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Track Listings
| 1. 1+1 |
| 2. I Care |
| 3. I Miss You |
| 4. Best Thing I Never Had |
| 5. Party (ft Andre 3000) |
| 6. Rather Die Young |
| 7. Start Over |
| 8. Love On Top |
| 9. Countdown |
| 10. End of Time |
| 11. I Was Here |
| 12. Run The World (Girls) |
| 13. Lay Up Under Me |
| 14. Schoolin Life |
| 15. Dance For You |
| 16. Run The World (Girls) Kaskade Club Remix |
| 17. Run The World (Girls) Redtop Club Remix |
| 18. Run The World (Girls) Jochen Simms Club Remix |
Product Description
Review
Following schizo double I Am... Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé took a year off but has come back brighter. Dozens of songs emerged from the original 4 sessions and the promo circuit’s been leapt on with a vengeance, culminating – at least over here – in the intriguing Glastonbury headline slot (yet to wow us as we go to press). With 4’s best bold tunes, Beyoncé has spruced up an already handsome catalogue. She's got the armoury to trump husband Jay-Z’s perception-altering Pilton turn.
Run the World (Girls) we know, twice over, in Major Lazer’s Pon de Floor and in its recent official and unofficial leaks. Strangely, it's tacked on like a bonus after the natural big finish of the Diane Warren-penned I Was Here, when it would've nestled comfortably alongside the opulent M.I.A.-style cacophony of Countdown or End of Time's startling vision of Animal Collective covering Lionel Richie's All Night Long. No matter – the rest of 4 tips towards the powerhouse balladry that caressed her previous album.
And these are exemplars of the form, I Care in particular emoting the house down over a sustained Purple Rain chord. Its near-equals 1+1 and I Miss You tug heartstrings too, the former over magnificent guitar bombast; the latter – a contribution from Odd Future's misfit soulman Frank Ocean – over the kind of subtle tension achieved by Alicia Keys' Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart. 1+1 offers a pointer to Best Thing I Never Had where Beyoncé really gets her soft rock on, matching Bon Iver's Beth/Rest in summoning up Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Now there's an odd future.
Less successful are Kanye West and Andre 3000's interruptions ("You got the swag sauce / You drip the swagu," leers Kanye – oh dear) on Party's slick 80s soul, while the overdone glitz of Rather Die Young drags. The rest of 4, though, sparks. Beyoncé slips from flirty to fragile to fabulous, and is in terrific voice throughout, reminding us that when she opens up there's no-one else in the game.
--Matthew Horton
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
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Customer Reviews
The first 4 songs are good and have an epic kind of sound, like they should be on a movie soundtrack. The next song 'Party' is a good effort and has a nice relaxed groove to it, & is one of the strongest songs on here, along with 'Love On Top', 1+1,'I Was Here', I Care,'End Of Time' & 'Run The World (Girls)' - even though this was put on the end of the album like a bonus track. The quality of the songs is evident here, and its a bit different to anything she has done previously on her 1st two albums. Even though the styles of music range from echoes of 1980's r'n'b (Love On Top, Rather Die Young & Party) to soft rock (Start Over, Best Thing I Never Had & I Care) to dancy urban beats (Countdown, Run The World (Girls)& End of Time), this album however is still consistant in quality and great, solid vocals, and it does flow well. Beyonce still has her identity & creative artisitry, and doesn't let the various fusions of music & producers/writers overshadow her as an artist or make her seem like se is trying too hard to 'evolve' or 'be different'. Apparently she had loads & loads of songs to choose from to make up the final 12 songs selected for the album, and for me there is a little part of me that wonders what the songs she turned down were like, just to see if they were as good, or even better maybe! There isn't really a 'bad song' as such on here, however I do feel that 'Rather Die Young' lacks a bit of 'Oomph', as you think it will build up to more, but doesn't, so the song just ends up being 'OK', rather than 'Great'. The bonus CD is alright, although the only song that I listen to over & over is 'Dance For You', as the other 2 songs are fine but are a bit weaker & sound like B-sides, the remixes of Run The World (Girls) are good.
I would reccomend the deluxe edition as you get a bit more for your money,
Overall this is a great album and will be remembered for a long time.
But the extra tracks you get on the deluxe version are not at all worth the money!
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