BEYONCÉ: the discography rate ~ WINNER revealed!

I got 3 tens out but honestly all three songs got me in different ways. We Will Rock You May have been a bit much but Save The Hero is one of my favourite Beyoncé big drama ballads ever since and I am constantly listening to I Got That since I first heard it on a random compilation more than 20 years ago.

For me it’s just a coincidence I really love the songs.

 

I am living for this I Am… cull. The only redeemable thing to come from that era was Single Ladies.

 

The fast pace is great! It's a lot more fun that way, especially since we have so many songs to go through.
I really like Poison, it's a cute song. Should have been a little higher. As for That's How You Like It - it had no business being on Dangerously In Love. It's not good to say the least, and when compared to their gigantic other collaboration on the album, it suffers even more.

 

Again, glad I'm not alone here!


If - 10
~ This is a true 'nobody ever said that before' moment, but depending on the day, this might be my favourite song from the "B'Day" era. This type of melancholic mid-tempo 00s ballad (think "Unfaithful") is such a bait for me. Every section here is the perfection, the melody is splendid, the piano and strings combo makes a really effective instrumental, the vocals, the underlying drama of it all etc. The ad-libs near the end are brilliant, too. And to think this song might've never seen the light of day if it wasn't used as a replacement... Devastated by this elimination since this has been among my precious beloved gems for quite some time and it was shocking to see it leave so early given the supposed "B'Day" revisionism. There are so many songs that deserved to leave before this one I don't even know where to start. Really hoping the rest of my perfect scores are safe for a while

Ave Maria - 9
~ I might be biased here because I remember stanning this one heavily when I first dived into her discography and while that love has subsided over time, it definitely deserves a relatively high score. Similarly to "Honesty", the instrumental is very bare-bones and basic, so I can definitely get why some are not a fan of this song. The verses could've been better, too. Still, it's yet another lovely ballad that left too early. The vocals in general are amazing and totally lift up the song. That final 'Ave Maria...' with a high falsetto note is just heavenly - I remember replaying the heck out of that moment back when I discovered it years ago.

That’s Why You’re Beautiful - 6
~ Yeah, I could've scored this one even lower - my least favourite song from this album. While I can definitely appreciate the instrumentation/production being different and more timeless compared to majority of the tracks from that album, the song itself is just lacking. The melody is so dull and the song somehow manages to be both very boring and annoying at the same time. Seems like this is the only "I Am... Sasha Fierce" ballad that I don't enjoy to some extent, so it's a pleasing elimination.

My First Time - 5.75
~ Another surprise that this totally unremarkable song outlasted some of my ultimate faves. The fact that this one didn't even appear in the previous rate despite being officially released multiple times speaks for itself. It sounds quite demo-ish, and while it flows nicely, the production being very one-note as well as melody having no remarkable moments definitely doesn't help. I like the outro with those very nice harmonies but there really is nothing notable about this song by any means (except that it was the first ever B-side she released in some form).

On one hand, it's great to see that we already reached the 6+ average scores here but on the other I'm disappointed some of my faves missed on it (seems like I'm bound to appear in the lowest scorers section soon too).

 

Plus '03 Bonnie & Clyde was a bonus track and also eclipsed this one. It is kind of cute but also really completely forgettable.

 

Rise Up - 7.75
~ I thought I scored this one lower but listening to it again, it's definitely worthy of this score if not a bit higher. Yeah, it's an obvious Sia written song, but the pre-chorus and chorus are great and I imagine it must've sounded even better in 2013 when we didn't have a million variations of this type of song. A random collab but it's good for what it is. Kind of like her "Slegdehammer" in a way, right?
I can understand why it's out at this point though.

Dreaming - 7.75
~ While I surely expected this one to be the first exit from "4", in no way I saw it falling so early on. As stated in BPG2011 rate, I enjoy this one and definitely agree that it sounds like "I Am... Sasha Fierce" outtake - must've been done during the earliest "4" recording sessions since the sound progress is very noticeable. A perfectly fine song, just a bit too basic and it's far from being any sort of standout and therefore getting any major reaction. It's not my least favourite song on the album but I'm not too fussed it's the first one out.

See Me Now - 4.25
~ This one annoyed the heck out of me because that short Bey's part (where she sings "I guess I got everything, everything I want...") is excellent and then the song just kept going on and on with no end in sight and sounded like a mess so much that I wanted to skip it. Goodbye to this.

