Beyonce goes solo, and she's Dangerously in Love...with herself.
Written: Sep 17 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Crazy in Love and Naughty Girl are great.
Cons: Everything else is forgettable if not terrible, generic RnB.
The Bottom Line: If she's such a " Hip Hop Star" how come the entire album is RnB?
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| tjhassecrets's Full Review: Dangerously in Love by Beyonc? |
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I've been wanting to start a Beyonce series for a long since, but it's pretty easy to understand why it got (intentionally) buried beneath other priorities: first of all, it means sitting down and letting Ms. Knowles's voice penetrate my ears; secondly, it means getting her brand of overproduced screeching hip hop get stuck in my head; and lastly, it means I have to admit to potentially liking or two songs. I have always been a Destiny's Child fan, and when Beyonce first went solo, I was quite interested in the scorching beats she provided to my latest mix CDs. Quickly, I began to realize just how much she annoyed me. Destiny's Child was a super girl group plagued with member rotation, an obvious Diana Ross-esque bias towards Ms. Knowles, and slightly stagnating sound. Dangerously in Love was released in 2003 to immediate success-- the fact that she had sold her soul and sold out her bandmates certainly helped to catapult her and her gigantic weave into the limelight. It was dropped in the middle of a Destiny's Child hiatus that could have become a sour *NSYNC experience, but luckily this album did not stop the band at a full-blown stop. Unfortunately, it did give Beyonce enough attention to record a second album.
Dangerously in Love is a hip-hop/RnB album that concentrates mainly on Beyonce's voice, which is far more flattering when she's not throwing it to octaves it shouldn't. Despite the fact the she is a great singer, her voice is remarkably hollow and soulless. When she is doing her characteristic shouting and vocal backflips, it sounds worse than a pile of microphone feedback-- when she's at a lower, more smoother register, her voice is silky smooth. Unfortunately, a lot of this record is a love letter to how amazing she thinks her own voice is. From track to track, the album performs all of Beyonce's tricks, so it's like a greatest hits of all it can do (or it thinks it can do). Her harmonization is reminiscent of Mariah Carey, India.Arie, Janet Jackson, and of course songs from her now defunct girl-group. In terms of music, the album is dull and just about everything you'd expect from Beyonce, and while the songs range from very good to horrendous, the bulk of the record is remarkably flat in comparison to the big personality Beyonce seems to have in the public. The middle of the record concentrates on a lot of really similar slowjams that take me back to the late 90s at a time when En Vogue and Janet had the monopoly on such songs. Unfortunately for Beyonce, her songs are not that slick. If you were expect an album of dance anthems like the in-your-face Crazy in Love, seek them elsewhere, because the album is mainly comprised of non-melodic tracks like Yes or Speechless, which have generic RnB productions without anything anything really special about them.
The big singles from this album were quite unrepresentative, considering how three of the them (aka, the more popular ones) were all upbeat in comparison: Sean Paul contributes to the Middle Eastern-inspired Baby Boy, and Beyonce samples Disco Queen Donna Summer's I Feel Love for the catchy Naughty Girl. Unfortunately, the album doesn't have the same quality as say that last track. Her duet with soul icon Luther Vandross flatlines instantly, especially when surrounded by other typical songs that sound almost exactly like it. Signs is one of the more embarrassing moments of the album, which is entirely based around astrological (Zodiac) symbols-- it sounds clever until you realize the breakdown is her trying to make the list melodic. I don't know what she was thinking, but you cannot make the word "Sagittarius" sound good, expect when you're rushing to sing each and every one of its brethren. A guest spot from Missy Elliott cannot save it-- its awkward vocal delivery and backwards sampling is annoying and, frankly, stupid-- and of course, she reuses this theme on wet and soothing Song for Virgo, which is not the worst moment on the album by far, but it's not all that interesting either.
VERDICT
Dangerously in Love dabbles with the scratchy warmth of neo-soul, and Beyonce's voice can actually do it justice-- unfortunately, it's the material she is singing that makes this album a dud. The far and few upbeat moments outshine every one of the other songs, and that's not a very good ratio. I'm disappointed with the quality of this album for the reason that Destiny's Child seemed to be her baby. I never thought she needed Michelle, Kelly, or LaToya, but apparently she does. The material she was both handed and worked on is subpar to what I feel her voice can actually do-- and I'm not a Beyonce fan. In all truth, she annoys the Hell out of me; but after her performance as Deena Jones (Diana Ross/herself) in Dreamgirls, I think she could do well with the right stuff. Oh oh oh OH-- the right stuff.
01. Crazy in Love [5 Stars]
02. Naughty Girl [4 Stars]
03. Baby Boy [2 Stars]
04. Hip Hop Star [1 Star]
05. Be With You [2 Stars]
06. Me, Myself, and I [2 Stars]
07. Yes [2 Stars]
08. Signs [0 Stars]
09. Speechless [2 Stars]
10. That's How You Like It [1 Star]
11. The Closer I Get to You [2 Stars]
12. Dangerously in Love Part 2 [2 Stars]
13. Beyonce Interlude [--]
14. Gift From Virgo [3 Stars]
15. Daddy [0 Stars]
BEST: Crazy in Love
WORST: Signs
SCORE:2 STARS (1.8+ )
Recommended:
No
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tjhassecrets
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Location: Gießen, Germany
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Fancy Fresh 80s Disco King.
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