BEYONCÉ: the discography rate ~ WINNER revealed!

This rate made me learn that "***Flawless" is my favourite song from the self-titled. It holds so much power. "Bow Down" followed by that intro is such a moment. However, the main highlight for me are the absolutely incredible backing vocals. Honestly, I would've given my 11 to this:

I gave it a 9.5 because it doesn't exactly match my perfect scores but it definitely should be recognized as one of her best.

 

I wish I could articulate why Freedom is my favourite track on Lemonade but all I can say is that is an incredible song. I couldn't be happier that it made it this far.

 

"Drunk in Love" sure sounds massive and has an undeniable impact but I gave it an 8.5 because it doesn't tick all the boxes for me. I would've definitely scored it higher if there wasn't any Jay-Z on it.
"Haunted" is a bit of an unexpected winning song from the album, but it's actually pretty deserving.

And I noticed this regarding "Partition" in the previous rate:

Which score did you give it here, Sprocky?

 

I've never heard this before.

 

I know we're at the top, but it still feels weird losing this album now, but here goes...
























6

SCORE: 9.425
TOTAL POINTS: 282.75

2016: 6/113 (-) | 9.266 (+0.159)
HIGHEST SCORE: 11 x 2 ( @Aester, @Crisp X ) | 10 x 13 ( @allyshone, @Ana Raquel, @Phonetics Girl, @odyism, @Maria, @eatyourself, @soratami, @sesita, @godspeed, @Ensnare, @klow, @Music Is Death, @Robert )
LOWEST SCORE: 7 x 2 ( @Sprockrooster, @TheOnlyOne )
MY SCORE: 10/10

We actually had a tie in our Top 10, between this and Freedom, however with two 11s, Haunted snagged our sixth place.

Taken from Beyoncé's fifth studio album, Self-Titled, the song is another two-parter, consisting of Ghost and then Haunted. Both songs were co-written and produced with BOOTS, and he later revealed how Haunted was the first song he played for Beyoncé, with its then title I'm Onto You. BOOTS also played Ghost for Beyoncé as well, which she immediately connected with as both shared similar experiences in the music industry. When describing the track, Beyoncé said, "The song is really about temptation in this music industry and being exposed to this crazy madness." Haunted feels quite experimental, with electronic, trap and R&B influences all being mixed into it, making it quite hard to label a specific genre for it.

Hearing Ghost for the first time was an experience! As it comes second in the tracklist after Pretty Hurts, it was a big WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE ON THIS DAY?! reaction from me, especially because Pretty Hurts is so conventional. Beyoncé talking shit about record labels, how she's bored of the industry and saying "probably won't make no money off this... oh well". My mind was blown. And then we transition into the moody and eerie Haunted, which takes you on a entirely different journey and experience throughout it's runtime. It was at this moment, I knew Self-Titled was not fucking around. Sonically, I adore both songs as well. I love how the production and vocals switch between sounding airy and soft to then strong and powerful in both sections of the song. There's loads of interesting little intricacies in the production which felt unusual at the time. Plus, the changes of pace in the tracks always keep you on your toes, unaware of where Beyoncé is going to take you next.
I could go on... it's a masterpiece.

The music video for Ghost, directed by Pierre Debusschere, is mostly stripped back and presents itself similarly to an avant garde, high fashion video. It feels artsy and different for Beyoncé, resembling how she's searching for some excitement in the industry she's been a part of for so long. Haunted, on the other hand, has a bit more story to it. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, we see Beyoncé "checking in" to the Haunted mansion. The lighting of the cigarette in the beginning only to drop it a second later is pure CAMP. Once Beyoncé receives her key and goes upstairs, she walks past all these different rooms where all kinds of freaky business might be going on. Åkerlund said, "It was not like a solid plan of 'This is what I think we should do.' It was a pretty long process. And she was traveling and touring, so we had time to bounce ideas back and forth, figure out what the best vision was. And meanwhile, she was shooting all these other videos and I wasn't really involved in what those other ideas were." I'm sure there's loads you could deduce metaphorically from each room and what they might resemble.

