![]() “1+1,” written by Beyoncé with Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, is a promise of fealty enacted as an insistent rant, requiring a vocal muscle few singers possess, and even fewer would care to deploy. Beyoncé will turn 30 in September, and judging by the mood of this album, it couldn’t come any more quickly. Most of “4,” though, no one else could get away with, or would even want to try. ![]() Those were also songs that other singers could have plausibly released and made their own. What’s clear now is that the Beyoncé of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” of “Get Me Bodied,” of “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy” - that persona - was a homework assignment, a concession to the world around her by an artist with an astute ear and a gift for mimicry. It has far more in common with soul albums of the late 1970s and early ’80s - the poppier side of Jennifer Holliday, say - than anything by her so-called peers it’s a position statement in the age of Rihanna. On that count, “4” is impressive, though it’s executed in perplexing fashion. As modern as Beyoncé has allowed herself to be over the years, from tech-savvy club R&B with Destiny’s Child to the insistent pancultural stomp of “Run the World (Girls),” on this new album, she has always been a torch singer in waiting, anticipating the day when she could just get down to business.
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