Disco de Beyoncé: “I Am... Sasha Fierce”

Who is Sasha Fierce? More importantly, who is Beyonce Knowles-Carter? Music listeners worldwide are more interested in the latter; more curious about divulging into the mind and psyche of Beyonce, the newly married, former lead singer of super girl group Destiny's Child.

But with her third solo album, widely publicized as her most personal project to date, does Beyonce really give insight into what life is like behind the celebrity trappings?

I Am...Sasha Fierce is exactly what was forecasted: a disjointed package of two sounds and ambiences. In what is described as an album illustrating two sides of the vocal powerhouse diva's persona: Beyonce', the artists vulnerable, emotional (sincere) side, and alter ego Sasha Fierce, the domineering, attention capturing diva; the two disc set straddles current music trends of pop on the former, and edgy, street-wise R&B/dance on the latter.

First disc, entitled, I Am, is an adventure in pop sounds and phrasings for the most part. In the grand scheme of this conceptual project, I Am is more rewarding and convincing.

Listening to the twenty-seven-year-old sing about her lover's angelic qualities on "Halo" and pondering her actions as the opposite sex on "If I Were A Boy" is actually a bit refreshing. An abundance of acoustic elements (piano, guitar) and soaring restrained vocals reveal a distinctively new approach to music for the Houston native, famous for cramming more syllables and words into a single breath than her other female counterparts.

Even here, however, the attempts to incite a certain intimacy are futile. Most notably is "Ave Maria", which may have been a decent song without the interpolation of the operatic standard into what is an overly ambitious, under-executed filler track. Conclusively, there is no doubt Mrs. Knowles-Carter has the chords to sing just about anything, and I Am, while pleasant, is almost too easy.

Thankfully, disc two, Sasha Fierce, finds Beyonce channeling her familiar, sure-footed sexiness. It's inevitable that most will skip through a couple of tracks on disc one before they trade it in for Fierce.

With alter-ego in full effect, "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" immediately signals the change of pace and prepares listeners to break out in a sweat. "Single Ladies" is about as synonymous with sophomore album single "Get Me Bodied" as any song could be without being an exact carbon copy. Down to the snappy hand claps and steady foot stomping beat ---both songs even have accompanying dance routines---"Single Ladies" may sound eerily familiar, but it is among Bey's catchiest songs to date.

"Radio" and "Sweet Dreams" are clear attempts to capitalize on the techno craze sweeping airplay as of late. "Radio" finds the singer stepping into Rihanna territory, relying on overemphasis of vowels 'o' and 'a' while in the midst of lyrics that sound like they were written for a teenager . On the other hand, Beyonce owns "Sweet Dreams", embodying the song's irony in her vocal delivery against the bass-thumping, rousing synths and sparkling piano. "Dreams", a clear gem, was unfortunately leaked to radio and dance floors in the early part of 2008.

After listening to I Am...Sasha Fierce, one will realize that Beyonce's work with Destiny's Child on their farewell album, Destiny Fulfilled, is the closest we have gotten (or may ever get) to calling an album by Sasha Fierce herself, personal and probing.

Speaking of the Destiny Fulfilled album, the final track on second disc Fierce, "Video Phone", borrows a lot from "Soldier" off of the DC3 project. Hustlers swagger and pants sagging low are the catalysts for Beyonce to offer a private "video phone" sex tape. "Video Phone" is rather frank.

We appreciate the notion of trying to present a candid, stripped down Beyonce to the world through music, but this is not it. There are interesting surprises, but this double-disc album package is a lot less compelling than it could have been. Given a recording process that stretched over a year, and a goldmine of seventy songs from which these eleven were selected, it's hard to determine whether the album's concept diminished the intended introspective feel or if the concept saved the songs from the project's lapse in cohesiveness.

Beyonce's voice is there. She sings effortlessly. A few good songs are there. Top 40 radio will eat up the catch phrases. But where is the evidence of the singer turned actress and wife blossoming into womanhood and relishing in the bliss of married life?

If Beyonce fights the inevitable, at worst she could end up like Usher; playing catch up by the time she is thirty. If she reinvents herself, she may never need to live her personal life on stage. Instead she can follow in the footsteps of Madonna or Tina Turner and "Sasha" all the way into her fifties and sixties.

3*** stars out of 5

Now many may call me a hater because I am so negative about this cd, but hey...I am stating the truth. Lets state the facts before anything....Beyonce is a BEAUTIFUL female with such a wonderful voice, but she has become so famous that she can make a BOGUS cd like this one, and everyone will like it. I was a HUGE Destiny's Child fan back in the day; the image of 4 beautiful girls with nice voices appealed to me! Every since Beyonce has decided to go solo, I find myself becoming more disappointed with her music! "Dangerously in Love" was actually not a bad album, however, her choice in what she calls music has went downhill from there. In my personal opinion, I feel as if Beyonce has become arrogant, self-absorbed, and down right cocky...and her lyrics reflect that! I actually had "I Am..Sasha Fierce" a month before it was released and I never really listened to it because of how "stuck on herself" Beyonce has become, and secondly, I was just down right tired of seeing/hearing her EVERYWHERE! When I finally got around to listening to the album, I have to admit, it took me all of 5 minutes to realize I hated it! Beyonce has a nice voice that can really be useful for the r&b genre, but the collection of songs on this album is MESS! Dont get me wrong, "Single Ladies" grew on me and I found myself doing the dance every time I heard the song, but that was the only song that really appealed to me. Songs that made me cringe included "Video Phone, Diva, Radio, Sweet Dreams, and Ego." Other songs are just so BORING you cant help but skip them! In my opinion, Beyonce has survived in the music business because of her beauty, sass, independence, and singing abilities, however, her music is not of QUALITY! Between the media and the mass of people who cannot recognize what MUSIC really is, they have completely turned me off from artists who try to be "unique" (because they can make MESS and get away with it! Sorry Beyonce, but you fit under this description! You have a talent that many would kill for! Use it for something other than the trash that takes 2 minutes to write! Thats why I say it over and over again...because music isnt what it used to be, I WILL STICK TO MY OLDIES!

