BEYONCÉ: the discography rate ~ WINNER revealed!

[allyshone]

54

SCORE: 8.25
TOTAL POINTS: 247.5

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 9 ( @allyshone, @Sprockrooster, @boombazookajoe, @odyism, @sesita, @godspeed, @klow, @TéléDex, @Robert )
LOWEST SCORE: 5 x 1 ( @Daniel_O )
MY SCORE: 10/10

Here's to my other eight emotional babies who gave this one a 10!

Taken from The Gift, Beyoncé's companion album to The Lion King, OTHERSIDE is one of the few ballads on the album, sitting in between massive bangers ALREADY and MY POWER. The song was co-written with Sydney Bennett, Dave Rosser, Nick Green along with Abisagboola “BANKULLI” Oluseun, who's vocals are the ones you hear during the outro. OTHERSIDE is about the connections we have to the afterlife, the reassuring thoughts we have when thinking about seeing our loved ones again and knowing they are looking down on us. For The Lion King, after being reassured by his father Mufusa that the kings that preceded them live on in the stars, Simba knows his now deceased father is watching him from the skies.



OTHERSIDE is so fucking beautiful and one of my all time favourite Beyoncé ballads. It's so intimate, it feels so close and her vocal performance, especially with how she uses her lower register these days, is just gorgeous. The little flickering piano in the background is enough to keep the production interesting but not overwhelming as the string arrangements smoothly wave over it and BANKULLI's vocals are just as soft and easy on the ears. I don't know what more to tell you...

As with all The Gift songs, Beyoncé has never performed them live and sadly, the song only has 12m streams on Spotify. A pop injustice!

Beyoncé talks a tiny little bit about the song in the Making The Gift documentary.




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[Maki]

"OTHERSIDE" is beautiful and it's such a shame to see it leave before the top 50. Definitely one of my favourite rediscoveries of the rate.

 

[Sprockrooster]

The way there is excruciating sadness and blissful hope in one track. This slowly grew in my Bey ballad trinity.

 

[Robert]

I agree with all of the comments above. OTHERSIDE is absolutely beautiful and definitely one of Beyoncé’s best ballads. I love the piano melody and the strings when they kick in add a great effect. I love the different ways Beyoncé uses her voice too, from soft and delicate to soulful and deep. Bliss.

 

[allyshone]

I'D NEVER TRADE YOU FOR ANYBODY ELSE SINGIN'...

























53

SCORE: 8.275
TOTAL POINTS: 248.25

2016: N/A
HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 8 ( @Sprockrooster, @lalaclairi_, @odyism, @Maria, @eatyourself, @sesita, @TéléDex, @Music Is Death )
LOWEST SCORE: 6 x 4 ( @Phonetics Girl, @Epic Chocolat, @soratami, @Maki )
MY SCORE: 9/10

And another one to go from Beyoncé's companion album to The Lion King, The Gift. BROWN SKIN GIRL features icon Blue Ivy, along with SAINt JHN and WizKid and thanks to this record, Blue Ivy won her first Grammy Award, making her the youngest credited winner ever at the ceremony! We love to see it. The song was co-written with Bipolar Sunshine, Jay-Z, P2J, Stacy Bathe, Anatii and Michael Uzowuru and is a celebration and message to young "brown skinned" girls to embrace and be proud of the skin they are in. Upon release, a #BrownSkinGirlChallenge went viral on Twitter.



BROWN SKIN GIRL is another important track in Beyoncé's discography that she will be remembered for, for years to come. It's a beautiful song with message and heart. The music video, which was part of Beyoncé's Black Is King, was also a huge highlight for me on my first watch. This is just a probably a Hive member thing, but I love how Beyoncé has come from, "do the Naomi Campbell walk, Naomi Campbell walk" in Get Me Bodied to getting Naomi Campbell in an actual video! Lupita Nyong'o, Kelly Rowland, Tina Knowles, Aweng Ade-Chuol, Adut Akech all co-star as well, along with Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter. It's a star-studded, gorgeous video which does the song justice.

The song has never been performed live, however has over 106m streams on Spotify.
Hopefully we'll see a live outing one day (like I've been saying for all of The Gift's songs).

Check out the BROWN SKIN GIRL section of the Making The Gift documentary below.









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[allyshone]

Okay, let's get to our Top 50 before Renaissance takes over our lives. Who was I kidding about finishing the rate before the album came out!

























52

SCORE: 8.275
TOTAL POINTS: 248.25

2016: 42/113 (-10) | 7.81 (+0.465)
HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 8 ( @Sprockrooster, @odyism, @Epic Chocolat, @Maria, @eatyourself, @Purple, @TheOnlyOne, @TéléDex )
LOWEST SCORE: 5 x 1 ( @Phonetics Girl )
MY SCORE: 7.5/10

Technically a tie with BROWN SKIN GIRL, however a 9.75 score bumped this ahead.

A track we can't even stream for whatever reason, Beyoncé surely has one... surely... right? Grown Woman was first used for Beyoncé's Pepsi commercial, however despite the fan demand, it was never officially released in any kind of audio capacity. However, on the release of Self-Titled, the visual side of the album had a bonus video for the song and a really great video at that. The song was produced by Timbaland and co-written with frequent collaborator The-Dream. I believe the song, like its sister song Standing On The Sun, leaked at some point in 2013, however I don't exactly remember when and if it was different version than the video version we have officially ended up with.



