So after being excited about Beyonce. for the first time, I have now calmed down to room temperature.
So here is the follow up to "Run The World (Girls) ", which peaked at # 50. The first follow up was the great "1+1" which seemed to be sinking and which Beyonce, in effect, pulled.
She replaced it with "Best Thing I Never Had" , a pretty good piece of soul product written by a master of soul product, Babyface. Beyonce over sings it a little, and you wish she had arranged it a little better. Remember what Madonna did with Babyface's "Take A Bow"? There is something riskless about the choice, Babyface is well past his prime but it is still a professional soul man and there is no gainsaying it, but compared to "1+1" and "Run The World" this is lazy, obvious stuff.
And when Beyonce is obvious she is intensely annoying. The emoting, the ululating, the play ball hitting to the rafters, all become annoying tics when there is nothing to the song. Which is why I didn't much care for Sasha Fierce.