Haunted has been performed a fairly decent amount of times since its inception. It was included on second leg of The Mrs Carter Show World Tour, the On The Run Tour, as well as her Video Vanguard performance at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and a scattering of festival performances she did between Self-Titled and Lemonade. At the Tidal event where she caught her earring and ear started bleeding (AND SHE KEPT GOING!), she performed the song next to 6 Inch, which truly feels like a great sonic pairing. Since then, she hasn't performed it, but I'm hoping she'll give it another outing one day. The song currently has a decent 82m streams on Spotify.

​

 

Album Average: 8.418
(Standard Edition: 8.575)
2016: 8.122




Songs:

6. Haunted (9.425)
8. Drunk In Love (9.378)
9. ***Flawless (9.366)
12. Partition (9.266)
16. XO (9.175)
37. Jealous (8.643)
39. Blow (8.601)
41. Flawless Remix (8.565)
49. Mine (8.333)
52. Grown Woman (8.275)
55. Blue (8.246)
61. Heaven (8.158)
64. Superpower (8.066)
67. Pretty Hurts (8)
69. Standing On The Sun (7.975)
73. 7/11 (7.85)
77. No Angel (7.798)
89. Rocket (7.591)
100. Ring Off (7.233)





Top Scorers:

9.434 - @Music Is Death
9.302 - @odyism
9.157 - @klow​

Bottom Scorers:

7.078 - @Daniel_O
7.105 - @theincredibleflipper
7.302 - @Maki




​

 

TOP 5




Crazy In Love

Deja Vu

End Of Time

All Night
Formation
​

​

 

My ideal top 5:

1. Déjà Vu
2. End of Time
3. Crazy in Love
4. All Night
5. Formation

Totally expecting it to be in reverse order dd

 

I truly could not believe what I was hearing when I listened to Ghost/Haunted for the first time during the historic digital drop of 2013. I immediately loved it so much, I think I replayed it about eight times before I could finally allow myself to move on to Drunk in Love. There's so much going on and yet it all fits together perfectly? A true game changer.

 

Hmmm...

5. Crazy In Love
4. Deja Vu
3. All Night
2. Formation
1. End Of Time

Though I wouldn't put Crazy in Love through All Night anywhere near my top 10, let alone top 5. But it is what it is. Formation and End of Time would be an iconic Top 2, however.

 

Weirdest Bey top 5 ever but they're all very solid songs. Not even sure how I'd rank them, maybe like this?

5. End Of Time
4. All Night
3. Deja Vu
2. Crazy In Love
1. Formation

 

I don’t even know how I’d even go about creating a personal Top 10 with Beyoncé, especially with the release of Renaissance. I think with this rate's Top 5, they're all so universally liked, so they got really strong scores across the board. The biggest shock for me was Deja Vu! The jump in average and position from the 2016 rate was huge. We'll see where it ends up...

 

'Schoolin' Life' is the peak of that rich, throwback, instrumentation-heavy sound from 4 that I love so much. It's a career highlight and so joyous, and feels like a much more authentic "career song" than, say, 'I Was Here', despite me loving the latter.

Hard to accurately sum up just how much of a moment '***Flawless' was at the time. I bought a red plaid top, I learned the Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche monologue verbatim, everyone in my uni library was wearing FEMINIST sweatshirts!

Odd top 5... other than Crazy in Love and Formation (which I think are indisputably top 2 Beyoncé), most of my favourites fell before the top 10.

5. End of Time
4. All Night
3. Deja Vu
2. Formation
1. Crazy in Love

 

I would like to see Formation take it at this point, but I'm also kind of here for Deja Vu pulling off a very weird surprise win somehow. The ultimate underdog on top.

 

A higher score because it got inflated by the Yoncé-section of the song.

5 Deja Vu
4 Crazy In Love
3 End of Time
2 Formation
1 All Night

 

5. All Night
4. Deja Vu
3. Crazy In Love
2. End Of Time
1. Formation

 

5. All Night
4. End Of Time
3. Crazy In Love
2. Formation
1. Deja Vu

 

My wicked tongue

where will it be?



She was insane for this.

 

Ugh I should’ve gotten my scores in. This Top 5 is so weird… Team Formation I guess.