Beyoncé's self-titled album - Beyoncé - review

The eagerly awaited 5^th album from Beyoncé (Titled BEYONCE) was released on December 13^th 2013. It was described as the ‘visual album’ as each song was accompanied by a short film. It was released exclusively on iTunes garnering 617,213 sales in just three days and hit the million mark in 6 days giving her fifth straight number one and becoming the highest first week sales of her solo career and the best-selling debut week for a female artist in 2013!

Beyonce album thoughts

There are 14 tracks on this album and 17 videos. With two of the songs getting split into two videos and a bonus video- Grown Woman. If you’re looking for the usual Beyoncé sanitized look and dancing you’re going to be shocked. She walks completely away from that and seems to celebrate not only her sexuality but sex, postnatal depression, feminism et al. She has always seemed to have every breath controlled. From what she’ll say to how she should look. And to me the more err ghetto side of her comes to light on the videos. That we didn’t get any leaks before release means her team has integrity unknown in the entertainment industry as do all those who were involved. That was not an easy secret to keep! From Pretty hurts when she describes the battle (most if not all) women deal with regarding their looks, to drunk in love that speaks of her sexual relationship with her husband, blow, no angel.

The album is very different and each track is distinctly different from the next. By walking away from what we’re used to she may have won some more fans. My personal favorites are: Drunk in love, Flawless, Partition, Blow, Heaven, XO, and Heaven. LOL ok I seem to have some problems narrowing that down. My point is because of how distinct each song is, I never skip to the next and I listen to it over and over. And the sex is not implied, it’s thrown in your face. To her under 18 audience err…….. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the videos. Please do! She gets some visuals from the past when she was just trying to get into the music and the competitions she participated in. Her friends- Kelly and Michelle show up in Superpower that also featured the magical Frank Ocean. Besides those there are a host of producers from Pharell Williams, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Tedder, and Timbaland it reads like a who’s who. Incorporating Chimamanda’s TEDTalk certainly had a lot of women celebrating Flawless. As she has been fondly dubbed ‘Beysus’ I don’t know what God will think of that. As long as it’s not followed by a lightning strike I think we’re good.