Have Your Way - 8.25
~ Now this is a cute little song that I remember was a discovery for some of you when I brought it up in Destiny's Child rate. I have a soft spot for it for some reason, it's just very charming and likeable despite being a typical R&B song of that era and I can't say I adore anything in particular - the beat and melodies are rather simple (and both are memorable to me), nothing jumps out too much yet it just... works.
Expectedly underrated but it could've been worse I guess.

Since we can assume that "Have Your Way" stemmed from the writing/recording sessions just before Michelle joined the group, there's another 'DC solo member' song from that time and which was a great (re?)discovery the other day. It's "Angel", which was written by Beyoncé, Rob Fusari and Falonte Moore likely during the early "Survivor" sessions but was recorded by Kelly Rowland and released on Down to Earth soundtrack in 2001. An excellent R&B tune:

If Michelle got to feature on either of these, they would've been great additions/replacements for "Survivor" album, which had some much weaker tracks.

 

I'm guessing this page will be full of extras...









158

SCORE: 6.208
TOTAL POINTS: 186.25

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 9 x 1 ( @BubblegumBoy )
LOWEST SCORE: 3 x 1 ( @Purple )
MY SCORE: 5/10​

This track is notably, all about Blue Ivy. Written with Sia and Christopher Braide, the ballad was released as a promotional single for Beyoncé's Life Is But A Dream DVD, which was released in November 2013. Hive members who had pre-ordered the DVD were given a free download of the song.

God Made You Beautiful is very pretty and inoffensive. Again, I probably underscored it a tad. Due to both songs being written with Sia, there is a clear connection between this and Rise Up, from the movie, Epic. The Beyoncé/Sia collabs have never been my personal vibe though. As always, the vocals are great and I'm not mad at this being a little promo single for Life Is But A Dream. At least she gave us something!

157

SCORE: 6.24
TOTAL POINTS: 124.8

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 1 ( @theincredibleflipper )
LOWEST SCORE: 0 x 1 ( @TéléDex )
MY SCORE: 5/10​

"Solidd gooooollllllllldddd...."

This song, taken from the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember, which Beyoncé also starred in as Foxxy Cleopatra, is just a fun little moment. It's actually Cleopatra who gets the credit here officially, while the track features Solange and Devin on background vocals. There's a tonne of KC & The Sunshine Band samples in this to make it instantly recognisable, which was obviously the intention.
Lyrics aside, Beyoncé sounds incredible on this beat though!

Regarding the movie, well... I remember really enjoying Foxxy Cleopatra at the time, but I would never go back to watch it now. The Mike Myers humour has not aged well. You can see what kind of humour I mean in the clip below.

Britney also cameoed and featured on the soundtrack with the Boys (Co-ed Remix), which was probably the best song on there, sorry Work It Out ddd.









156

SCORE: 6.25
TOTAL POINTS: 131.25

2016: 107/113 (-49) | 4.595 (+1.655)
HIGHEST SCORE: 7.5 x 2 ( @Aester, @Maki )
LOWEST SCORE: 3.75 x 1 ( @TéléDex )
MY SCORE: 5/10​

And so, we say bye to Fever again. This cover was officially released as a promotional single for Beyoncé's Heat fragrance in 2010. However, she also did a cover of the song for The Fighting Temptations movie, released in 2003. I included the Heat version in the Youtube playlist, so I'm going to think that was the one you guys rated. It's a bit more moody and fiery (pardon the pun) than the 2003 version as Bey utilises her pretty incredible lower register.

Anyway, I'm not too sad to see this go. This placement feels about right. Beyoncé performed the 2003 version on Jay Leno which she naturally killed, despite getting her foot caught for a split second, which is barely noticeable because she's Beyoncé. Also, she performed Fever on the Dangerously In Love Tour in Europe, which you can view below.

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Remember waiting for the previously teased "Grown Woman" and "Standing On The Sun" for months and then getting... "Rise Up" and "God Made You Beautiful"? Traumatic times.

 

Poison - 7.5
~ This is to "I Am... Sasha Fierce" what "Dreaming" is to "4" - a good bonus track that adds nothing new to the table. This one also sounds dated (actually it's very of its time, as mentioned in the write-up) but it's a completely serviceable song. Overall it leaves a lot to be desired We could've actually lot some of the other songs from this part of the album, such as "Ego". Crazy to think she'd go on to release timeless songs only two years later.

