MGF Reviews Beyonce – B'Day

Reviews


Beyoncé – B’Day
Sony Urban Music/Columbia (released Sept. 5, 2006)
R&B/Pop

Chalk me up as someone who hasn’t entirely bought into the Beyoncé phenomenon.

She has a wonderful voice and, if anything, her singing is often underrated from a technical sense. Of course, it goes without saying, that Beyoncé’s sex appeal is off the charts of standard hotness, but it’s all wrapped up in a nice, neat, manufactured insincerity.

Beyoncé’s music isn’t ever risky, it’s calculated.

On undeniably up-tempo ass-shakers like “Déjà vu” and “Upgrade U”, the transparency is at its most overt. A pair of ready-for-radio singles featuring her boyfriend, Jay-Z, who seems to be going all out to re-introduce himself to every FM demographic on earth in preparation for his comeback album later this year. The tracks are slick and polished and straight off the same assembly line that brought us “Crazy in Love” and “Bonnie & Clyde ’03”.

And, Beyoncé continues her maddening trend of turning her Blackness on and off like a light switch on slightly more urban cuts such as “Suga Mama” and “Freakum Dress”. Both feature solid enough production by Rich Harrison, but they come across as pandering to an audience that Beyoncé would rather keep under her thumb than actually embrace.

Thankfully, she finally opens up a little at the very end. The hidden track “Listen” serves up some substance after all the empty calories.

After all is said and done (and heard), the most obvious questions come from the cover art. Who picked that photo? Were her handlers going for “light brown blow-up doll”?

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