Before I even got to the visuals, I listened first. This was because I was intrigued to see if the focus on the visuals and the fact she has been so busy doing pretty much everything else, was going to take away from the quality of music. (I assure you my reluctance to not watch the visuals first did not stem from the fact I had to get to college and I didn't have time to let the videos sync on my iPod before I left the house). The album begins with "Pretty Hurts" - a song about society's pressures on the average human being to be perfect. Now if I'm going to be honest, a message about it's what is inside that counts and that "the soul needs the surgery" is all well and good and I'm ALL about self worth and stuff, but when it comes from one of the most visually appealing women in the world, who doesn't really exaggerate her natural beauty, the message is a tad bitter-sweet. Then again, I remembered that she is human and even she will feel self concious from time to time and she is under 10000 times more scrutiny than your average Susan Smith and maybe I should cut her some slack. Soz B. Anyway, as you get deeper into the album all that socially concious, deep stuff (as much as I do love a good uplifting message) fades into the background as in the second song she tells us she is "sold not for sale, probably won't make no money of this but oh well" implying that this album is more than just her doing her job as a musician and stacking a few bills from it, but it is in fact a statement of art. It seems interesting then that what's to follow on in the song and for the next few tracks is basically Beyonce's freaky side as she takes us through the more hot and sweaty parts of her life. For instance "Can you lick my skittles, that's the sweetest in the middle, pink that's the flavour, solve the riddle" is definitely not about coming home from work on a Tuesday night and stabbing up the plastic film on a microwave meal for one. Recently I have been reliving the sounds of my favourite Beyonce album, B'Day, and these songs have very much reflected the energy she channelled back then - from the bouncy, fun instrumentals to the kinky-er, "Kitty Kat" esque lyrics.
By the time we get to track 7, the tone changes as she begins to question her relationship with Jay-Z, sings about jealous suspicions and in "Mine", a track shared with Drake, she talks of the strains of a long distance relationship. By "XO" we can be reassured that Jigga and Beyonce are fine though *phew* and are still deeply in love."***Flawless", the following track, shows that in light of this, she's back on top of the world again and instructs us to "BOW DOWN B*TCHES B*TCHES". Rather than this being just an extremely un-modest declaration of her superiority, it also doubles up as a feminist statement of female suppression by males (although I think Queen B can be a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to her "independent woman" empowerment malarkey). Her next track features Mr Frank Ocean and continues to tell us the love story of her and Jay-Z. At this point I realised that since reaching the midway point of the album, her sound has become much more grown and serious and it increasingly resembles her last 2 albums. If I hadn't realised by then, I would have definitely been hit by this change in her penultimate track where she tells the heart breaking story of the loss of her unborn child. The final track titled "Blue", which is about, yep you guessed it, Blue Ivy, brings the whole album to an end but signifies the beginning of a new chapter in her life: Motherhood.
Upon reaching the end, I thought back to her statement in her second track with it's implications of this self titled compilation being art and it all made sense. The album is a biographical experience that lets us into her 2 most important jobs: being a wife and being a mother. It begins with "Pretty Hurts" which explains her coming to terms and adjustment to media's challenges as she rocketed to fame. This is the only track that directly discusses her career because the bulk of her life really revolves around her other half, and this is why this love story is what dominates the content of the album. The channelling of those "B'Day" album vibes is a symbol of reminiscence over her and Jay-Z's relationship when it was in the young, fun, honeymoon period. Bang on in the middle of the album the sound matures as we move into the next chapter of her life and we get a peek into the stresses and strains of keeping a relationship strong but we also see the rewards of making it work. Only the 2 final tracks are dedicated to motherhood, because this is the part of her journey she has only just begun.
I am glad I did listen before I watched because I feel I would have missed out on so much had I just watched the visuals...mainly because they pretty much all consist of Beyonce half naked and I'd probably get distracted by all the twisted moral - yeah I said it! Considering that a lot inspiration can be drawn from this project in terms of work ethic etc. it worries me that Beyonce, mother, wife and idol to many girls, chose to leave a little less to the imagination in these videos. It makes me wonder why we condemn Rihanna for doing the things Beyonce does despite Rihanna being in a more justifiable place (even though it still isn't justified) to do it (i.e. being less of a household name, international sweetheart, not a mother or a wife). To be honest all of Beyonce's videos seem to go along the theme of her behind a camera doing a dance routine or something, but I felt with this album she had a chance to get artistic and paint a more vivid story with the visuals. The videos dissapointed me because yet again I'm getting mixed moral messages from B and I feel sorry for the many people that have missed out on the real story running through the music because they went straight to the videos and were hypnotised by her jiggiling gluteus maximus.
Aside from the videos which I felt let her down and in my eyes stripped a little credibility from the album, the rest is GOOD quality. The production of the songs, the vocals and the actual story - it's nice to finally have a true album that is honest from Beyoncé. The only thing that could have made this more epic for me is, as you may have guessed, BETTER visuals and perhaps an ending video with a 5 second shot of Jay-Z sitting in a chair, smugly puffing on a cuban cigar and then all you hear is the *Jigga Laugh*.
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