4 – Beyoncé

Harry

From the long list of icons that have come from Texas (Lance Armstrong, Matthew McConaughey, and of course, Ethan Hawke), Beyonce is most definitely the greatest. Being very much a fringe fan of hers, choosing not to delve into albums that hadn’t simply come my way, I only had deep appreciation for ‘Sasha Fierce’ and ‘Lemonade’. I therefore went into this album with surprisingly little to go off. I’m not lying when I say I was completely blown away. The first songs felt like one of the most emotionally powerful openings I’ve ever heard. It’s remarkable how Beyonce manages to provide so much complexity to the songs and bring together so many massive and grand compositional elements without it feeling over-crowded. Unlike her other works, for me singles like ‘Love On Top’ and ‘I Miss You’ are genuinely enhanced by the context of the album. I only wish it ended on ‘I Was Here’, one of my favourite moments and a real insight into her desires as an artist, but also a human being.

Classic/100

Zach

I feel like in recent years, Beyonce can do no wrong. Don’t get me wrong, she can, but her fanbase and level of celebrity at this stage is so all-consuming, that anything she does is immediately successful. Therefore, I was very excited at the prospect of reviewing an album that helped her get to this level of celebrity. In short, 4 is an exquisite album. It is so rare that every song on an album is good, you don’t want to skip any, and that whenever the next song comes on, the reaction is the same: “UGH, THIS IS SUCHHH A GOOD SOOONNGGG.” 4 combined heartfelt and powerful introspective with bangers that will NEVER not be bangers, and throughout them all, Beyonce’s voice shines through like the angel she is. The vocal performance on this album is unrivalled. However, my main criticism of the album would be the lack of theme. With a title like ‘4’, it doesn’t do much for an important statement, and the songs feel slightly like they’re just a collection of bangers rather than a coherent album, perhaps that’s why on Spotify the album is completely in the wrong order. In any case, an unbelievable album that we’ll struggle to beat all year. 

95/100