The singer’s proposed 5th studio album now looks rather bare after the diva of 10 years reputedly announced that she was creatively unhappy with the 50 songs The-Dream, Diplo, Sia and Diane Warren manufactured for her sequel to ‘4’. The as yet unnamed LP will not see shelves until the end of this year and is already a few months behind schedule, according to Columbia Records.
It’s hard to know what spooked Beyoncé in this instance. Having breached her 30’s it would be understandable for any thoroughbred performer who relies upon highly demanding, erotic dance choreography to be daunted by the prospect of middle age, yet her performances are seemingly, perpetually successful. That is not to say that the former Destiny’s Child star is waning, it is popular belief that the self-professed ‘modern-day feminist’ is still one of music’s most accessible performers and overt sexual icons, but musically she seems less stable.
The singer’s 2011 sales for her last creation, 1.4 million copies, showed a decline in purchases, only serving to highlight the fact Beyoncé hasn’t had a staunch hit in 4 years. Columbia’s executives aren’t quite biting their nails down to the hilt just yet, she’s still jammed into the public conscious and selling out arenas, but as we all know, permanency comes with compilation of achievements, it is hard to tell how long she can live off her past trumps.
The answer is almost certainly ‘a very long time’, but that still does not negate the fact that according to Ne-Yo she is “still trying to figure out” her artistic direction. There is something admirable about her decision to confront the crossroads, but she has clearly been uncomfortable with the new tracks, only performing ‘Standing on the Sun’ once in Antwerp and another, her background noise to the H&M advert, ‘Grown Woman’, despite the obviously brilliant platform for promotion that her Mrs Carter Tour offers.
It is unclear whether Beyoncé will be writing her own material, but it’s certain that the pressure will be substantial to release it. After all, being ranked number 18 in the UK charts for her last album should not cut it for ‘RnB’s Queen’.
