I got a Vinyl for free and the release party was cute . I didnt try the cake though...

( Dont have a Vinyl Player though )

Now lets get ready for Act 3 and i hope she performs tomorrow .

1 hour ago, 50thStateofMind said:

a stain on 4 tbh...

Nah. It's the only 'real' hit from 4, so let's not be too mean to it lol. It extended the album's promo run.

6 hours ago, cloudbusting said:

Daddy has always been and will hopefully always be her absolute worst song

irredeemable gutter garbage

I saw a YouTube reaction of a white woman listening to Dangerously in Love for the "first time" (allegedly) and she was fake-crying over "Daddy" for f***k's sake. Clearly trying to appeal to Beyhive, not knowing we don't f**k with that song lol

4 hours ago, yonsé said:

lol girlie pop

doing this the old-fashioned way (aka with no ai) would be an insane amount of work just for some one-off merch promo. i use photoshop to create things that are not real all the time (i work for a major ad agency and have been in my field over the course of a decade and use photoshop daily) so im well aware of how labor intensive re-creating an already established photo like this is.

not only finding models with her similar shape/figure, but also then having to match the lighting exactly and angles of not only the model but also the distance of the photographer from her so the focal length matches the original photos exactly at the photoshoot. then repeating that for multiple setups (the swamp, the dock, the railroad tracks) then comping the two together and finally rounds of retouching is weeks of work and thousands of dollars. (this is why people have started using AI)

but @QueenB showed u the receipts so i digress

it would take a LOT longer than that to get these to look as realistic as they do. i do feel like someone likely pitched the idea to her and she loved it, not that she herself is seated at a computer putting these pics through gemini but my descriptor above explains just how intense doing this by hand would be. im more disappointed that someone at parkwood pitched this to her and no one thought about the optics?????? where is her PR team?

"Best thing I never had" is def not the stain on "4" when you have "start over".

Neither Start Over or Best Bridge I Never Had are the worst songs on 4 although they are in the bottom 5. That spot is actually reserved for I Was Here a sonical snore with a hallmark movie lyrical composition

There isn't a single bad song on 4 hence why it's thee quintessential Yonka album. I Was Here I don't associate with the album but if we are that's the worst song. Diane complained about Renny's writers but the hag couldn't even make a good song by her lonesome. Poor that!

2 hours ago, Anvarie said:

Neither Start Over or Best Bridge I Never Had are the worst songs on 4 although they are in the bottom 5. That spot is actually reserved for I Was Here a sonical snore with a hallmark movie lyrical composition

and we have to blame jay for that

Do u think we'll ever get a "highkey"-era from Bey again?

Everything has been so lowkey this decade. We get a bit of excitement 6-8 weeks prior to an album release with a single (BMS, Texas, DONK), maybe a fashion spread (in the case of Rennie + CC), the tracklist, the album and that's it.

Im craving a BIG era from her like Mayhem in the sense that Gaga was inescapable during the Mayhem run. She did interviews, she performed everywhere, she had MVs, she did all the big gigs, etc..

Bey used to serve that too at one point in her life and has refrained from doing that this decade. And while I understand the motivation and reasons, I cant deny that the fan in me truly craves a "vintage" and thus "highkey" era from Bey. And i wonder if we'll ever be lucky enough to get that again, or whether that ship has sailed forever.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Kristie Kuwa

6 minutes ago, Kristie Kuwa said:

Do u think we'll ever get a "highkey"-era from Bey again?

Everything has been so lowkey this decade. We get a bit of excitement 6-8 weeks prior to an album release with a single (BMS, Texas, DONK), maybe a fashion spread (in the case of Rennie + CC), the tracklist, the album and that's it.

Im craving a BIG era from her like Mayhem in the sense that Gaga was inescapable during the Mayhem run. She did interviews, she performed everywhere, she had MVs, she did all the big gigs, etc..

