Beyoncé’s ‘Bow Down’/’I Been On’ – Is This What We Want From Mrs Carter?

In keeping with 2013’s theme of wrongfooting pop surprises, Beyoncé slapped a megamix of two new tracks online last night – ‘Bow Down’ and ‘I Been On’. Nanoseconds passed and social media was coated with gripes. This kind of thing: “Beyoncé’s gone trill!”, “Call this a song?” and – probably – “I preferred Justin Timberlake waffling on for three-quarters of an hour about Jessica Biel’s Hubba Bubba-tinged privates”.

But is the new Beyoncé really so bad?

Bow Down


‘Bow Down’ – produced by ‘Watch The Throne’ collaborator Hit-Boy – certainly comes snarling out of the blocks, thick beats pinning it down as B dishes out some home truths. “I know when you were little girls/You dreamt of being in my world/Don’t forget it, don’t forget it/Respect that/Bow down, bitches” – that’s a comeback. And “I took some time to live my life/Don’t think I’m just his little wife/Don’t get it twisted, get it twisted/It’s my shit/Bow down, bitches” is clearly a witty rejoinder to everyone up in arms about The Mrs Carter Show. Assuming she fills those hours she spends not tweeting actually reading Twitter.

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Pretty bracing start, but the ‘I Been On’ bit’s a different kettle of trappist drone, with B pitched down to a guttural drawl – a shy way, maybe, of spitting out rhymes about “gold ass rings/gold ass fangs” and keeping it “trill“. Talking point more than actual track, and good God it’s worked.

One enterprising soul’s already sped up the Witch-House-Beyoncé on the second half of the track, so we can really hear what she sounds like when she’s smacking that trick. About the same basically, just pre-stroke. Sample it here:

Whatever, it’s an arresting overture to the new album.

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