Grown Woman is a super fun song in its entirety. I especially love the moment in the third verse, "'cause I got a cute face and my booty so fat, go girlllllll!!". To me, it doesn't reach the heights of Self-Titled, but I wouldn't have minded its inclusion, or even some form of release on the re-issue / More Only EP. Maybe with the track leaking, Beyoncé didn't want to include it on the album and by that time had already shot a video, so included the video as a bonus for fans. Anyway, Grown Woman also features vocals by Ismael Kouyate during the bridge, which, along with the production, isn't too far from The Gift.

The music video, like I said before, is really great. There may be some questionable mouth CGI to rival Henry Cavill's erased moustache in Justice League, but jokes aside, it's a great concept to use the young Beyoncé footage and use CGI so it looks like she's singing the song. Kelly and Tina also make an appearance in the video, representing two grown women who have always been a constant in Beyoncé's life.

Beyoncé performed the song as a closer before the encore on The Mrs Carter Show World Tour during its early legs, even though the song wasn't out. Beyoncé has so much fun with it and sells it, I can see why fan demand was high to get it released. Finally, she performed the song at her headlining Chime For Change slot, so we have a nice official recording of the performance.










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[allyshone]

TOP 50

Crazy In Love
Naughty Girl
Baby Boy
Me, Myself and I

Deja Vu
Get Me Bodied
Suga Mama
Upgrade U
Ring The Alarm
Freakum Dress
Green Light
Irreplaceable
Beautiful Liar
Check On It

Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Diva
Sweet Dreams

I Care
I Miss You
Party
Love On Top
Countdown
End Of Time
Run The World (Girls)
Schoolin’ Life

Haunted
Drunk In Love
Blow
Partition
Jealous
Mine
XO
***Flawless
Flawless Remix

Pray You Catch Me
Hold Up
Don’t Hurt Yourself
Sorry
6 Inch
Daddy Lessons / Daddy Lessons (with The Chicks)
Love Drought
Freedom
All Night
Formation

APESHIT

BIGGER
FIND YOUR WAY BACK

BREAK MY SOUL

Savage (Remix)
Telephone
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[Ensnare]

2013 was the most batshit time to be a Beyoncé fan, and I have equal nostalgia and mild residual horror when I hear both 'Grown Woman' and 'Standing on the Sun'.

The months of scraps we were feeding on until an absolute banquet. What a time.

 

[Aester]

I always think of the lead-up to the Super Bowl that year and how we were all so sure an album was right around the corner... but instead we had to wait another ten months. At least the wait was worth it.

I especially love the moment in the third verse, "'cause I got a cute face and my booty so fat, go girlllllll!!".

This is my favorite part, too! A true travesty that "Grown Woman" isn't on streaming. I'd play it all the time.

 

[Lost In Japan.]

Did the Grown Woman video not leak in the run up to the Self-Titled drop? I could be misremembering but I have vague memories of watching it via some Chinese website not too long before that morning.

I really love the video. The concept is great (I think B is always so good at celebrating her legacy!) and I always love when Ms Tina shows up.

 

[Ensnare]

Did the Grown Woman video not leak in the run up to the Self-Titled drop?

Yes! It was within a day or so of it, I believe - I think I remember writing it off as being extended tour visuals or from a scrapped project, and then bam.

 

[CaliDevotion]

I will never forget the day that Grown Woman in Paris video was uploaded, and the confusion that descended upon us, but that performance really held me over for 8 more months.

 

[2014]

Beautiful Liar and Diva seem like the obvious next couple of eliminations, but hopefully Telephone doesn't outstay its welcome too much.

 

[Aester]

I've never liked Beautiful Liar and I strongly resent it still being here.

 

[Sprockrooster]

Though I would hate to see more of the debut go it does surprise me that Me, Myself and I as one of her weakest ballads pulling through. Guess the single effect is at it. If only Heaven or Otherside were singles then.

 

[Maki]

Guess the single effect is at it.

Speaking of which, "Diva" and "APESHIT" are cruising on their single effect ("Telephone" too but at least it's a good song).

On the other hand, "Me, Myself and I" is underrated and I really hope to see it stay at least a bit longer. It's not my least favourite single from the debut, either.

 

[godspeed]

Did the Grown Woman video not leak in the run up to the Self-Titled drop?

Absolutely! She really put us through it with "Grown Woman." We waited months for it to the point where I was listening to a looped version of the Pepsi teaser quite obsessively during the post-Super Bowl drought. One night in December, I visited a Beyoncé fansite, like I often did at the time, and found out that the "Grown Woman" music video – or maybe just a part of it – had leaked. And I remember thinking to myself "oh nice, it means the single is coming soon, finally!" The next morning I woke up to a new Beyoncé album and seventeen music videos.

 

[soratami]

Speaking of which, "Diva" and "APESHIT" are cruising on their single effect ("Telephone" too but at least it's a good song).

On the other hand, "Me, Myself and I" is underrated and I really hope to see it stay at least a bit longer. It's not my least favourite single from the debut, either.

dd if there's one song that's benefiting from the single effect it's Me, Myself and I. If it was just an album track I'm pretty certain it would have been eliminated like 50 places ago.

 

[Maki]

dd if there's one song that's benefiting from the single effect it's Me, Myself and I. If it was just an album track I'm pretty certain it would have been eliminated like 50 places ago.

I'd say it looks that way because those album tracks were really underrated (so the opposite of a single effect happened to them) and they should've made top 50 too. I think a good amount of songs very likely wouldn't have gotten so far if they weren't released as a single.

 

[godspeed]

"Me, Myself and I" is an 11.