Bey used to serve that too at one point in her life and has refrained from doing that this decade. And while I understand the motivation and reasons, I cant deny that the fan in me truly craves a "vintage" and thus "highkey" era from Bey. And i wonder if we'll ever be lucky enough to get that again, or whether that ship has sailed forever.

let it go

We'll be lucky to get videos

17 minutes ago, Kristie Kuwa said:

Do u think we'll ever get a "highkey"-era from Bey again?

Everything has been so lowkey this decade. We get a bit of excitement 6-8 weeks prior to an album release with a single (BMS, Texas, DONK), maybe a fashion spread (in the case of Rennie + CC), the tracklist, the album and that's it.

Im craving a BIG era from her like Mayhem in the sense that Gaga was inescapable during the Mayhem run. She did interviews, she performed everywhere, she had MVs, she did all the big gigs, etc..

Bey used to serve that too at one point in her life and has refrained from doing that this decade. And while I understand the motivation and reasons, I cant deny that the fan in me truly craves a "vintage" and thus "highkey" era from Bey. And i wonder if we'll ever be lucky enough to get that again, or whether that ship has sailed forever.

I would love that, but I don't think she'll ever do it again. I am curious about why she does so little promotion for her work these days, though. You would think that a person so deeply passionate about their art, and who loves live performing, would jump at performance opportunities and extending the reach of her music and message as far as possible. But she just doesn't.

I completely understand her desire not to do interviews anymore, but promotional opportunities are so much more than that. She's allowing her music to languish with a smaller audience than necessary, her performances to be forgotten because they cannot be accessed anywhere online, and narratives to form around her art because she never shares any insight into the creation of it. It's such a wasted opportunity, and I don't understand why.

8 hours ago, QueenB said:

Did you use a screenshot or the actual file? Wonder if that's why you get negative results.

I'm not going to blame Beyoncé though, I'm more offended at the fact Parkwood employees clearly don't do enough as is, you couldn't take the 15 minutes to photoshop this?

ask it if nadia lee is a flop next

5 minutes ago, Lovett said:

I would love that, but I don't think she'll ever do it again. I am curious about why she does so little promotion for her work these days, though. You would think that a person so deeply passionate about their art, and who loves live performing, would jump at performance opportunities and extending the reach of her music and message as far as possible. But she just doesn't.

I completely understand her desire not to do interviews anymore, but promotional opportunities are so much more than that. She's allowing her music to languish with a smaller audience than necessary, her performances to be forgotten because they cannot be accessed anywhere online, and narratives to form around her art because she never shares any insight into the creation of it. It's such a wasted opportunity, and I don't understand why.

The only "understandable" thing is her becoming an elusive, rare performer - ever since she willfully decided to follow Sade and Prince's footsteps, her appearances have become interwoven with her brand - so every sporadic performance is carefully curated. I don't think she will ever go on an extensive promo outlet again. Plus, that also helps her contain the strain decades of extreme dance routines and training have put on her body - and also to spend more time with her family and young children.

What said above is clearly working: her tours have immense hype and gross.

What I really can't understand either is the length she goes to alienate her target from her outputs. There is literally no reason to withhold things like the RWT movie or iconic performances like the 2016 immaculate televised performances of Lemonade - or even worse the 2024 Bowl which was a Netflix release in the first place. From a marketing pov, this absolutely makes no sense in 2026. Scarcity is still a thing when it comes to create hype over tours and new releases, but young new audiences have no means of discovering and understanding you if they have nothing documented but things from the first part of your career (which of course pales compared to the heights she reached nowadays)

It's either her being completely disconnected from reality (being of course a literal billionaire and living an out of the ordinary life) - or she's keeping things for future releases. What i always wished for her to do is create her own exclusive digital repository, a sort of BeyFlix/BeyTube in which she gives access to all her archived performances

I can't help but love Best Thing I Never Had. Sometimes the soccer mom in me is just too strong

Honestly I could live with her just putting out a behind the scenes look into the creation of the trilogy when it's completed and everything it entailed.

