Beyonce’s B’Day Deluxe Edition Finally Got Me

I have this mentality when it comes to purchasing CDs. A legacy that is probably dated back in my days in UK. If there are three of more hit songs I like from an album, the album is worth buying. It is because the cost of one CD was roughly the same as three singles and I did buy singles back then.

When “Deja Vu” first released, I was like: ya, that is cool and I love the new upbeat and trendy sound. “Ring The Alarm” is even more extreme than “Deja Vu”. Part of me finds the song odd while part of me secretly likes it. But two is still not enough to persuade me to buy an album. Then came “Irreplaceable”, a slow ballad with the melody and line that instantly hook onto me (“to the left, to the left, everything you own in the box to the left“). But still, I don’t usually buy Hip Hop albums so I gave it a pass.

Then recently Beyonce released a deluxe edition that comes with an additional set of new songs as well as a DVD. One of the new songs “Beautiful Liar” sung by Beyonce and Shakira sounds okay (if only they could lose that line calling each other by names). It was “Listen” (featured below and from the motion picture “Dreamgirls”) that got me jump out of my chair. The video is emotional and I have got goose pimples all over me every time I watch that video (those watery eyes …). I could not find the version from the deluxe edition in YouTube (without the flashback to the movie that can be a distraction but for the curious minds, here is the link) but I manage to find this live performance. Check out the improvisation towards the end. That was out of the world I am telling you.

Randy Jackson from American Idol often uses Beyonce’s unique improvisation as reference to some of the contestants. Beyonce’s new album has pushed her vocal ability to a new height. There are some slow songs that I particularly like from within the album such as “Flaws And All”, “If”, and “Amor Gitano” that I don’t have time to dig them out from YouTube. Having sung all the praises, I have to admit that some songs in this album are quite hard to accept. Cynthia has found this album towards the noisy part. I wish Beyonce could make more songs that sound like “Listen”. Is she the trend setter like she inspired to be? Only time can tell.

Edit: Found a Korea singer Yangpa gave a rendition of “Listen” live. Pretty interesting stuff.