I can't be the only one who feels this way.

I ABSOLUTELY love Beyoncé. I defended her choice back in the day  to give Farrah, Latavia and Letoya the sparkly, animal- print Mama Tina boot. I supported her when she left DC and learned all the words to Dangerously in Love and still butcher it in the shower from time to time. She's everything I kinda want to be but I know that I would never try because I'd hate myself for it because no one can ever be her. That's without a doubt. And I thought I'd give a biased positive review of her latest album 4 because of it, but c'mon, son, I can't even deny how crappy it sounds!
To me, it's like her producer said "Hey Beyoncé, I got a whole bunch of beats for your album, you don't have to listen to them, trust me. They're good. Just write the songs, you know what,  Don't even write any songs, just sing what you feel when you get in the booth." This music lacks melody, and the lyrics sound under arranged.Take "Countdown" for example. It's a mess of horns  and then this snare just comes out of nowhere in the hook, at least I think the part where she is counting down is the hook. And then "End of Time," I think she ran out of lyrics and decided to just keep saying "Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go" Seriously? What inspired this album? It makes me sad. Especially since I am positive they will get major airplay and no one will even question the weakness of this album. As long as Beyoncé keeps making good videos and having great performances.
Honestly, I respect Beyoncé in all aspects; her image, her performance quality, her voice- everything but her weak lyrics and her continual decline in production choices. After B'day things have gone downhill. Sasha Fierce had decent beats and catchiness, so I enjoyed Sweet Dreams, Put a Ring on it, Diva, etc. (the I Am... part was another story. I hated it.) But 4 seriously needs help. I can't even name one song I like. There are lesser evils, like "Party" ft. Kanye West & Andre 3000, "Best Thing I Never Had"and "I Was Here". But that's all I can say. I probably wouldn't like those songs if they had better songs surrounding them. This album was subpar at best. What happened Beyoncé? Is it the new management? Mathew, for the love of pop music please come get your daughter!

This album gets 2 stars to Sasha Fierce's 3.5 and B'day's 5.