Music / Beyoncé (2013)

Let me hear you say "Hey, Miss Carter..."

Changed the game with that digital drop

Know where you was when that digital popped

I stopped the world

Male or female, it make no difference, I stop the world

— Beyoncé, referencing Beyoncé's surprise release on Nicki Minaj's "Feeling Myself"

Beyoncé is the fifth studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It is Beyoncé's first Self-Titled Album, and is also a visual album where each song is accompanied by a music video. The album is also notable for being released in the middle of the night on December 13, 2013 on Apple iTunes without any announcement or promotion.

Beyoncé collaborated with several artists for the album, such as Sia, Frank Ocean, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and virtually unknown singer-songwriter BOOTS (Jordan Cruz). She wanted the songs to connect with a visual element to help show her thoughts and emotions for each track and had music videos shot in secret while she was on tour through 2012-2013. The album marks a darker, more introspective direction for the singer, with its themes including motherhood, feminism, sexuality, insecurity, and empowerment.

While the concept of a Surprise Release wasn't new in the music industry, having already been used by Radiohead for In Rainbows and David Bowie for "Where Are We Now?", Beyoncé's use of it brought the idea to the forefront thanks to her stature. Beyoncé would later comment that she was getting tired of the usual album cycle promotion and wanted to release her music in different ways to surprise fans. The album's release would mark a turn for the entire music industry. Not only would it be credited with the popularization of surprise albums, but many other big artists such as Kanye West, Drake, and Eminem started to forego the usual promotional campaign for new projects and simply turned to social media to promote projects and/or release with little advance hype.

The album is also credited for inventing the modern definition of the visual album, although it isn't Beyoncé's first of such albums (that would be her second album B'Day).

Despite the surprise release and physical copies being released a week later, Beyoncé was Beyoncé's fifth number-one album, and had her highest first-week album sales.

---

Tracklisting (Standard Edition)

1. "Pretty Hurts" (4:17)
2. "Haunted" ^{hidden track} "Ghost" (6:09)
3. "Drunk in Love" (featuring Jay-Z) (5:23)
4. "Blow" (5:09)
5. "No Angel" (3:48)
6. "Partition" ^{hidden track} "Yoncé" (5:19)
7. "Jealous" (3:04)
8. "Rocket" (6:31)
9. "Mine" (featuring Drake) (6:18)
10. "XO" (3:35)
11. "***Flawless" (featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) (4:10)
12. "Superpower" (featuring Frank Ocean) (4:36)
13. "Heaven" (3:50)
14. "Blue" (featuring Blue Ivy) (4:26)

Each song is accompanied by a music video (including the hidden tracks "Ghost" and "Yoncé"), there is a bonus video for the song "Grown Woman."

Singles

• "XO", "Drunk in Love", "Partition", "Pretty Hurts", "7/11", "Ring Off"

---

Let me sit these troooooooooooooooopes on you

• Appearance Angst: "Pretty Hurts" which reflects on the stress society puts women through in order to maintain their beauty and meet impossible beauty standards. Bonus points for the video revolving around a beauty pageant.
• Bilingual Bonus: The bridge of "Partition" is a spoken word passage in French.
  Est-ce que tu aimes le sexe?
  Le sexe, je veux dire: l'activité physique, le coït. Tu aimes ça?
  Tu ne t'intéresses pas au sexe?
  Les hommes pensent que les féministes détestent le sexe
  Mais c'est une activité très stimulante et naturelle que les femmes adorent
• Boastful Rap: Beyoncé toys with this in "Bow Down," which upset a few of her fellow celebrities. Originally, this song was the other half to "I Been On," where Beyoncé boasts even further. "I Been On" was later scrapped for Beyoncé and "Bow Down" was merged into "Flawless."
• Darker and Edgier: This was Beyoncé's moodiest album until Lemonade took that slot.
• Epic Rocking: The straightest examples are "Mine" at six minutes and 18 seconds and "Rocket," clocking in at six minutes and 31 minutes.
• Face on the Cover: Purposely averted with just her name in pink text against a black background. This is the first Beyoncé album to not feature her face on the cover. Ironic considering how every song on the album is paired with a visual component.
• Genre Shift: From the Contemporary R&B of her first four albums to a more alternative R&B direction, mixed in with Hip-Hop, Soul, and Electronic.
• Hidden Track: "Ghost" and "Yoncé" are this. The former serves as the prelude to "Haunted" and the latter as the prelude to "Partition."
• Hollywood Hype Machine: Completely averted, the album was released in the dead of night with no announcement and without any leaks or indication that Beyoncé was even recording for a new album.
• Hotter and Sexier: This album is quite explicit and easily Beyoncé's most sexually charged album.
• Intercourse with You: “Blow”, “Drunk in Love,” and especially "Partition" and “Rocket.”
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The album art is all black with just Beyoncé's name written in pink all-caps.
• Obligatory Bondage Song: "Rocket" has some lyrics referring to this, with Beyoncé wanting to be punished for being a "bad girl".
• Pietà Plagiarism: In the "Mine" video.◊
• Seduction Lyric: "Lemme sit this aaaaaaaaaaaassssssss on you..."
• Shout-Out: "Partition"'s bridge in French is very similar to a piece of dialogue from The Big Lebowski.
• Updated Re-release: The Platinum edition adds several songs and remixes, including "7/11" and "Ring Off".
• Weight Woe: The stress of trying to win the beauty pageant in "Pretty Hurts" causes Beyoncé to turn to bulimia.

---