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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
AllMusic
In time, it should be seen as a career highlight from a superstar -- one of the hardest-working people in the business, a new mother, in total control, at her creative and commercial peak.
91
Pretty Much Amazing

Beyoncé waited for the last moment to unveil 2013′s finest pop album. It arrived too late to enter our top ten lists, but just in time to own the year. 

91
A.V. Club

That Beyoncé was able to keep a project of this scale completely under wraps is one of the most impressive tricks of her career, but the real feat is the album itself, a candid, confrontational work that dares to cut against the singer’s carefully cultivated goddess image to reveal the opinionated, imperfect woman underneath. 

91
Entertainment Weekly
Here more than ever Bey indulges clashing impulses — between strength and escape, megapop and fresh sounds, big messages and resonant lyrics.
90
Billboard
It's as impressive an accomplishment creatively as it is for shifting the industry towards a more nontraditional take on the "single-album-tour" strategy.
90
Clash
‘Beyoncé’ is one of the best damn albums of 2013, basically, however you’re looking at it: as an R&B record, a pop set, an electro collection. Whatever your tastes, you can’t question the quality here.
90
Sputnikmusic

Indeed, at its dizzying zenith, beyoncé is a loaded fusion of generosity and self-empowerment. or perhaps, more accurately, it finds self-empowerment in generosity.

90
SPIN

This is her best album, more textured than its predecessors in both sound and content. 

90
The 405

In my estimation, when critically examined, BEYONCÉ functions as a highly successful feminist manifesto.

90
FACT Magazine

A tour through Beyoncé’s backstory, a meditation on Third Wave feminism and a rejection of perfection, Beyoncé is the singer at her rawest, realest, and most personal, with a sound deeper and darker than ever before.

88
Pitchfork
The album is brassy but elegant, its post-coital breath smelling faintly of cheap liquor sipped from a crystal flute. It finds Beyoncé shifting gears to pull off her most explicit and sonically experimental music to date, exploring sounds and ideas at the grittier margins of popular music.
80
NOW Magazine
While there isn't a chart-smashing Single Ladies or Baby Boy in the mix, the resulting 14 tracks (plus 17 videos) make her most complete album to date.
80
The Guardian

By far her most experimental and multi-layered album.

80
Exclaim!

Beyoncé is better than good, slickly packaged, created with the best of intentions yet still comes off as a postmodern mash of hubris, sincerity and gloss. It will be a hit regardless.

80
The Telegraph

Beyoncé's surprise album, BEYONCÉ, is X-rated, sensuous and thoughtful ... And Queen Bey's vocal gifts put the rest of 2013's pop stars in the shade.

80
The Observer
Without warning, Beyoncé's fifth album appeared in all its multimedia glory on iTunes this morning. Pleasingly, it's a winner.
80
Gigwise

Beyonce is an album that knows what it's about, and it smacks of confidence - it's an artist on top of their game.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald
It’s entertaining though the odd thing about Beyonce is how she can sing quasi-personal lyrics but never really get deeply personal, talking about emotions without ever really being nakedly emotional and moving with high levels of sexuality without ever generating something other than mechanical desire.
80
HipHopDX

If there’s one thing you can take from BEYONCÉ, it’s that you never have to feel “bored” as she describes in “Ghost.” There’s always room to innovate.

80
Consequence of Sound

It trafficks specifically in lost arts like sequencing, pacing, and mastering. It’s not concerned with moving units. It’s concerned with Beyoncé’s self-exploration, in a complicated, incredibly intriguing way.

