| Beyoncé - Dangerously in Love |
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| Music Disc Reviews Audio CD | ||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Dan MacIntosh | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 24 June 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||
Dangerously In Love offers evidence that this child’s destiny is something far racier than the girl group pop-lite of Beyonce’s previous work with Destiny’s Child. The album opens with the pseudo soul of “Crazy In Love” (which also sports the presence of bad boy rapper Jay-Z), and follows this up with “Naughty Girl,” which is the equivalent of Beyonce’s Donna Summer-esque overtly sexualized “I Feel Love” moment -- especially with its “Love to love you baby” quote. Summer was also apparently an influence on the album artwork, as Beyonce appears like a disco diva in many of its suggestive photos. Beyonce’s new solo work expands the artist’s musical repertoire significantly. The track “Hip Hop Star” is a little strange, however, since its lyrics are all about rap success, yet its musical backing is closer to New Wave rock. Nevertheless, intimate love sounds primarily rule the day here, as “Be With You” is a smoochy love song, and “Speechless” is slow and bluesy – kind of like old ‘70s soul. Beyonce’s tortured lead vocals here roll over crawling bass and improvised lead guitar. Later, she even sings a Luther Vandross-styled slow dance, “The Closer I Get To You,” with Luther, the master himself. Their two voices match together especially well. However, despite the presence of high-profile rap and R&B artists, like Sean Paul and Jay-Z, the sound of this album is mostly low-key and ballad-heavy, unlikely to set many dance floors on fire. Lyrically, the song “Me, Myself And I” will ring familiar with Destiny fans, as it is an individual empowerment track. “Signs,” featuring Missy Elliott, was not inspired by that recent spooky Hollywood film of the same name, but is instead about the astrology of love. It’s also one of the album’s more gentle songs, with sweetly layered female vocals. “Gift From Virgo” also alludes to astrology in its title, but that’s mainly because Virgo is Beyonce’s sign. “Dangerously In Love” features Beyonce at her most romantically intimate in places, as “That’s How You Like It” (featuring Jay-Z again) lays down the guidelines of relationships, and “Yes” struggles with when yes sometimes means no, and no sometimes means yes. One of this album’s best tracks is the hidden “Daddy.” On it, Beyonce sings: “I want my unborn son to be like my daddy/ I want my husband to be like my daddy.” It’s the kind of sentiment that would make any poppa smile from ear to ear on Father’s Day. Of course, her daddy may not be so pleased with all of Beyonce’s pin-up images here. But if he can get past all that, Dangerously In Love safely nudges the artist – although not so innocently -- toward solo success. Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
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