4 and ST had amazing doc like bts that were so insightful to her process. I love when she shows us her craft. I think she could definitely give us something and it can be on her terms. The Gift and Renaissance Tour The Film had great docs too.

More than a press run I honestly just want bts. But I also made peace with that being a thing of the past for her. At least for now.

59 minutes ago, Kristie Kuwa said:

Do u think we'll ever get a "highkey"-era from Bey again?

Everything has been so lowkey this decade. We get a bit of excitement 6-8 weeks prior to an album release with a single (BMS, Texas, DONK), maybe a fashion spread (in the case of Rennie + CC), the tracklist, the album and that's it.

Im craving a BIG era from her like Mayhem in the sense that Gaga was inescapable during the Mayhem run. She did interviews, she performed everywhere, she had MVs, she did all the big gigs, etc..

Bey used to serve that too at one point in her life and has refrained from doing that this decade. And while I understand the motivation and reasons, I cant deny that the fan in me truly craves a "vintage" and thus "highkey" era from Bey. And i wonder if we'll ever be lucky enough to get that again, or whether that ship has sailed forever.

I doubt it. She's already said that she retired from the popstar formula. She's older and has a family to take care of, so her priorities have also changed.

She also seems to be getting backlash with every single thing she does, including this re-release, which is why she's become so elusive.

If she wasn't as talented and creative in what she does she probably would've taken a backseat and turned into a legacy act like her contemporaries.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by Waterbender

She might disappear from public eye after act iii's tour and make occasional returns for the anniversaries of DIL, IASF, and 4.

She'll definitely have her Eras tour though.

I can see her retiring and becoming a producer for her children to be honest, if any of them show an interest in following her footsteps.

I hope not anytime soon though.

1 hour ago, Bicassie said:

let it go

We'll be lucky to get videos

1 hour ago, Lovett said:

I would love that, but I don't think she'll ever do it again. I am curious about why she does so little promotion for her work these days, though. You would think that a person so deeply passionate about their art, and who loves live performing, would jump at performance opportunities and extending the reach of her music and message as far as possible. But she just doesn't.

I completely understand her desire not to do interviews anymore, but promotional opportunities are so much more than that. She's allowing her music to languish with a smaller audience than necessary, her performances to be forgotten because they cannot be accessed anywhere online, and narratives to form around her art because she never shares any insight into the creation of it. It's such a wasted opportunity, and I don't understand why.

37 minutes ago, Waterbender said:

I doubt it. She's already said that she retired from the popstar formula. She's older and has a family to take care of, so her priorities have also changed.

She also seems to be getting backlash with every single thing she does, including this re-release, which is why she's become so elusive.

If she wasn't as talented and creative in what she does she probably would've taken a backseat and turned into a legacy act like her contemporaries.

I hate the truth, lie to me please

7 hours ago, QueenB said:

Thank you for speaking TRUTH on Best Thing I Never Had, so many nowadays are afraid

Best Thing I Never Had was a smash here in the UK, as was Ego.

Real ones get it. Rule Brittannia!

5 hours ago, Anvarie said:

Neither Start Over or Best Bridge I Never Had are the worst songs on 4 although they are in the bottom 5. That spot is actually reserved for I Was Here a sonical snore with a hallmark movie lyrical composition

This live performance kinda made me appreciate I was here. Definitely not the worst from that album:

8 minutes ago, nick_rod said:

This live performance kinda made me appreciate I was here. Definitely not the worst from that album:

Precisely!

I prefer the original key though.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Pepo

1 hour ago, Pepo said:

She might disappear from public eye after act iii's tour and make occasional returns for the anniversaries of DIL, IASF, and 4.

and how does that differ from the last 10 years ?

Best Thing I Never Had is in the same tier as Pretty Hurts and If I Were a Boy. And yes, I Wash Here is below that.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Draper.

1 hour ago, Pepo said:

She might disappear from public eye after act iii's tour and make occasional returns for the anniversaries of DIL, IASF, and 4.

She'll definitely have her Eras tour though.

She's probably already recorded music to release post ACT III, and did so years ago