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Monday, January 13, 2014

Beyonce - Beyonce



Leave it to Beyonce to ruin everyone's end-of-year album lists by releasing the best album of her career on a Thursday with little-to-no fanfare.

I resisted the album for several days, partially to avoid technical glitches and partially because I thought 4 was the definitive artistic statement I wanted from her. As I listened to the album, I felt entertained but not particularly invested. I wasn't sure why everyone was going completely bananas over it.

Then, I watched the videos.

I had approached the idea of this release as a "visual album" with a ready arsenal of eye rolls and snorts. After all, if the music is strong enough, the visuals shouldn't matter, right? Apparently I'm a judgmental idiot because most of the videos uncover layers of impact behind most of these songs, making them the most narratively-cohesive collection of songs Beyonce has ever released. Furthermore, the impact of "Pretty Hurts" is much easier to handwave when not watching post-purge Beyonce wiping her mouth or the full extent the question "what is your aspiration?" flusters her in the fictional pageant (honestly the best acting I've ever seen Beyonce do). The Shining-meets-Justify My Love imagery of "Haunted" amplifies the song's inherent eeriness. The bubblegum-on-Spanish fly eroticism behind the roller skating-heavy "Blow" amps an already sexual song up to 11. "***Flawless" should be linked to every online dictionary's definition of "Swagger" and I don't have the words to express the simple, humanizing joy behind the clips for "XO" and "Blue".

I've only watched the videos once but going back to the album after seeing them has been a revelation and delight. There's no direct link for me to post because, as far as I know, this album is still an iTunes exclusive. I strongly recommend checking it out. Once I get out of the RMV, I'll post a link to the "XO" video, which I still can't believe was filmed by Terry Richardson.

Beyonce - Beyonce is not available in total on the web from a streaming source as far as I know but you can watch 30 second previews of the video clips here.

EDIT: Who knows how long this Grooveshark link will last? Use it while it's still good.

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