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A few weeks ago, producer Diplo mentioned that Beyonce”s record, her follow-up to 2011″s “4,” has been scrapped. He then quickly clarified that he didn”t mean the entire album, he only meant two songs that he had worked on with Queen Bey. However, it”s looking increasingly likely that the initial interpretation was correct.
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Beyonce is going back to the drawing board after rejecting more than 50 songs. Among the top-notch songwriters who may be “affected,” according to THR, as Ryan Tedder, The-Dream, Sia, Diane Warren, and Ne-Yo. Columbia Records, who did not comment for THR”s story, never announced a release date for the album, but expectations- and not unrealistic ones- were that her Super Bowl appearance would signal a new single and that February”s HBO documentary would also be part of the promotional plan for a new album that would drop sometime in the Spring. Then, the thinking was that the album would come out before she started her world tour in the April. So far, fans have gotten new songs, such as “Grown Woman” and “Standing In The Sun,” but they have been first introduced via commercials for Pepsi and H&M and then not gone on to be promoted as official radio singles.
With Beyonce on the road with The Miss Carter Show World Tour through December (the last date is Boston on Dec.20), it”s not likely an album will be released this year.
So is this any cause for concern? No. Accountants like to think that albums can be turned out like widgets to meet quarterly projections, but that”s not how it works. Beyonce, who now manages herself, may just need to find some time to really think about what she wants to say and that”s hard when you”re going 100 miles per house. Is she spooked after “4”, while critically acclaimed, only sold 1.4 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Maybe, but it”s more likely that she”s a perfectionist and she”s not found the magic mix of songs she”s looking for.
Speaking of Boston, Beyonce played the T.D. Garden there Tuesday night and met with victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. This follows her appearance at a “Justice for Trayvon Martin” vigil in New York over the weekend.
On a lighter note, Beyonce reminded us why she”s cooler than the rest of us recently when she managed to continue singing “Halo” after her hair got caught in a fan.
