Artist: Beyoncé
Album: Dangerously in Love
Release Date: June 22, 2003
Amount of Shame TJ Feels For Listening to This Album: None Whatsoever
Because I’m usually so ashamed of my music tastes…
For all the good that Dangerously in Love presents, and trust me, there’s plenty, Beyoncé’s solo debut feels unusually uneven and uncertain of itself. It makes sense that it would be so on one level, given how much was riding on this album’s success proving that the members of the defunct Destiny’s Child could survive on their own. In large part the album succeeds. When the album pushes the tempo, Beyoncé shines. There’s a damn good reason that “Crazy in Love” and “Naughty Girl” catapulted to dancefloor staple status. Likewise, the Missy Elliot assisted “Signs” has plenty of groove to sustain itself.
If the album suffers at any point, it’s when these shining, electrified moments are sucked through a black hole and made into smooth crooners for Beyoncé to show off. Don’t get me wrong, girl’s got a divine voice and at no point is Beyoncé’s talent as a singer or performer in question. But the downtempo moments drag on awfully long and rarely build up to the exciting peaks that later Beyoncé tracks would display. “Speechless” is a prime example. Beyoncé sounds great, and the sparse background arrangement is wonderful mood music. But at six minutes, it doesn’t really go anywhere. Overall these flatter spots on the record show hesitance, almost as though Beyoncé is still thinking of her Destiny’s Child days where she had to share the space with two others and didn’t want to hog the spotlight. But her solo debut is primed for exactly that; with a little bit of swagger and future knowledge that there’s at least one classic on Dangerously in Love (“Crazy In Love”) could have theoretically turned this album into a monster. Beyoncé’s later solo albums crank the spotlight up and Beyoncé claims her existence as a pop star with a grace and consistent substance that few can hope to emulate. But for an album for which the stakes couldn’t have been much higher Dangerously in Love delivers the goods, and kickstarts a memorable chapter in Beyoncé’s career.
Beyoncé – Crazy in Love (feat. Jay-Z) [iTunes] (YSI)
==TJ==
Filed under: Album A Day | Tagged: 2000s, Album A Day, Beyoncé, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Women in Music
