BEYONCÉ - THE VISUAL ALBUM
Hopefully this is on everyone's list this month, and seeing as the album went platinum after only 10 days, it's place on mine should not come as a surprise. Beyoncé's self-titled "visual album" is absolutely stunning. I have watched it multiple times through, and each time it comes as a marvel. The project is a combination of empowering, badass, sexy, uplifting, and vulnerable. There are many moments of powerful humanness, from falling in love to expressing jealousy to claiming power within oneself, that I find really inspiring. Yesterday, Cathy and I were watching the video for ***Flawless and I got a little teary at the end, because I consider that song (from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's feminist voice-over onwards) to be an anthem. It makes me feel so good about myself... and I hope it does the same for other women out there. All of this, with sick beats and great vocals to match.
I can honestly say I love every song with the exception of one... The high-pitched vocal attempts in No Angel kind of ruin it for me, though I still really enjoy watching the video... But 13/14 is a damn high score for an album! My favorite track is Ghost/Haunted, with Ghost bearing my favorite music video. Other highlights include Drunk in Love, XO, Rocket, Yoncé/Partition, Jealous, Mine, and Grown Woman. Why Grown Woman is not included on the audio CD I will never understand?! That is a pump-up track if I've ever heard one. I jam to it whenever possible.
The only real criticisms (other than my personal qualms with Bey's voice during No Angel) I have of the album are the rap verses by Jay-Z and Drake. I can't get on board with casual references to the abusive relationship between Tina and Ike Turner (excerpt of Jay-Z's verse in Drunk in Love: "I might, beat the box up like Mike / In ’97 I bite, I’m Ike, Turner, turn up / Baby no I don’t play, now eat the cake, Annie Mae /Said, 'Eat the cake, Annie Mae!'"). In a song that is supposed to be boasting about Beyoncé and Jay-Z's fantastic relationship and sex life, why would one equate himself with Ike Turner? Maybe I'm just misinterpreting the lyrics, but that is the impression I get from it.
And I do not know why Drake has such a fixation with the "good girl," (lyrics from Mine: Know you wanna roll with a good girl? / Do it big, do it all for a good girl / One time, this is a song for the good girl / Don’t sleep when you know you got a good girl...") but he can get out of my face with it. To me, his repeated use of the phrase comes off as a man judging women using his own definition of a "good girl," as if only a certain type of woman is "good" enough to earn his favor, and that whole idea makes the feminist in me cringe. So, I try to ignore the words being said, and just focus on the effects that are laid over Drake's voice during these verses. Because I really, really like the stereo-static kind of voice manipulation (sorry, I don't know technical terms) used. That is the real value Drake brings to this track.
Overlooking these annoyances, and the fact that these lyrics (and the "Bow Down, Bitches" line in ***Flawless, which I still have a hard time getting into) contradict with the theme of female empowerment that I felt in the record, this is a lovely album! It is the only thing I have been listening to since I got Beyoncé for Christmas. What a great sentence. Imagine if I had gotten Beyoncé, the person, for Christmas. What an enjoyable visit that would be. Sigh.... Either way, I would definitely recommend buying the record. Beyoncé made it with her own company, pursued the idea of a visual album despite the fact that people thought it was weird, managed to keep it a secret for a crazy amount of time without any leaks, and gave us 14 well-crafted songs with 17 stunning videos to accompany them. Get it, and use it as an up-tempo motivator in 2014, because I certainly will be.As my friend Caroline says, "Watch Beyoncé whenever you need to get inspired."
Check out the 0:30 Previews on her YouTube channel! I would also highly recommend watching the amazing behind-the-scenes videos, especially Part 4: Liberation.
Somehow, I survived 19+ years without this record, including most of December.
Here are honorable mentions for this month:
- Waiting Game by Banks, first discovered because it was featured in a Victoria's Secret commercial I kept seeing on YouTube. I just cannot get over the mesmerizing backing vocals, and the all-consuming instrumentals during the chorus. As stated a million times in the music video's comments, the song is damn sexy.
- I See Fire by Ed Sheeran. This month I saw "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" in theaters, and it was actually much better than I expected! But weirdly, for the first time in my life, I was actively distracted by the lack of People of Color in the movie... At this point, all of the elves and hobbits had been established as white characters, but they totally could have made the residents of Lake-town people of color. The creators invented an entire character for the film, couldn't they have tried at least a little bit?! I just found myself really distracted and irked by that. Anyway, before this turns into a film review, I like the original song that plays during the credits. Ed Sheeran's voice always makes me feel good things inside.
- Tessellate and Fitzpleaure (Jim James Apple C Remix) by Alt-J. Before Beyoncé's album dropped this month, I was in a bit of a musical rut. In the last week of November, and the first week and a half of December, these were basically the only two songs I would listen to. The Fitzpleasure remix was on repeat while I wrote my final Literary Journalism paper. And I find Tessellate so addictive when I am in a bad mood, which I was 75% of the time this past quarter. For some reason the lyric, "You're a shark and I'm swimming" really resonated with my anxious-ridden self, and I found it often repeating in my head throughout the day.
- Lost in the World by Kanye West, featuring Bon Iver. This was my anthem during Finals Week. When I listen to it, for some reason I imagine myself on a busy street corner in New York, standing completely still while everyone is rushing around me. And I'm just standing there, watching everyone else move and not sure where I am supposed to go. Without getting too soul-searchy: I love this song, particularly the way it incorporates elements from other tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
I did not get to wish y'all a Happy New Year on the day of, so here you go :)
♥ Happy Listening ♥
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