Beyonce gets a little conceptual and reveals a little bit of both sides on her third studio album, I Am… Sasha Fierce, which hits stores and online tomorrow, November 18th.
I Am… Sasha Fierce is probably some of Beyonce’s most impressive work to date. Much different from her previous releases, 2006′s B’Day or her acclaimed 2003 debut, Dangerously In Love, Beyonce explores uncharted territories, especially on the ballad-heavy, pop-driven I Am… side.
With the leaking of her first singles, “♫ If I Were A Boy” and “♫ Single Ladies,” bloggers, fans, stans and haters alike knew that it would be time for the Beyonce media blitz.
Collaborating with the likes of Ryan Tedder, (responsible for OneRepublic and Timbaland’s huge hit, “Apologzie,” as well as Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love”) on the second single, “Halo,” as well as Toby Cad, Amanda Ghost, and the production team known as Stargate, Beyonce really delivers some of her most straight-forward vocal performances ever, over beautifully produced tracks. Stand-out tracks from the I Am… side include the Tricky Stewart & The Dream-assisted “Smash Into You,” the airy and eerie “Satellites,” the huge popera, “Halo,” and the very understated beauty of “Disappear.”
Sasha Fierce was a little hard for me to get into at first. When Beyonce announced that this would be a more “dance”-driven side, I assumed Sasha would be offering up a flurry of bombastic, techno-driven Europop sounds much like the leak, “Beautiful Nightmare,” which was retooled and renamed “Sweet Dreams” for the album.
Instead, Beyonce taps into her more edgy, urban side on tracks like the Bangladesh-produced, Sean Garrett-penned “Diva,” her stab at Lil’ Wayne’s boast and gloat, “A Millie.” She chants: “Na-na-na, diva is a female version of a hustlaaaa…” and raps lines like, “Fifty million ’round the world and they say that I couldn’t get it/I done got so sick and filthy with Benjis, I can’t spend it!” as well as “Video Phone.” The high points on this side of the album, for me, however, lie in the techno-synth ode, “Radio,” the confidently pleading, “Hello,” and the Jim Jonsin/Rico Love knocker, “Sweet Dreams.”
All in all, I’m glad that Beyonce stepped it up and stepped out her shell a little bit for the album. She definitely put something on there for everyone, from your pop ballads, to your hood anthems and dance numbers. I Am… Sasha Fierce seems like it will turn out to be my favorite Beyonce effort yet.
Preview the whole album on Beyonce’s MySpace and make sure you pick up your copy of I Am… Sasha Fierce tomorrow, November 18th!
GONNA GO # 1 BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! QUEEN BEE THE BEST HATER DONT COME UP SAYIN THAT ISSH!
DAMN THA PICTUER IS FIRE!! BEEE BEE BEEE
Beyonce cover is okay!
I CANT WAIT FO TOMARROW
I am excited to see what is to come from this album. She been so predictable, so hopefully this album creatively will be the best yet.
I agree “Disappear” is VERY beautiful and ..I think it’s her best ballad..she sings with such tenderness..i LOVE it.
The cover is hot, love the way they accenuated the color of her eyes and the gold accessory it just pops against the black and white.. of course I’m getting her cd…
accentuated
Very interesting concept album… did enjoy the bulk of it… well see how the sales go!
I ALREADY GOT THA ALBUM ON MY IPOP N BUMMPIN N MY CAR FO LIE THA PAST 2 WEEKSZ THIS ALBUM BEEN GOT LEAKED OUT DID SHE KNOW THAT??? NO MONEY FO ME TO SPEND WIT THIS MONEY CRISIS GONNA ON
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the CD I know a lot of people won’t like it but it is EXCELLENT better than DIL and B’Day IMO.
Brian I totally agree with everyting you said but I don’t like Diva or Radio other than that the cd is perfect and Video Phone (altough it is childish) that beat is sick and I can see myself dancing to it in the club.
I can’t wait for the tour
i cant waiiiiittttttt! thIs cd is gonna bve big for her! Get it Beeeeyyyyyy! Hey its BEE SEASON YALL!
I bet it is nothing different or creative. Most of her stuff is taken from others, so I don’t give her credit anymore.
Even the glove she rocks now is taken from an old George Michael video
everything about Bey is so contrived and fake to me, no matter how hard she tries to be deep and act like she creates things.
She will still sell regardless, and these days, that is all that matters!
