No matter – the rest of 4 tips towards the powerhouse balladry that caressed her previous album.Īnd these are exemplars of the form, I Care in particular emoting the house down over a sustained Purple Rain chord. Strangely, it's tacked on like a bonus after the natural big finish of the Diane Warren-penned I Was Here, when it would've nestled comfortably alongside the opulent M.I.A.-style cacophony of Countdown or End of Time's startling vision of Animal Collective covering Lionel Richie's All Night Long. Run the World (Girls) we know, twice over, in Major Lazer’s Pon de Floor and in its recent official and unofficial leaks. She's got the armoury to trump husband Jay-Z’s perception-altering Pilton turn. With 4’s best bold tunes, Beyoncé has spruced up an already handsome catalogue. Dozens of songs emerged from the original 4 sessions and the promo circuit’s been leapt on with a vengeance, culminating – at least over here – in the intriguing Glastonbury headline slot (yet to wow us as we go to press). Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé took a year off but has come back brighter. That the title was apparently crowd sourced from fans attuned to Beyoncé’s yen for numerology smacks of post-justification, but one fact pokes through – 4 is definitely her fourth album.įollowing schizo double I Am. The number 4 means something to Beyoncé: it's the date of her birth, the date of her wedding there are even four key changes in the final, teetering chorus of Love on Top to ram the point home.