Jane Dark Sugarhigh blog on Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" restoring "melodic range to pop"

keep trying to formulate response along the lines of - the fact that it's a ballad in the first place creates this fundamental disjoint between the words and the music, the independent-woman braggadocio fronting which comes out of beyoncé's mouth (inc the inevitable focus on the economics of it all) at complete odds with not just her overtly emotional delivery but also with the sappy acoustic guitar and predictable ballad chord changes. it hasn't come out right though.

also: she has built up very effectively, that exact image many, many times before! it's virtually her default persona. so we know what beyoncé sounds like when she's being empowering, we know she's very good at it, and we know that this is not it.

It really makes me wonder, though: I think Beyonce puts in a really great performance on the song, she knows how to sing it - and then she goes around acting like she can't see any of the subtlety, and I start to think 'maybe she has to believe in its literal truth to sing it as well as she does...' so that, I don't know, every performance is at the emotional point before you realise you're lying to yourself, or something.

yes to recognisable signifiers of ballad form affecting perception etc.

unless the song is about pride rather than enpowerment. perhaps you might say they are the same thing. but i'm not sure about that.

?

or maybe she is STILL lying to herself, and still in denial!

or: sometimes, even after you've admitted to yourself that you're lying to yourself, and have come to terms with that...you're still not going to give the other party the pleasure of seeing it, so you carry on with your public face at all times.

precisely! especially as it's the kind of song where you hope by repeating its words to yourself enough times, you will eventually believe them. any public concession to their untruth would SHATTER YR FRAGILE EMOTIONAL WORLD, etc.

it's virtually her default persona
but you can't mesh it with the buckwild crazy needy mad-eyes persona (cf deja vu etc), or the service-your-man one (cf cater 2 u, naughty girl, etc).

lex you sound like you're implying it's based in real life, watch it. :(

every time Beyonce opens her mouth to talk about this song, I think she gets dumber

but you can't mesh it with the buckwild crazy needy mad-eyes persona (cf deja vu etc), or the service-your-man one (cf cater 2 u, naughty girl, etc).

indeed, though for whatever reason submissive/needy solo beyoncé hasn't stuck as a persona in the way that shark-eyed businesswoman DC beyoncé did. i guess until now she's backed it up with some pretty no-nonsense beats.

every time Beyonce opens her mouth to talk about this song, I think she gets dumber

no, dan's completely wrong, we have established exactly why it would be a bad idea for beyoncé (or any pop star doing a similar song) to openly talk about how it's a lie! it doesn't matter what she says in interviews, anyway.

xpost

What she says in interviews is irrelevant.

I'd love Dan's take.

This remark should be posted atop every rock critic's computer. It's probably the most compelling statement regarding a critic's obligation to delineate why an artist is or isn't worth his/her time.

What complete and utter horseshit. Has this idiot NEVER heard other people's renditions of "And I Am Telling You" (including the one they all rip off, Jennifer Holliday's) and seen the glaring interpretive contrast between what every random screamer does (YELL YELL YELL YELL YELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE) and what Jennifer Hudson does (tender start, build in emotion, out of control bridge leading to a massively impressive phrase that shows breath control that Beyonce has never once exhibited in any of her singing)? This is completely setting aside differences in timbre; Jennifer Hudson has a darker, richer, rounder sound than Beyonce does. Also, Jennifer doesn't belt "Love You I Do" and she doesn't belt the verses of "Move"; that is saved for the coda. That nonsense was written by someone who is too busy jizzing over Beyonce's weave to give anyone else a fair shake (Anika Noni Rose could easily have outsung both of them had her big number not been cut from the movie, BTW, so this is not just the same argument from the "RAH RAH JENNIFER" perspective).

no, dan's completely wrong, we have established exactly why it would be a bad idea for beyoncé (or any pop star doing a similar song) to openly talk about how it's a lie!

Petulantly stamping your foot and shouting "I DECREE THIS, THEREFORE IT IS TRUE" is not a universally-accepted way of establishing a point, Lex.

you must not know 'bout me

Lex, you do realize that there are different opinions from yours, I hope.

different opinions != ad hominem attacks. ilx is a fucking hive of incivility these days.

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