ONLY 3 SONG I DONT LIKE ON HER ALBUM
VIDEO PHONE
CRASH INTO YOU
HELLO
BUT THA REST IS GOOD LOVE IT GOO BEE
I like “single ladies” but really not feelin’ anything else right now….its gonna have to grow on me I guess
Cover is fierce … beyonce time needs to be over sick of seeing her .. somebody new please
Im so In luv with this cd i can wait till it drop in store. i luv every song on the album..
Key songs:
broken-hearted_girl (Good story)
ave_maria (Good Vocal)
radio (Good Dance Track)
diva (Hood chicks new anthem)
hello (Just luv this song)
Ps luv me so Riri. i;m a die hard fan…but the queen has return..
Dissapear and Ave Maria are great songs. These songs showcase her true talent and her beatiful voice. Beyonce is back to take the throne!
“bloggers, fans, stans and haters alike?” -Brian
You are a professional, right?
I mean we all know Concreteloop is a BLOG dressed up in professional, editorial garment, and is the one BLOG that doesn’t feel like a blog at all.
Please maintain the professionalism of the site and keep your bias talk to your personal round circle.
And my apologies for the repetition, but I couldn’t stress the word PROFESSIONALism enough and attempted to incorporate in my comment what your piece lacked.
It’s still possible to express your feelings on the subject in which you choose to write of without sounding as gaudy.
Subtle shots- if need be.
Awesome blog, Angel. I’ve been here since 2006 =]
And I think this album will be great as well.
So far, I love a couple of tracks off her myspace; and I’m not a fan but I’m far from what you’d call a “hater”.
150 MILLONS ALBUMS SOLD
10X GRAMMY WINNER
4 NUMBER 1 HITS
GOLDEN GLOB NOD
FORB LIST 82 MILLON WOMEN
ICON
TRUE ARTIST
I LOVE THIS WOMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I THA WORDS OF YOUNG JOC ITZ GOIN DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!! TOMARROW!!
GETTIN MINE LOVE THA ABLUM
my fave songs are DIVA, Halo, and Radio. HEAT.
and i mean…it’s gonna be number one regardless, so…let the hate begin!
BEE LOOK HOT N THA PIC YO SOO MUCH HYPE BOUT DIZ ALBUM SOO BUYIN DIZ!!
I SOO LOVE HALO!!! i love this album much betta tha b’day can wait !
will be buyin OF couses!! it freakin beyonce!!
BEEE THA QUEEN SHE BACK TO RECLAIM HER THRON!!!!! d
die rhianna die rihanna!
This post will self destruct in five…four…three…two…one….KABOOM!
Honestly, I think this is some of her worst work to date..In my opinoin Beyonce’s music has gotten worse with each solo album. Lately all her songs sound the same and I think people keep her relevant just for the sake of who she is not for her body of work. There are far better artists out right now..and I think if another artist was to come out with some of the stuff Beyonce has been doing lately it, people wouldn’t think anything of it, but because she’s Beyonce people automatically jump on it.
No i’m not a hater, like I said before I used to really enjoy Beyonce’s music and I do appreciate her work ethic. But this is poor quality music and I will only be buying 2 or 3 songs off of Itunes tomorrow.
@ 28 u go do that tha album is still gonna goo # 1 on billboard next week i predict is gonna bush 7,000,000 or more!!! platnium n a week mabye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i would love to see that!!!
lol @29!!!!! naw i think itz gonna push like 8000,000 copies tha first week
haterz FALL BACK RHINNA FANS FALLL BACK THA QUEEN IS BACK
I LIKE Halo nice
@ 28 I think you meant to put 700,000, not 7 million…
Beyonce may sell 7 million total, but I doubt in a first week as no artist has ever done that..I do think Beyonce will sell well, but I just won’t be one of those people buying the record..
Ok Katherine…we understand…thanks for letting us know…mm humm….
#19′ I wasn’t trying to take shots at anyone, I was merely trying to get the point across that it seems like with beyonce, people assume you’re either one or the other. and that’s just not the case.
thanks for helping prove my point.
I guess I’m in the minority. She just had too much ish going on – the “Ava Marie” & “DIVA” threw me for a loop. There are quite a few other songs that dragged on forever. I think she is going backwards. her lyrics are kinda child playish. I LOVED DIL – but I am just a consumer and I will be buying 1 single so far. “Disappear”
“Halo” is the BOMB!!!!!!!! her vocals are madd crazed!!!! go get them girl!!!!