That's How You Like It - 5.75
~ The hook is cute, it's really close to being overly-saccharine but the rest is very forgettable. Seems like this one benefited from being consistently scored, which in return could've happened by it being surrounded by all these boring ballads.
It's definitely a filler track, but then again, it's a big rarity to have this super sweet type of tunes by Beyoncé, which is a nice thing. I actually can't think of any other one that captures the same vibe except from the debut outtake "Ice Cream Truck":

 

The I Am... ballads leaving before the Tinkerbell song... I gagged a little.

 

I now feel like I should’ve voted for the optionals too because Hey Goldmember is a disaster and should’ve exited much earlier.

 

It was really bad for us then.

 

God Made You Beautiful - 7.25
~ I completely forgot this is another Sia co-write, which definitely makes sense when you listen to the song. It is the weakest out of her four collabs with Sia, but it's still a very nice song. The main faults here that thehe verses are boring and it goes on for a bit too long.

Hey Goldmember - 7.5
~ This funky little bop I nearly forgot existed. There's not much to it but I like how fun it is during these less than 3 minutes. Given that disco sound, I thought it would do better here and there's a bunch of extras I hoped to see out before it. And to see this receive both a 10 and a 0 is surprising, definitely not a song I thought would garner any strong reactions either way.

Fever - 7.5
~ Whew, the scores are so consistent for this one ( of course I am the highest scorer again dd). Yeah, I scored the Heat version of this too. I think this is the first time Bey really went with the lower register and she showcased it damn well. While not being notable overall of course, it's a good cover that captures the sensual vibe with a minimal instrumentation, which I really like. Not loss at this point though.


This is not really a set of extras I thought nor hoped would get eliminated now, especially when "Back to Black", "Lift Off", "Shining" and some of the covers are still lingering around.

 

Now a little appreciation post...







155

SCORE: 6.275
TOTAL POINTS: 188.25

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 9.5 x 1 ( @Dijah. )
LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 1 ( @Purple )
MY SCORE: 6.5/10​

I wanted to include this track in the extras over the optionals, mainly because it's one of the few times Beyoncé and sister Solange have been on a song together... officially at least. The two have collaborated throughout Beyoncé's career as Solange has been a frequent writer on her big sister's records, the last being on I Am... with Why Don't You Love Me. Additionally, despite not featuring much in the latter half of Bey's career on paper, Solange's presence and influence can be felt and without Solange, Beyoncé wouldn't have been able to utter the now iconic, "Of course sometimes shit goes down when there's a billion dollars on an elevator" line in the Flawless Remix.

Back to Naïve... the song was included as an international bonus track on Solange's debut album, Solo Star, released in 2002. For an early 00s effort, I really enjoy this as a collaboration, although nothing groundbreaking and probably nowhere near as good as a collab between the two today would be. The song was produced by Herman Crump and Mathew Knowles himself and at the time of announcing the rate, it wasn't available on Spotify UK, however it magically appeared when I looked today, so I've updated the Spotify playlist. I'm not sure if it's available elsewhere. Anyway, it's a cute moment between the two. Da Brat also features here.

Keeping Naïve in its own post was a way for me to honour Solange for the absolutely incredible artist and critical darling she has become, especially since the release of her 2012 EP True. It was always going to be a difficult and unfair task for her to escape Beyoncé's shadow, but she defied the odds and has carved her own path in the industry. Amazingly, in 2016, Solange rightfully earned her first number one album with A Seat at the Table, which marked the first time ever two sisters had reached number one on the Billboard 200 in the same year, as Lemonade was released about 5 months prior.

Anyway, let's bop to Solange for a little bit...

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Aww... "Naïve" is so cute. Can we actually get rid of some songs that are not good?
Glad that it got upped from optionals to 'regular' extras so everyone got to hear it (the same thing should've happened with "Have Your Way", which is an original song that and Bey has a main part on it too, but I digress...)

 

"Naive" was new to me, and I really like it. It magically appeared on US Spotify today too!

"Poison" and "That's How You Like It" have been my biggest losses so far. I get the criticisms for both, but they're really catchy and I find myself listening to them more often than many other, objectively better songs on their parent albums for some reason.

 

It's almost like our mother's knew!



Coming up, we have plenty more extras and maybe a couple album tracks which I want to get through today. I'm working all day in London tomorrow and Thursday so I won't be able to update as much.

 

That's How You Like It used to be one if my favourite songs from the album. I gave it a 6 but I wish I had scored it a bit higher.

 

An optional, an extra and an album track...










