Review Summary: Beyonce's 4 is a good album. It shows that Beyonce is going in a different direction, which, at this point, could go good or bad.
Beyonce was slowly trying to make that transition from R&B soul to R&B Hip Hop, and this was the result. I'm not completely in love with the album, it has both its ups and downs, but all together, this is a good record. I especially love the songs "Countdown" and "Love on Top". The song "I was here" nearly had me in tears as Beyonce reminisced about the mark she's going to leave on Earth and all the change and love that will come with it (self explanatory much, but hey). The song "Dance for you" felt quite awkward and all over the place, I did not like the melody and lyrics. The same with the songs "Party". I feel as if Beyonce is trying to portray herself as a diva of some sort, and man, it's not working. I mean, listen to the song "End of Time". In the beginning you can hear the words: "Don't *** with me" repeated over and over again. It's like she's trying to prove how bad she is. You had a curse word in a song, like the other million others.
I think this album would have done way better if it was released as an EP with the songs I mentioned above. All the rest of the songs on the album are just plain annoying, and quite frankly, shouldn't exist. The lyrics in this album are light. They don't meet the standards for R&B/soul, but they defiantly do for Hip Hop, which is, after all, what Beyonce is trying to get to anyway.