Even though there are times where I don’t understand some of the decisions Beyonce makes as far as her career is concerned I can appreciate them as well as her. It is her dream to be a legend, internation icon, and shes working towards that. Whether you like her or not, think she’s vain, you have to respect her hustle. I like the album and the direction she is headed right now. I do think that there is a little bit of beyonce over saturation going on right now but again respect the hustle. Go Big or go home.
I agree with #19…you clearly are coming from my perspective…
Brian,
I agree with the person who took a moment to check you on the lack of objectivity and professionalism in your posts.
Since all of the information on this site is directed as supplying information, that is what needs to be communicated here.
HOWEVER….I love to visit the site daily to make sure I am on top of the latest and greatest. I don’t mean to be offensive at all. I just wanted to offer constructive criticism.
That being said, here is my opinion of the album:
Who is Sasha Fierce? More importantly, who is Beyonce Knowles-Carter? Music listeners worldwide are more interested in the latter; more curious about divulging into the mind and psyche of Beyonce, the newly married, former lead singer of super girl group Destiny’s Child.
But with her third solo album, widely publicized as her most personal project to date, does Beyonce really give insight into what life is like behind the celebrity trappings?
I Am…Sasha Fierce is exactly what was forecasted: a disjointed package of two sounds and ambiences. In what is described as an album illustrating two sides of the vocal powerhouse diva’s persona: Beyonce’, the artists vulnerable, emotional (sincere) side, and alter ego Sasha Fierce, the domineering, attention capturing diva; the two disc set straddles current music trends of pop on the former, and edgy, street-wise R&B/dance on the latter.
First disc, entitled, I Am, is an adventure in pop sounds and phrasings for the most part. In the grand scheme of this conceptual project, I Am is more rewarding and convincing.
Listening to the twenty-seven-year-old sing about her lover’s angelic qualities on “Halo” and pondering her actions as the opposite sex on “If I Were A Boy” is actually a bit refreshing. An abundance of acoustic elements (piano, guitar) and soaring restrained vocals reveal a distinctively new approach to music for the Houston native, famous for cramming more syllables and words into a single breath than her other female counterparts.
Even here, however, the attempts to incite a certain intimacy are futile. Most notably is “Ave Maria”, which may have been a decent song without the interpolation of the operatic standard into what is an overly ambitious, under-executed filler track. Conclusively, there is no doubt Mrs. Knowles-Carter has the chords to sing just about anything, and I Am, while pleasant, is almost too easy.
Thankfully, disc two, Sasha Fierce, finds Beyonce channeling her familiar, sure-footed sexiness. It’s inevitable that most will skip through a couple of tracks on disc one before they trade it in for Fierce.
With alter-ego in full effect, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” immediately signals the change of pace and prepares listeners to break out in a sweat. “Single Ladies” is about as synonymous with sophomore album single “Get Me Bodied” as any song could be without being an exact carbon copy. Down to the snappy hand claps and steady foot stomping beat —both songs even have accompanying dance routines—”Single Ladies” may sound eerily familiar, but it is among Bey’s catchiest songs to date.
“Radio” and “Sweet Dreams” are clear attempts to capitalize on the techno craze sweeping airplay as of late. “Radio” finds the singer stepping into Rihanna territory, relying on overemphasis of vowels ‘o’ and ‘a’ while in the midst of lyrics that sound like they were written for a teenager . On the other hand, Beyonce owns “Sweet Dreams”, embodying the song’s irony in her vocal delivery against the bass-thumping, rousing synths and sparkling piano. “Dreams”, a clear gem, was unfortunately leaked to radio and dance floors in the early part of 2008.
After listening to I Am…Sasha Fierce, one will realize that Beyonce’s work with Destiny’s Child on their farewell album, Destiny Fulfilled, is the closest we have gotten (or may ever get) to calling an album by Sasha Fierce herself, personal and probing.
Speaking of the Destiny Fulfilled album, the final track on second disc Fierce, “Video Phone”, borrows a lot from “Soldier” off of the DC3 project. Hustlers swagger and pants sagging low are the catalysts for Beyonce to offer a private “video phone” sex tape. “Video Phone” is rather frank.
We appreciate the notion of trying to present a candid, stripped down Beyonce to the world through music, but this is not it. There are interesting surprises, but this double-disc album package is a lot less compelling than it could have been. Given a recording process that stretched over a year, and a goldmine of seventy songs from which these eleven were selected, it’s hard to determine whether the album’s concept diminished the intended introspective feel or if the concept saved the songs from the project’s lapse in cohesiveness.
