Beyoncé
Dangerously in Love
Columbia
Signing checks over to her manager-mom and dotting her is with hearts, Beyoncé Knowles, the diva-in-waiting of Destiny's Child, was always, like Britney Spears, not a girl, not yet a woman. "Bills, Bills, Bills" lamented fiscal responsibility, "Bug A Boo" made bedroom eyes with baby talk and the gorgeous "Say My Name" turned a Timbaland-reminiscent skittering jounce into a childlike round. Out on her own for the first time with Dangerously in Love, Beyoncé, now 22, knows it's time to flash maturity, but instead just settles down.
Beyoncé never met a ballad she didn't like. Out of Dangerously in Love's 14 tracks, a staggering eight are the kind of overwrought, no-tempo love songs even Toni Braxton has the sense to avoid. Unlike slower Destiny's Child cuts such as "She Can't Love You" or
"Say My Name," most of the album's ballads play it oh-so-straight: no skipping beats,
no surprising harmonies, no explosions of sound. The closing "Gift From Virgo" cribs pages from
Dionne Warwick's timid songbook with an adult-contemporary arrangement that's all sighs and breathy tones, while "Signs" bites Warwick's gauche infomercial career with astrology-based lyrics coming soon to a psychic hotline hold playlist near you.
Dangerously in Love's astrology crutch is a Miss Cleo-sized gaffe — Beyoncé's debut should be an astronomy lesson in how a star is born. And for that she needs more like the album's first single, song-of-the-year candidate "Crazy in Love." Featuring a stunning horn bombast, it has the potential of a Lebron breakaway with Jay-Z's typically stellar guest verse and Beyoncé's cocked-hip, sassy delivery. The disc's opening cuts fulfill the promise: "Naughty Girl" updates Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" with a Neptunes-ish Eastern swing, "Baby Boy"'s diwali stutter is enhanced by Sean Paul's dancehall monotone and the OutKast-aided "Hip Hop Star" perfectly tethers Beyoncé's rock-tinged miasma to her swirling vocals.
But only a pair of the disc's ballads capture the energy of "Crazy in Love." "Be With You" is a Freelance Hellraiser-worthy mash-up of two stone-cold soul classics — the verses set to the melody of Shuggie Otis' chiming "Strawberry Letter 23," the chorus throbbing to Bootsy Collins' "I'd Rather Be With You." With such a steadfast cornerstone, Beyoncé's melismatic flourishes propel the cut from totally meek to totally chic, and "That's How You Like It" (featuring Jay-Z) is totally Murder Inc. Beyoncé and Jay jump the Ashanti-Ja Rule hip-pop duet bandwagon, trading barbs and blushes over a soft bounce with ease.
Beyoncé's first solo single was the Blaxploitation-goes-Negroclash swelter of "Work It Out" from the Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack, where she sounded like Pam Grier taking five from the revolution to let her afro down. Loose and funky (apologies for the overused terminology there, but "Work It Out" practically defines it), the tune was Beyoncé declaring, "I am woman, hear you drool." Self-assured and immune to any of that tired old guff, she's out-of-Huey-Newton's-league untouchable.
But now Beyoncé is Dangerously in Love, which is a far cry from just dangerous.
Dangerously in Love means devoted and whipped and blind and thus set for a fall. This ain't how we want to see our stars, especially one as startling as Beyoncé. "I am in love with you/ You set me free/ I can't do this thing/ Called life without you here with me," she mourns in the stunning title track. And that's sweet and all, Beyoncé baby, but some of us like our divas with balls.
— Yancey Strickler (ystrickler@yahoo.com)
