After listening to BeyoncAc's latest album, the oddly titled B'Day, there are two thoughts very difficult to get out of your head: Where's the attempt to recreate ""Crazy in Love,"" and why does BeyoncAc sound like she's preparing to break up with Jay-Z? The first concern washes away after repeated listens—though nothing on B'Day equals the R&B perfection that was ""Crazy in Love,"" the album as a whole is entirely better and more satisfying than the often-taxing Dangerously In Love.
The second concern, however, only seems more apparent after further listening. Half of the songs are explicitly about breaking up, jealousy and resentment. If there is trouble between the Hova and Ms. Knowles, it probably won't raise any eyebrows given the expiration dates on celebrity romances. The real surprise, though, is that this jealousy and anger has propelled BeyoncAc into creating some of the most relevant music of her entire career, and one of the most consistent albums of 2006.
""Ring the Alarm"" is the album's angriest, grittiest and best song. It mixes deliriously obsessive verses, Bomb Squad-esque production (alarms sounds over hard-hitting, spare beats) and a screaming, ranting chorus that finds BeyoncAc sounding like the bastard child of Zack de la Rocha and Yoko Ono—which is a surprisingly good thing. Lyrically, she deals with one of the hardest parts of any break-up: the knowledge that after it's over, you have to see your ex-lover with someone new. When she screams ""I'll be damned if I see another chick on your arm!"" BeyoncAc effectively sums up the senseless jealousy that marks ended relationships. This is simply one of the most original, ballsy singles to hit the radio this year.
""Suga Mama"" exemplifies what makes B'Day so enjoyable and unique. Its instrumentation sounds straight out of the Meters' '70s catalogue with spare, funky guitar work and minimal drum. This is one of B'Day's strongest attributes: BeyoncAc gives us songs with plenty of different instruments and hooks to keep things interesting, but makes sure they still have a sense of space and restraint. Never does the production sound overdone, and each song leaves plenty of open audio space, producing a sound that is both layered and spare. Add soulful vocals and lines like, ""I'm gonna be like a waffle cone, just drippin' to the floor,"" and you've got a killer song.
""Freakum Dress,"" second only to ""Ring the Alarm,"" also is a fantastic, spare club banger which begins with BeyoncAc commanding the music to start and stop at her whim. The song finds BeyoncAc exhorting fans to go out and get ur freak on whenever your man acts up: ""Ladies look here / When you been with your man for a long time / Every time and then you gotta go back in the closet / and pull out that freakum dress."" BeyoncAc takes the familiar female empowerment song and makes it wholly interesting again by imbuing it with an angrier, ""fuck you"" mentality that most divas wouldn't dare to.
Due to the absence of a ""Crazy in Love,"" B'Day will probably not be the blockbuster that Dangerously In Love was, which is a shame considering this album is one of the most entertaining, heartfelt releases in R&B/pop music this year. Taking into account the fact that BeyoncAc created this near-masterwork in the space of two weeks, it's fair to say her career is stepping out of the cookie cutter it gestated in and is entering a golden era that is all her own: powerful, soulful and freaky.
