Smash Notes
49: Beyoncé
Come for the overanalysis of one of the year's biggest event albums, stay for the multiple failed attempts at pronouncing "beabadoobee." Pharrell Williams - Cash In Cash Out (Official Video) ft. 21 Savage, Tyler, The Creator - YouTube The 39 Best Albums of 2022: Our Favorite Music of the Year So Far | Pitchfork Amy Phillips | Staff | Pitchfork Black…
Notes
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One panelist steered listeners to the walk-on song Cash In, Cash Out, featuring 21 Savage and Tyler, the Creator, by Pharrell Williams, the man behind an ancient Arby's hat that became a sensation on the internet. The same panelist says they apparently recorded the song like a year ago and sat on it so they could make a very ornate stop-motion music video, and says the song sounds remarkably fresh for being older than one would assume. Another panelist called that opinion a hot, fresh, timeless take.
The second panelist had also read an interview with Tyler, the Creator about the song. Tyler, the Creator heard the track from Pharrell Williams, said the track rocks, and wanted to play on it, but he did not mention the wish at the time. A little later he asked for the stems. Pharrell Williams sent the non-vocal track. Tyler, the Creator wrote his verses and sent them to Pharrell Williams. Pharrell Williams then called and stared, saying absolutely nothing, and hung up. The silent call was how Tyler, the Creator knew he got the Pharrell Williams track.
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One panelist calls the record a fascinating new take on pop and a liked album. He believes the average on Metacritic is 8.8, and he puts the reception near a 9.4. He says Pitchfork scored it 6.4.
Only Pitchfork and the Guardian rated it under a nine, he says, and the album has just ten reviews, so the total is not a huge stack. He still finds the gap interesting: Pitchfork normally sits in the Metacritic range and does not land so far outside it. Another panelist says the score is unexpected, even with Pitchfork's flashpoint deviances.
The 6.4 is the break they dwell on. A small review pile still leaves Pitchfork and the Guardian alone under a nine, which is why the panel treats the number as out of step with the rest of the early scores.
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Pitchfork scored Soccer Mommy an 8.0 and skipped Best New Music. One panelist recaps the last deep dive on Soccer Mommy. The three guesses were an 8.6, an 8.7, and an 8.4, and each guess included Best New Music. Pitchfork did not match any of them.
He calls the miss the most wrong he has felt. A lot of times he is the one saying Pitchfork was wrong, and he says Pitchfork often is wrong compared with the podcast. On Soccer Mommy he says the podcast should have known. He does not think they should have expected an 8.7 or an 8.6 with Best New Music. He thinks maybe an 8.3, and he says Pitchfork does not really like Soccer Mommy.
A co-host had been sure Soccer Mommy would join the Best New Music club again and that Pitchfork would admit a mistake. Pitchfork had run a feature interview before the album. The way the interview talked about Soccer Mommy made him think the record had everything and would be a slam dunk. He says he led himself astray by putting too much weight on every feature interview before an album.
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One panelist says the actual retail pitch for Perfume Genius and the album Ugly Season was an 8.6 BNM. The guess of 8.6 matched the actual score and took the round. Right after giving the round to the matching guess, the same panelist called the outcome great and good.
The guesses ahead of the result were 9.2, also a yes on BNM, 8.6, also a yes on BNM, and 8.2, called a little BNM and a tiny BNM. The actual retail pitch was an 8.6 BNM, so the middle number was the one that hit.
One panelist called the round a lightning rounder and said the match is not that big a deal. The same panelist said Ugly Season could have been a deep dive, and said a deep dive would have been nice. A deep dive did not happen.
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Sasha Fierce scored a 5.7. A co-host says the album contains If I Were a Boy, Halo, and Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). For the three tracks alone, the co-host calls the record one of the greatest pop albums of all time, because the songs are three of the greatest pop songs of all time.
One panelist says the review hated the concept album, so a new look still treats the record as mixed and lands like a low eight, even with the number going way past the fives. The co-host agrees the reviewers stay sticky about the alter ego, brings up Chris Gaines, and guesses the mid eights. One panelist adds that a compilation of skits from Bloodhound Gang records with Single Ladies on it would still sit at least in the seventies.
The room cannot settle the rescore on the spot. The co-host says the new number is coming eventually.
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Pitchfork faulted Beyoncé for sounding too real. One panelist reads the line straight from the review: most of all, Beyoncé just sounds too real. Pitchfork wrote that her pitch-perfect plasticity gave much of her earlier work its majestic aura. After she voluntarily stepped down from her pedestal, she struggled to inspire the same sense of awe. Her songs emoted as intensely as before, but the emotions were all too human.
A few albums later, the complaint became the thing Pitchfork loved about her. Another panelist calls the path through Sasha Fierce, up into Four, and up into Beyoncé a very clean build of an artist finding themselves and then expressing themselves and their art in new and more interesting ways. In retrospect, nobody could have seen where the run was headed, and the panelist is not going to slam Pitchfork for missing it.
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One panelist says a turn against the record would already have shown up as cracks in the website text. The panelist feels Pitchfork is predisposed to like the album even if the general consensus ends up a little down, and feels Pitchfork may be one of the last publications to get there. After one song from a record that seems very long, titled Act One: Renaissance and possibly part one of many, the panelist is interested but not super convinced, and still takes an 8.8.
Another panelist ties the one available song to a British Vogue line, brought back to my youth, and hears nostalgia running through the release. Pitchfork, the panelist argues, likes new work and a fresh take. The negative side of the critiques was another sample of an artist, something heard before, and not new.
One panelist cuts in to say Drake literally just tried the move and failed. The other panelist calls the result a miserable 6.6 failure, says Drake was already on a downturn, and agrees Drake just made a house album.
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One panelist scored Black Midi's album Hellfire an 8.3 and called a B&M. A co-host had already landed on the same 8.3 and the same B&M, and he was pissed they matched. A third co-host stayed at 7.9 under the Prague rules.
The first panelist hit Black Midi and Hellfire, said fuck them and fuck everybody, went an 8.3, called a B&M, and said he thought they were going to do it. He repeated 8.3 B&M. The co-host shot back, fuck you, because he had done 8.3 B&M as well, and said the match was all he was pissed about. The third co-host said he would love to see a B&M, but he was still doing the Prague rules, so the score he had was 7.9.