154

SCORE: 6.3125
TOTAL POINTS: 126.25

2016: 109/113 (-45) | 4.361 (+1.9515)
HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 1 ( @Sprockrooster )
LOWEST SCORE: 1 x 1 ( @Phonetics Girl )
MY SCORE: 2/10​

I was never a fan of this cover. I just can't. And I'm not even a massive fan of the original, but I could only imagine if I was... I would hate this even more!

For those who don't know, Back to Black is a cover of the Amy Winehouse hit from the acclaimed album of the same title. Beyoncé and André 3000 recorded a version of the track for the 2013 film, The Great Gatsby. The soundtrack for the film was a pretty huge deal at the time and it was executive-produced by Jay-Z. Back to Black was the final song to be added to the soundtrack, as director Baz Luhrmann was looking for a "darker moment". Winehouse's father was not a fan of André 3000's parts on the cover, however original producer of the song, Mark Ronson was happy and felt honoured by the cover version.

I actually don't find myself disagreeing with Winehouse's father here and I frickin' love André 3000. I think he's one of the best rappers out there, but here, he just doesn't work for me. The soundtrack boasted hits for Fergie, will.i.am and most notably Lana Del Rey with Young and Beautiful. Speaking of, if this rate goes well, I have my sights set on a Lana rate, despite her popularity waning on here since that post. But I digress... I would like to hear your thoughts on this cover. I think it was the right time for this to go.

153

SCORE: 6.348
TOTAL POINTS: 190.45

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 9 x 1 ( @Music Is Death )
LOWEST SCORE: 3.5 x 1 ( @Ensnare )
MY SCORE: 5/10

The second unreleased cut to fall is I'm Leaving. Like with Sexuality previously, this song was included on the elusive mixtape, Speak My Mind, which Beyoncé was said to have released in 2005. As mentioned in the early pages of this rate, I'm Leaving was intended to be a Destiny's Child song and was recorded during the early Survivor sessions. It definitely sounds like it could be on The Writings On The Wall, as it shares similarities to the likes of Get On The Bus and Now That She's Gone.

I'm Leaving is okay and definitely not a bad unreleased moment in Beyoncé's back catalogue sonically. The lyrics, however... a bit of a mess as Beyoncé kind of outs herself as a homewrecker in this scenario as she sings, "You had a lady and couldn't spend all your time with me", when she initially met this man.
So... maybe it was best this stayed on the cutting room floor.

152

SCORE: 6.366
TOTAL POINTS: 191

2016: 97/113 (-55) | 5.443 (+0.923)
HIGHEST SCORE: 9 x 2 ( @odyism, @Dijah. )
LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 2 ( @TheOnlyOne, @Robert )
MY SCORE: 5/10​

We can thank Missy Elliott for this dumb but fun little song, as she played the demo for Beyoncé and they got into talking about all their different experiences with the signs before turning their conversation into a track. This is surprisingly the first of four Missy collaborations to drop out. The main focus of Beyoncé’s attention on Signs is with the Sagittarius, which is, you guessed it, Jay-Z’s sign. Now, whether you believe in star signs or not, I’m happy that my shout out on Signs is at least a good one, “Fun like a Libra, he stays on my mind”.

The production on Signs saves it from being a total miss, plus Beyoncé’s natural ability to slay vocally. I understand if you like astrology, this may be your shit as evidenced by the little viral moment it had on TikTok. But, when listening from start to finish, it’s the first (or second) major slice of filler on the Dangerously In Love tracklist. Despite it being Missy’s song originally, she doesn’t end up adding anything in particular to elevate it either. Fortunately for Beyoncé, this is one of the few songs on Dangerously In Love that she doesn’t have a writing credit on.

Missy featured in an online promo video for Beyoncé's clothing line, Ivy Park, where Signs was included to showcase the Icy Park collection. I can't help but love a throwback moment like this. It's always fun to see artists acknowledge a deep cut from the past, no matter what the song.



The song has never been performed live. Even on the Verizon Ladies First Tour in 2004, where Beyoncé was actually joined by Missy Elliott (and Alicia Keys). Beyoncé remains a fan of star signs though and there’s a couple of YouTube videos which highlight Beyoncé’s big virgo energy (whatever that means) that have 600k+ views.

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Yeah, Destiny's Child actually had quite a few songs where they encouraged cheating or talked about being the "other woman", Like Jumpin' Jumpin', If You Leave and With Me. All great song with questionable lyrics!