80
NME
There are no real bangers here, but for once that’s not a disappointment cushioned by wafty ballads. Instead the low-key, moody production throws the spotlight on the words and the images brought to play by Beyonce as serious album artist, encompassing bulimia, post-natal depression, the fears and insecurities of marriage and motherhood, and lots and lots of sex.
80
PopMatters
Despite an army as deep and varied as any other Beyoncé album, what she’s found here is an honesty that’s just missing all too often from these sorts of raunch-fests.
80
musicOMH
The album’s clearest message is that, beneath the second-guessing, Beyoncé is one hell of a pop star. We should get on board and enjoy the ride.
79
Paste
The lack of universality to much of it keeps it from being the great album it wants to be, and some of the fascination seems to stem from 2013 celebrity culture obsession and speaks to the need to disappear from our own lives and become so wrapped up in the world of the rich and famous. Beyoncé does her part to make her world worthwhile, but it is our job to try and do the same.
75
Under the Radar
It's still a massive leap forward—hearing a superstar be honest about her desires, in love with a family, and calling for an end to unrealistic expectations for women is a pretty great thing to have on a platinum-selling album.
70
Slant Magazine
What makes the album significant is the fact that its creator is a bona fide superstar who, apparently, seems to care more about following her creative bliss than scoring easy hits. And it takes her (and us) to some mighty weird and exhilarating places.
70
Rolling Stone
Beyoncé may have gotten "bored" with the popstar routine, as she confesses in "Ghost." But only massive hubris could have made a feat like this album possible. And Beyoncé's hubris makes the world a better, more Beyoncé-like place.
70
Drowned in Sound
As much as there is to admire in its forthright gender politics and bleeding edge approach to R&B, it’s a remarkably selfish listen. By favouring lavish presentation over tender blemishes, Mrs Carter is rarely portrayed as anything less than a remarkable human being. One who intends to arrest her commercial decline with pop’s most avant-garde album in years.
60
Mojo
It's this continued need to feed her multi-platinum beast that stops the album from being the post-modern wheeze it could have been.
60
The Independent

Musically, it's the same kind of electro R&B with which radio is already awash - in large part because it's produced by the same small coterie of hip producers, with Timbaland appearing to take the most prominent role amongst the likes of Detail, Jerome Harmon, Pharrell Williams and Ryan Tedder.

60
The Needle Drop
Beyoncé Knowles' latest album is easily her most sexual and personal.
GersonAOTY
88

BEYONCÉ is a testament to the singer's potential as an artist. Launched by surprise on a Friday, this project impacted the way albums were released and the idea of visual albums, as well as showing a more experimental side of Beyoncé that makes not only her voice shine on this album.

Pretty Hurts (10/10)
Haunted (9.8/10)
Drunk In Love (8.8/10)
Blow (8.5/10)
No Angel (8.3/10)
Partition (9/10)
Jealous (8.2/10)
Rocket (8.2/10)
Mine (9.2/10)
XO (9/10)
Flawless (9.5/10)
Superpower ... read more

Case
80

REVISITING BEYONCÉ’S DISCOGRAPHY #1

In anticipation of Beyoncé’s new album “RENAISSANCE”, I decided to revisit two of her albums, starting with her self titled album. And while it’s not a perfect album by any means, it’s just so enjoyable and is filled with great highlights, production, and vocal performances throughout. This album has has also aged pretty well, and it has proven to be a very influential album in music.

Fav Tracks: Pretty ... read more

creative_name
90

2013 albums (8/10)

incredible.

top 5 songs:
Haunted
Drunk In Lovew
Partition
XO
Rocket

worst song: Superpower (so sad this was the worst)

lilykh13
92

this is my third entry into beyonce's discography and with every new album i get to experience a new layer of her and her artistry. although taylor swift is my all time favourite artist, beyonce is the BEST artist i've ever listened to. not only did she change the music industry to release new music on a friday but this truly feels like her feminist manifesto. with lemonade being an exploration into her marriage and her relationship, and renaissance being a reclamation of the dance genre. ... read more

fordneedstorest
89

it’s her best album i’ll gladly fight you

81

i didn't like this as much as i thought i would BUT that doesn't mean I don't love it.

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Track List

1Pretty Hurts
4:17
87
2Haunted
6:09
90
3Drunk in Love
5:23
feat. JAY-Z
90
4Blow
5:09
87
5No Angel
3:48
82
6Partition
5:19
92
7Jealous
3:04
84
8Rocket
6:31
83
9Mine
6:18
feat. Drake
84
10XO
3:35
91
11***Flawless
4:10
87
12Superpower
4:36
78
13Heaven
3:50
82
14Blue
4:26
feat. Blue Ivy
86
Total Length: 1 hour, 6 minutes
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Added on: December 13, 2013