I Think I’ve “Grown” Out of Listening to Beyonce

The music that Beyonce has teased and released this year has been uniformly unimpressive. After the WHATTHEFUCKWASTHATness of “Bow Down/I Been On,” Queen B returns with “Grown Woman.” She has been performing the song on her “Mrs. Carter” tour for the past month or so, and also teased it in a Pepsi commercial.

Plainly, it stinks.

Production-Timbaland-by-numbers. Granted, anything Timbo has produced over the past ten years or so has reflected the flavors of his collaborators (and secondary producers) more than it has reflected Tim himself, but this sounds like bad Missy Elliott circa 1997 crossed with B’s own “Girls (Run the World.)” And if you need a reminder, that song sucked, too.

Speaking of that regrettable tune, Beyonce is traversing the same lyrical content as well. I’m all for empowerment, and I respect the fact that Beyonce sees herself as a role model for women. However, as a lyricist, Beyonce is paper-thin. I would have no problem with her recycling lyrical themes she’s brought forth on songs like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It” and the aforementioned “Girls” if they had any depth to them. There ain’t much separating “Grown Woman” from, say, a Spice Girls song.

Listen for yourself.