| Bad Reviews For B-Day |
| Friday, August 18, 2006 |
 by Cynthia Nixon of, "Fox News."
Imagine if Whitney Houston never had Clive Davis steering her career for those first few important image-defining albums. The result would have been Beyonce Knowles new "B'Day," the follow up to her huge-selling debut album "Dangerously in Love."
Last night I got to hear tracks from the new album after a short listening party concluded at a Regent St. nightclub in London.
I was told that one day earlier, the singer and her parents made an appearance for Sony execs and played the album for them.Beyonce's world is made up of family, and they are close-knit business partners. Her dad, Matthew, is her controversial manager. Her mom makes her outfits. Her sister Solange sings and gets writing credits on her songs, as does a similarly named cousin, Angela Beyince.
The result of so many cooks in the kitchen, and none of them objective, is that post-Destiny's Child Beyonce serves up a mixed bag of Tina Turner-inspired videos, shrill singing and invariably tuneless songs.I am told that focus groups (yes----can you imagine?) don't care for it. A London radio DJ told me last night that "Deja Vu" and Justin Timberlake's new "Sexyback" recently tied for least-liked records in his station's polling. Ouch!A clever ballad called "Irreplaceable" is the most memorable track, and has the most potential of catching on with fans quickly. It's also the only song on "B'Day" that you might actually want to sing along to, written and produced by Stargate, an anonymous Norwegian pop hit production team akin to Max Martin's boy band factory of a few years ago.The other potential hit from "B'Day" is the bluesier soul number called "Green Light," written and produced by melody makers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes.Among the tracks that sound less obvious --and more tired --are the next planned single, "Ring the Alarm." It features an extremely annoying siren and is accompanied by a bizarre video depicting a wildly angry and unappealing Beyonce telling off someone (maybe Jay-Z?) for cheating as if she were an enraged guest on Maury Povich...Source |
posted by Juicy @ 10:20 PM   |
|
|
|
|
