Waterbender

I prefer side quests than complete silence, and she's not forcing anyone to buy a single thing. You're welcome to wait until she's ready to release act iii. BDAY20 was also not a cash grab as you can tell that they put in the work to remaster/rework/add songs. The BDAY20 images are upscales, the Renaissance visuals were produced way before generative AI became as advanced as it is today, and the CECRED ad is animation which hasn't been picked up to include AI on any social media platform.

The negativity started well before the wooden box (which she didn't force anyone to buy) or the lack of 4k visuals (that confuses me as much as everyone). Since the announcement, people complained about: BDAY20 happening in general Morning Dew being included Incorporating act aesthetics Being a cash grab The imagery supposedly being AI even though she's anti-AI The cost of physicals, even though they're actually on par and even lower than competitors for what's included And when it ended up being a remastered project with multiple new and reworked tracks, people still complained about the merch drop, some of the changes, and now the lack of 4k visuals. I understand why people are disappointed, and I complained about some of the above as well (mainly the omission of tracks as I'm a completioninst, and the changes of Back Up and Welcome To Hollywood), but we need to stop nitpicking every little thing. I feel that for the past few years every little thing she does is more criticized than celebrated, and mainly within her own fanbase. She didn't need to release this at all, or give us Donk after all these years, but she evidently felt like celebrating one of her best eras and giving new music to fans. The execution definitely could've been better, but I'm happy to have new music from her and the three bonus tracks added on streaming services.

Yeah the self-sabotaging is frustrating and doesn't make sense from a commercial, charts, revenue, or legacy perspective. That was the most exciting aspect of B'Day 20 for me, as it signalled a potential change on how she perceives her catalogue and archives. But even that was met with backlash from people so idk, it seems that she always gets backlash no matter what she does which would demotivate anyone.

It's been freefalling so much the past couple days

But they've barely touched on the re-release itself. "Daddy" and "Move Your Body" were talked about more than any of the new tracks, while Lost Yo Mind, Back Up and Creole didn't get any mention. "That's the tension at play on this reissue: the burning hunger of 25-year-old Beyoncé's mission to leave her mark and the necessity of 45-year-old Beyoncé having something new to sell. It's nowhere near an offensive butchering, but it is a little cold to treat one of her most inspired albums like just another product to bundle with a new merch collection—including a $948.01 (before shipping) "Bey Keeper's Collector Box" that is "inspired by the beauty of traditional beekeeper crates" to hold your Beyoncé vinyl—vinyl sold separately." They alluded to it being a cash grab which isn't true because it's obvious that a lot of work went into remastering the tracks, re-recording some, plus adding new ones. I'm more annoyed with the review than the score itself. They just seemed to jump on the negative social media convos about the release instead of checking out and reviewing the album.

The Pitchfork review is a bit weird. It spends more time talking about Dangerously in Love and Destiny's Child than B'Day itself. It fully ignores the remastering and the b-sides being on streaming for the first time, only makes a passing comment on the new tracks, and calls all Spanish versions inessential even though they are part of the album's legacy and CUERPO (TUMBAO) is an obvious highlight.

Incredible! How far off is it from #1 on Rhythmic?

I had hoped for a greater streaming uplift from the B'Day deluxe release. A new peak for the single would've been nice.

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.

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.

She would've had another #1 album if she cared, 40k sales with zero effort is wild. Also no one is going to convince me that an artist who's been vocally anti-AI is using AI instead of Photoshop. We're talking about the same person who had multiple pages on her tour book against it, and who most recently hired a whole orchestra for background production on two deluxe tracks of an anniversary re-release. She obviously doesn't care about cutting costs.

1000% yes to this. Morning Dew -> Can I Watch You -> A Woman Like Me would've flowed so well. I still don't understand what My First Time is doing here over If and WWW.

I'm sad that this isn't doing better commercially. The remaster is excellent and, besides some questionable decisions, deserves exposure. But you can say that with every project of hers. It's such a shame that she's so anti-promotion. In a different world the album and Morning Dew would've been on a race to #1 and multiple tracks would've been debuting too.

She does look younger somehow, and so does Jay Z. Whatever they're doing is working

Noooo she had signed vinyl at a record store near me and I missed out! I am gutted.

Confirmed that the listening party is at the same time as the gig tonight. So weird to have it clashing, especially when other markets have it next week.

Still annoyed about Welcome To Hollywood. The second verse sounds like a demo with the background vocals excluded, and her bridge was the highlight of the song for me.

Are we sure she's performing tonight? It seems that the listening party is happening at the same time and it's been quite hush hush which makes me think that winners had to sign an NDA.

Yeah no one can excuse paying $1k for an empty box lol.

I'm aware of the original Jay version, but I still don't understand why she felt the need to create a combined version. Her version was far superior, even Jay would agree haha. Fair enough on Check On It, I had no idea!

This release isn't as lazy or rushed as some of you thought now is it? It's obvious that Beyoncé put a lot of time and effort in remastering the album, and it sounds so much better. We've gotten updated production, re-recorded vocals on some songs, physicals, surprise features and we're getting 4K upscales of the video anthology too. This is more effort than most artists put on a new project, let alone a 20 year-old album. While this re-release is a triumph and a great way to celebrate this masterpiece, I do have some thoughts/questions Why does the press release openly state that Morning Dew and My First Time are from different eras, but doesn't justify why they're included in this release? They transition well with each other but some context would've been great. I love Morning Dew, but I'm not sure how I feel about My First Time and Can I Watch on first listen. My First Time feels a bit immature thematically for the album, and Can I Watch has too much Pharrell on it for me and sounds very new production-wise. Maybe they'll grow on me. Does anyone know why Check On It and Welcome To Hollywood were changed? Welcome To Hollywood was especially jarring, and I much prefer her original version. Considering that the DSP release is longer than the physicals, I really wish she included If and World Wide Woman for completeness. It's feels SO GOOD having Lost Yo Mind, Creole and Back Up on streaming, and it's obvious that they've been re-recorded. Lost Yo Mind sounds the best out of the three, while Creole and Back Up sound a bit more timid compared to their shoutier original versions. Maluma and Selena were very surprising features and I like both remixes. I agree with others that it would've been nice to have Bad Bunny on a track as well though. Cuerpo (Tumbao) is a massive bop and should've been pushed as the next single for playlist support over Can I Watch You, especially when it's the only song to get a lyric video. It's got the potential to be massive.

An expanded digital release with everything included would be amazing but I don't know why people expect that haha

Crazy that she wiped her website

Is the UK listening party tomorrow happening the same time as the Jay Z concert?

Yeah this could go one of two ways. Either it's a remaster which will be released at the same time globally, or it won't be on streaming at all.