BDay

"B'Day captures the r&b singer at her warmest and most in-the-moment: There's a certain ramshackle messiness to these grooves, elliptically orbiting the classic pop song in a manner more reminiscent of Amerie's "1 Thing" than Beyoncé's sonically similar "Crazy in Love". Beyoncé sounds more relaxed as a singer, expanding on the Tina Turner resemblances she's been toying with recently, her performances growing ever-more instinctive and unpredictable in their appropriations of soul hollering. Most radically, the siren-assisted caterwaul of second single "Ring the Alarm" sounds genuinely (and marvelously) incoherent, her voice thrillingly sharp with anxiety and paranoia.

Remaining in soul mama character throughout, her newfound expressiveness fits so hand-in-glove with Richcraft or Neptunes-style funk drum patterns and surging horns that even when she departs from this style sonically-- such as on the percussive, Diwali-esque jam "Get Me Bodied", or the stiffly blaring "Upgrade U"-- the shift feels negligible, and you can still hear the ghosts of horn sections. Beyoncé's lyrics are also funnier and more idiosyncratic than ever: "I can do for you what Martin did for the people," she boasts on "Upgrade U"'s extreme makeover hard-sell, and I suspect she knows she's the only r&b singer who could deliver the line with a straight face."

- From review by Tim Finney for Pitchfork