Beyonce’s voice is there. She sings effortlessly. A few good songs are there. Top 40 radio will eat up the catch phrases. But where is the evidence of the singer turned actress and wife blossoming into womanhood and relishing in the bliss of married life?
If Beyonce fights the inevitable, at worst she could end up like Usher; playing catch up by the time she is thirty. If she reinvents herself, she may never need to live her personal life on stage. Instead she can follow in the footsteps of Madonna or Tina Turner and “Sasha” all the way into her fifties and sixties.
Im from the UK and I got the album 2day.I love it!!
I heard many of the tracks and I think Bey and her people said lets do a song that sounds like a hit song from last year. She saw how popular Alicias pop album As I Am was and she thought let me drop this hood routine and make some pop records. She got a song thats a little Rihannaish too.
That said the songs are horrible, I don’t think the album is focused. The alter ego thing is not working either.
wow Toriano, that was long….
STAND OUT TRACKS:
HELLO
HALO
DISAPPEAR
VIDEO PHONE
SWEET DREAMS
RADIO
AVE MARIA
All very different. Something for everyone!
The only songs I like are ‘If I Were a Boy’ & ‘Single Ladies’. All the rest are depressing or just too much, like forced.
Beyonce and Sasha Fierce are Desparate. She will end up like Usher.
The only difference between Beyonce and Usher will be that he didn’t try to drag his sibling along.
I will be listening to Bey’s album in full on Rhapsody tomorrow before I decide to purchase! I hope I like it though…
im so glad they changed the name of BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARE to SWEET DREAMS
cuz that track is nice to be having a bootleg title!!!!!
peace & thankz brian
@ #43….Lol. It was long. I actually posted an objective, far reaching review of the album and the impact it will have on Beyonce’s career, long-term. Sorry
@Toriano
So after all that reading, I couldn’t tell if you liked the album or not?
#19 and #40
This is a blog and you do not have to maintain a sense of professionalism, though at times it’s much appreciated. I understand you all recognize this place as raising the bar in the blog game but to be honest, one could take the saturation of beyonce posts here as clear bias by Angel but nobody complains about that. So although I might not always agree with Brian I can respect his opinion, which is fair game on a blog.
This album had me at “Hello” (My Favorite Song).
SALI :The only difference between Beyonce and Usher will be that he didn’t try to drag his sibling along.
M: Shady. smirk
Ummmmmmm I downloaded most of her album like a week ago. Sorry Bee can’t get the album this time. But I’m loving it.
to SALI
I thought that it was noble of Beyonce to try something new on the first cd. Halo, Dissappear and If I Were A Boy are pretty nice. But they come across as forced.
On the second she just shoved a bunch of sub-par, get you shaking your booty tunes.
I think some of the songs were catchy, but they don’t show a lot of growth.
I am mixed about the entire album. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars, or maybe 2.75 stars.
Everyone who LOVES beyonce…get that album…it’s crazy and we gotta SUPPORT REAL TALENT..not that other SHIT..REAL talent…come on BK we going NUMBER 1..
Why the hell is #19 freaking. I dont see the big deal of Brians comments. Beyonce has fans, stans and haters, as most artist do.
Anyway…beyonce has out done herself with this one…If ppl dnt like this album then they will never like anything beyonce will ever do becuz beyonce gave everyone something with this album. This is really a remarkable efford from her and her team…I mean I am not even a big fan of slow contemparary songs and I find myself listening to the whole side of I am…
I really think beyonce can hit a Million in the first week with this. Her and lil wayne is prolly the only artist out there that can do this. I have a feeling its gonna be some where between 500,000-700,000 but I think it deserves to go a mill becuz the team has really been going al out for this album, and the quality lives up to the hype.
Sorry
But I am still not feeling this album. And her camp takes promotion to a different level, it feels like they stalking me to buy the album. With her camp, the pictures and the videos, this album could not stand on its on. #1 first week duh, her fans got “BNA” in them, they were born to buy this.
SWEET DREAMS IS MY ISH though!
I agree with # 28. She can write nusery rhymes and people will love it. There are better artists than her. That DIVA song sounds like Jay-Z has rubbed off on her now. She’s seems as if she is very cocky and self-centered as if the world revolves around her music only. There are many great singers that came before her and are here now. I believe here audience is made up of mostly people under the age of 23.
I wonder what is going to happen when she reaches the age of 31. I won’t be spending my hard earned money on that album.