As a whole, I like this better than S/T, which is what got me into her to begin with. I can't get enough of this.
Enjoyed the shit out of this, listened a couple of times at a friends house. Hold Up is amazing, you can definitely hear the Ezra Koenig influence on it. What a cool song. Also really enjoyed the country influenced song a lot, which is new for me haha I guess I'll have to get ahold of the video now lol
Gonna give the self-titled album another chance today... honestly I didn't like it at the time, but my perspective on music and so many of the issues she tackles in her music have changed a TON since then, so I feel like my memories of it are colored by my narrow perspective at the time. I really hope that and Lemonade click with me, because I respect her a lot as an artist for tackling the themes she does. I really liked Rihanna's new album, which is kinda similar I guess (maybe not idk), so I can't imagine I won't at least like self-titled more than I used to. I'll report back if anyone gives a damn haha.
I have listened to Lemonade, then self-titled, and now Four today. Working backwards through her discography, it's amazing to see how diverse she's always been, but also how she's vocally developed and topically strengthened and specified. Amazing talent. I'm curious, because the Sasha Fierce singles are some of my least favorites, and I'm about to start that album and I'm curious how I'll feel now.
It makes so much sense that "Hold Up" is Diplo-produced and Ezra co-written. The vibes on this song are completely in line with "Jessica"
Sasha Fierce is a mess of an album, but still has some killer tracks. It doesn't work well to listen to from front to back, but if you mix up the tracklisting a bit, there's some of her best songs on it. B'Day is still my favourite album of hers by a long shot, though.
Sasha Fierce and B'Day (have worked that far back now in the discog listen through) just aren't very good as whole albums (unlike the latest three), but contain some very good songs along the way. There's a lot of sounds/styles on B'Day that she returns to and perfects on s/t and Lemonade.
She also suffers from having massively bloated and extended versions of her album. My version of Sasha Fierce runs for twenty tracks long!
yeah that album could have been condensed to an ep and been killer, way too much to cut down as it stands.