 4 is a really underrated album, although it sold less.

On the album version, it's about :39 seconds in, when she starts singing, "Come take my hand..."

I believe if we took the better songs from her albums through 4, we'd have one really solid Beyonce album. Her albums have so much filler and nonsense on them. Take the hooky stuff, and put it all into one album.

Crazy In Love

Work It Out

Baby Boy

Naughty Girl

Check On It

Deja Vu

Irreplaceable

Get Me Bodied

Single Ladies

Halo

Best Thing I Never Had

Schoolin' Life

Party (my non-Andre 3000 edit)

Love on Top

End of Time

That's my 15-song Beyonce album.

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[Edited 6/2/21 19:57pm]

alphastreet said:

That sounds like the greatest hits album she never put out

Maybe. Only because we know them from different albums. But put that shit on shuffle, or play it as is, and it's a very strong album. I'd even add "Lay Up Under You" as a bonus track.

TrivialPursuit said: