Tag: Beyoncé

Beyoncé – Countdown

It’s a weird one.

Tom: It’s not officially ‘released’ until Hallowe’en, but it’s been getting tremendous amounts of airplay.

Tim: I just had to watch a thirty second advert for Run For Your Life. I’m already in a negative frame of mind.

Tom: AdBlock, Tim. Anyway – this song? It’s a weird one.

Tim: Weird is an excellent word to use here.

Tom: The best comparison I have for this is the Black Eyed Peas’ “Dirty Bit” – the regular part of it isn’t all that bad, but as soon as it goes into a strange, discordant breakdown it just becomes too strange.

Tim: To be honest, I’m too engrossed trying to work out what’s moving where in the video to listen properly, and the music seems a bit secondary. Without the video – standard Beyoncé fare, it seems.

Tom: Is this even danceable? I’m not sure. It does go on a bit, certainly, and this is the first time I’ve thought that a video was just too overproduced. That final, realistic smile – the last shot in the video – really does come as a relief.

Beyoncé – Best Thing I Never Had

I was really enthusiastic about this – and I can’t explain why.

Tom: Let this one run for a minute or so before you start to judge it. It’s a slow burner.

Tim: Ooh, that chorus is good. Like, actually good.

Tom: By the time it got to the bridge, I was really enthusiastic about this – and I can’t explain why. It’s not close to anything we normally review, but it’s got this steady, inexorable build to it that means that the final chorus is a proper lighters-in-the-air moment.

Tim: Part of it, for me, is that it’s not typical Beyoncé. That’s also one of the reasons I really liked Rihanna’s most recent one – woke up to it on the radio, thought ‘ooh, this song’s good’, then Dev stuck his general rubbishness in and said it was Rihanna and I sat up with a ‘WHAT’.

Tom: Pity about the “sucks to be you right now” lyric, which rather spoils the moment for me, but I can live with it.

Tim: Meh, I’m not bothered. I do sort of wish the verses could be as energetic as the chorus, but, as you said, I can live with it. Very much, in fact.

Tom: I’ve just figured out how to save the verses: sing the verses of ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Backstreet Boys over the top of them. Seriously, try it.