With a shiny Billboard Millennium Award recently added to her collection of 16 Grammys , Beyonce Knowles probably could have made her fourth album a collection of arias and still maintain her well-deserved relevancy in this fickle generation of music. While she opted not to take her artistic liberation to that extreme, 4 remains the singer's most adventurous album to date.
Lead single "Run the World (Girls)" proves to be a good example of the LP's aggressive, drum-driven moments. The largest fraction of 4, however, is actually quite subdued, a shocker from the singer of dance-floor staples like "Single Ladies" and "Crazy in Love." The Frank Ocean-penned "I Miss You" is the most relaxed of the tracks, with its low-key instrumentals and lyrics like "want to be with you/but you're away" reading like a Mrs. Knowles-Carter letter to Jay-Z.
Recently released, semi-second single "1+1" adds to the simple, romantic moments of the disc, before the tempo increases to saucy mid-tempos like "Best Thing I Never Had." Written by Babyface, the piano-heavy production sounds like a less-imaginative reimagining of "Irreplaceable," but works nonetheless.
What "Best Thing" lacks in catchiness, "Love on Top" more than makes up for. With one of the perhaps most good-natured, friendliest hooks heard in recent R&B releases, the funky, Donna Summer-esque diva Beyonce channeled on her debut, Dangerously in Love, returns with a Stevie Wonder-inspired anthem that should work wonders at family reunions and cookouts this summer.
The party vibe is accentuated by other nods to old school R&B like "Rather Die Young" and the Kanye West-produced "Party," which is greatly helped by 4's only guest, a brilliant Andre 3000. However, when an album sounds like it was vocally produced by Jennifer "Soul Equals Scream" Hudson, it's very likely to lose a lot in translation. In this case, most of the losses occur on "Start Over." What is supposed to be a fragile cry for a new chance at a crumbling relationship turns into an uneven, unbearable belt-a-thon.
The overdone vocals aren't exclusive though, spread across most of the dozen of songs are enough grunts, growls and tiresome runs to exhaust what is an otherwise light and easy listen. Thankfully, the screaming stops on "End of Time," a theatrical (think The Lion King) treat of a song that proves to be the climax of the entire album.
While 4 is ultimately Beyonce's most cohesive work since 2006's B'Day, its nearly three-week early arrival to the masses and current challenges on the Billboard charts are among its biggest problems. Among its smallest are a lack of full-out, up-tempo records (à la "Run the World") and overreaching vocals that sap the soul out of half of a solid 4.
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