Yo, straight up for real, if you ain't heard Beyoncé's "B Day," do yourself a favor and blow off your crew and your girl or your guy and go buy this sh*t, friends.
Miss Knowles has been bringing the funk for a while, but she's always managed to tangle her albums up in just enough pop/mainstream R&B to keep me away from wanting to own a full recording. I've just heard a single here and there and thought 'wow,' but I have always known what I'd be in for if I purchased the entire CD....
Now I'm not trying to dis mainstream pop music (but really I'm dissing the f**ck out of it), but I've never really been able to get into it because.... well it would seriously take too long to discuss what's wrong with modern pop/R&B as a whole....
But the thing is, on "B Day," Beyoncé is slangin' things on a totally other level, people. This is not an album that can be ranked with Fergie's latest or whatever: a (possible) staple of the moment/the times, but ultimately a collection of largely forgettable music. "B Day" is like listening to classic soul updated for modern times.
Now, I'm not trying to put this album up on some crazy high pedestal. Let's be straight- this is not "James Brown: Live at the Apollo," but what it is is a breakthrough for Miss Knowles, and I am simply tipping my hat to an artist who's made an album that is hot hot hot and pretty much rocks very very hard. For anyone who heard "Crazy in Love" and thought 'I wish there was a whole album like that, but I don't want to buy some top 40 crap CD with one awesome single' I will refer to the first sentence of this post and say, 'go out and buy "B Day," people!!!' Its good.
If Beyoncé continues to develop in this direction I'll build an altar to her in my home and risk estrangement from my wife. This album is almost a very important one. What's that mean? Its like when Peter Gabriel left Genesis and had to make 3 records before he got it right. Its like when Elton John came up with "Honky Château;" it wasn't "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," but looking back you can see where things would inevitably end up. If this doesn't make sense, or if it seems a little over the top, I'm sorry, but I'm still giving some props to the B for coming out with a record like this. This isn't one of the greatest albums of our times, but its very encouraging. Keep rockin', Beyoncé, you got enough soul to make history....
4 comments:
Bombs Bombs Bombs!
Thanks so much for validating - I put myself on the library list for that record the instant I knew about it. BUt i'm still like 65th in line. I just had a feeling it was going to bring it, knamean?
I checked out ALL the Destiny Chile records to see what was up. and they had one record that was all hits but it was mostly just 1 good tune and filler. But I just KNEW there was some REAL greatness to come out of that group.
Oh excellent. I can't wait.
No doubt, I think Miss B could be really going places. Only time will tell....
i heart beyonce! but i confess, i was building my altar back in the destiny' child bootylicious days.
...oops, do i need a codename for this blog bidnis?
.....As long as you don't reveal our true identities, I guess we can let you pass. Who knows, maybe myku and dr. confusion are even the same person?
BTW, do send a pic of that altar if/when its ever finished- and maybe I'll post a pic of my altar to Tom Jones....
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