Listen to... Beyoncé - Grown woman

Pepsiyoncé was ready to leave her stan n***as thirsty in the hive for new material. But that was until Kelly Rowland dropped "Dirty laundry" and caught a wave of praise in a storm of positive press. Home girl soon changed her tune and had Blue Ivy upload "Grown woman" to Zshare.

When "Grown woman" premiered in the Pepsi commercial, I liked the song, but didn't think it was anything special. But then I saw a video of Pepsiyoncé miming performing it on her tour and I fell in love with it. Her vocals were sassy, fun and energetic. And Timbaland's percussive backdrop provided the perfect soundtrack for Beyoncé to pop her pussy to and get down like she's at a Zambian bush party. But the studio recorded version sounds utterly tame and completely lax in comparison. Beyoncé's energy is at level 0. She sounds dead pan and controlled. There are no ad-libs. She doesn't go off on this shit the way she does when she performs it live and the backing vocals sound as though they are missing about 5 layers and a fat Suga mama. The whole thing is carried solely by Timbaland's production which is way more on point than I expected from him, even in lieu of his stellar work on The 20/20 experience. I needed Beyoncé to scream over this shit and give me full "Get me bodied" style neck snappin' with this shit. Not half arse the damn thing. I am disappoint.

As it is, "Grown woman" is the type of song which would need to be synonymous with a strong visual. It's my recollection of her miming performing it live which plays in my head every time I listen to the song and it's this which keeps me playing this song. I do like "Grown woman". The beat is as infectious as fuck. If you heard it drop in a club you would go to town on the floor like you are 3 tequila's gone at your cousin Oyindamola's birthday party. It is a cool encapsulation of Beyoncé's style as a whole. It's very typically her. But Beyoncé should have gone to town with the vocals. The song is a celebration of her as a woman and an artist, but I get none of that from her when I listen to this. I really do hope she re-records the vocals for the final version of the song.

Album reviews: I am...Sasha Fierce | 4