So, I'm no music "critic" but we are all entitled to our opinion. Never have I been a die hard Beyonce fan but have enjoyed her first and second albums with the first one being my favorite. Even then, I would buy the album and wait until it looked like the BeYAWNce hype would die down. I just opened B-Day last week as it had been on my shelf since it released, still wrapped in plastic. When I opened B-Day it gave me life so I was pumped for the release of I Am..Sasha Fierce.

Thankfully, and I mean thankfully my girlfriend who enjoys Beyonce's music sent me her MySpace page and told me to check it out before I ran down to Target and spent my $10.

BAYBEEEEEE....let me be the first to tell you that I wanted to mix Vicodin and Vodka while listening to I Am. It put me in a bad mood. I agree with one of the previous reviewers how it sounds like one never ending song. I had to stop and really listen to see if she was singing a new song because they all sound the same.

Sasha Sleepy was indeed a waste of my time. I don't want to hear an almost 30 year old married woman talking about her swagger being like that of a hustler, the paper in her pocket and somebody putting a ring on it. Come on now! Why does she sound like Mike Jones, who? Mike Jones! Who told her to speak that way? I like the classy yet sassy Beyonce, not this ghetto "o-so-hood" mess. So now all these little girls are going to be telling dudes to "put a ring on it" at 16, 17 and 18...there is more to it then just the ring. Marriage is hard work, don't get me started. LOL. With so many YOUNG girls looking up to her I feel this side of the album was an even bigger disappointment.

As I have told my friends I need Beyonce to take a real break like Brandy...lol...and make a fierce comeback after having a child or two. Maybe then she will have something worth listening to two full albums - not six songs on one album and a few more on the other. I am looking forward to what her music will be like after she becomes a mother and has been married for a few years...none of this Sasha Sleepy nonsense.

There are 3 good songs on this album. That's considered an F everywhere else, and a failing grade. I didn't really like the last album though either I must say, but this one I was expecting her to finally do better. Dangerously in Love was a great ablum, but she has gone downhill from there. Beyonce is so talented and pretty, but never can seem to get it right. Being pretty is only going to get you so far. It's time to stop focusing so much on booty poppin and grinding, and time to start concentrating more on your music. Beyonce is not a song writer. There is absolutely nothing wrong with stepping away from something and letting someone who knows what they are doing take control. And Ave maria? What in the world? Beyonce the people who buy your album do not want to hear this. When you are 75 and recording songs for fun, then yea. But you need to get some people around you that are going to tell you the truth and say WTF? Halo is pretty, and so is Disappear. But the rest...put me to sleep. Go back to what you know. Because this new stuff isn't really working out.

On her website, Beyonce wrote that this album contains what she considers the best music she's recorded to date, and in many ways this is true. The double CD "I Am...Sasha Fierce" manages to appeal to fans of the power ballad songstress from "Dangerously in Love" and the club queen with sick dance moves from "B'Day." And while improving on both those styles, Beyonce also branches out into new territory to generally good, if not great, results.

The first disc of this album (the "I Am..." part) starts off strong with the hit single "If I Were a Boy." The song showcases Beyonce's strong emotional interpretation of songs and her incredible voice (an asset many of her fellow pop divas lack), and quite frankly the track gets better each time I hear it. She immediately one ups herself with the best track on the entire album, "Halo," with soaring vocals and a much stronger melodic structure than many of today's hit ballads. The first disc features nary a misstep, and the acoustic, singer-songwriter vibe of "Satellites" is another highlight. By the end of the first disc, you feel like this album is destined for greatness, and probably a few Grammys.

Then the "Sasha Fierce" portion starts, and things get dicey. "Single Ladies" is a pretty good song, although its success as a single owes as much to the excellent music video as the actual song. But things get worse with "Radio" and the unintentionally funny "Diva," which fail to show off Beyonce's voice or provide a good beat for her to dance to. These ventures into urban hip-hop are off-putting as they are poorly done and even worse, feel forced. I was a huge fan of much of "B'Day," and I wish the Sasha Fierce songs borrowed a bit more of the tribal beats and strong dance grooves of that album. Songs like "Hello" and especially "Scared of Lonely" help redeem the Sasha persona, but most people will probably be left wondering where their Beyonce went.

Also, while I love the concept of separating the two styles in an A Side/B Side type manner, there is not nearly enough content to warrant two discs. You can listen to all 16 tracks in a little over an hour, leaving you feeling a tad cheated. Combined with the generally weaker Sasha Fierce songs, this makes it hard to whole-heartedly recommend the album. Still, Beyonce tackles a lot of new styles and does many of them well, giving her fans and newcomers a lot to like. Maybe on her fourth album she'll finally nail it.