WHY I NEVER GOT AROUND TO
LISTENING TO THIS ARTIST/ALBUM
- I am a shameless fan of Beyoncé Knowles. Just ask anyone who was at Chef Daniel Henderson's Super Bowl XLVII party last January; I turned into a drooling adolescent while we watched the televised reunion of Beyoncé and her Destiny's Child bandmates Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland during the half-time show. Yes, I have to say the attraction was, and still is hormonal. But as far as her music is concerned, I barely know her solo stuff, and even then, I am really only aware of her post-DC material from her booty-shakin' videos for "Crazy in Love" and "Single Ladies." I'll say it again: I am shameless.
- I have never really been into the R&B diva-types that my cousin Jane Ramos had always listened to while we were growing up. As a devoted rock and roller, I never made any real effort to get them. Although looking back on how cool Jane and her friends were, maybe I should have. That being said, I have always liked good songs, I have always liked quality vocals, and I have always liked tasty grooves and beats, no matter the music genre, but I can not say with too much certainty why Destiny's Child eluded me.
WHAT I KNEW ABOUT THE ALBUM BEFORE
THIS PROJECT
- The song “Independent Women Part I” was on the soundtrack for the Drew Berrymore-Lucy Liu-Cameron Diaz movie remake of the 1970s television show Charlie's Angels.
- While not the first time the the term “Bootylicious” was used in a song - I remember Snoop Dogg using it a few years prior - the hit single from Surivior is certainly the most apt use of the term.
AFTER A WEEK OF DIGESTING THIS
ALBUM
- As expected from a big-selling, Top 40 R&B album, Survivor is well written and highly polished in its production. I really dug the first half of this album; the aforementioned songs, along with the title track and “Nasty Girl” come with the suggestive lyrics, nasty grooves, and the girl-power sexuality that became previlant in the genre during the late 90s and early 2000s. The latter half of the album wanes with a glut of album-filler ballads, the great vocal performances notwithstanding.
- Survivor is a very sexy record and much of this album makes me want to do the things that every danceable record should make you want to do: dance, drink and fuck. I remain a shameless Beyoncé fan.
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