Yeah, you know about it by now and I haven’t listened enough to really wanna give a full review, but you might remember that 4 was my second fave album of 2011 and my bet is this self named # 5, is gonna do very very very well. State of the art goes without saying, and all the videos, every song has a video and there are three more as well, are a bit useless in my book, because, really and I know I’ve written this a million times: YOU SHOULDN’T NEED VISUALS TO SIGNIFY. But the songs are really strong.
The first song, “Pretty Hurts” is a masterpiece of sorts, as good as anything else, it is a layered cake of a song and the song has a beautiful melody, the snappy beats all kick in with a full bloodied ballad and a terrific chorus, sorta soaring but soaring somewhere, it goes up and falls right back down.
“Drunk In Love” is better than nearly anything on Jay Z’s album “I’ve been drink, I’ve been drinkin’…” , “Blow” a real good r&b ballad, “Mine” with Drake better than nearly anything on Drake’s and the Frank Ocean featuring “Superpowered” is as good as anything The Dream has given her (sorry, nearly).
I think Blue Ivy completely stumps her parents, both Jay Z and Beyonce’s awful “Blue which ends the album till you reach the videos, are disasters. It should be cute to hear blue Ivy call for her Mama but it isn’t even nearly. “Heaven” is a bit of a drag as well, but really those are exceptions.
I will of course have more to say about this, right now I am rushing off to Jingle ball…
Grade: B+