Survivor

Jesus might love me, but does he love 'Nasty Girl'?

At no point do I feel like this is an album I must hear before I die. The nicest thing that I can say about this album is that they sample Edge of Seventeen, a song that I'd rather be listening to than this shit.

Also, how is this album so fucking long? All of the hit singles are at the very beginning. I'd be inclined to give this a second star had they cut the track count in half.

Honestly, it's not even the best Destiny's Child album, and Beyoncé would move light years beyond this in the near future. It just sounds so dated, but "Independent Women, Pt. 1" still holds up as a fierce anthem, almost like it was the first part of a pair of songs finished by Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable".

Beyond the first few powerhouse singles, I found the rest of the record to be an incredibly disjointed and exhausting listen. It's genuinely jarring to hear them jump from fierce female empowerment right into the weird, mean spirited slut shaming of tracks like "Nasty Girl" and "Fancy." When you strip away the big hits, you're left with an hour long album bogged down by paper thin beats, generic R&B filler, and bizarre thematic whiplash.

Better than Coldplay

objectively good i just don’t like 2000s pop music

The way I fucking NEEDED this to be the album today. Holy eff. I remember the hype when this album came out. I remember going to HMV and waiting in line to buy it on release day. It's one of the iconic albums of my youth. I want to give it more than 5

Aside from the hits this one was pretty lackluster.

Op weg naar schoolkamp. De jongens zingen vrolijk mee. "All the women who independent, throw your hands up at me". Kan ik er toch niet omheen dat dit blijkbaar vrij tijdloos is. Of komt het door een Tiktok-filmpje? Nou, de volgende 2 nummers kennen ze ook. Die hits liggen ook wel heel makkelijk in het gehoor.

Op de terugweg de tweede helft van het album dus maar opzetten. "Deze muziek is wel erg saai" hoor ik achter me. Ja, het kakt ook wel aardig in.

3 sterren van de jongens op de achterbank

So many bangers on here! Independent Woman Pt I, Survivor, Bootylicious, Dangerously in Love, and so on. This reminds me of my younger years and I can’t help but dance when I hear this album. So fun!

The first three songs, Independent Woman, Survivor and Bootylicious are 10/10 all time classics. The rest of the album then lives in the shadow of these songs. A shorter record with better sequencing could quite reasonably call itself a classic record, but it tries to bite off more than it can chew. Still - few records add this much to the culture. How many weddings have you heard all three of those songs at?

A few solid single woman anthems and I am here for it! Throw back to En Vogue, the Supremes, the Rondelles... a few too many fillers toward the end, but a game changing album. 4.

And see, this is a good example of early 2000s pop. Great job beyonce.

there are good songs in here, but it's a pretty hard listen as a whole because 1) blown out mastering; really annoying and almost unlistenable on headphones 2) long runtime and 3) there are too many subpar songs to wait for the good songs to come

If you went to discos, you had to know Destiny’s Child. I was never a fan of discos, but I knew the band—maybe because of my nieces, anyway. Aside from the fact that the girls play light pop, I didn’t remember anything specific about them. About halfway through the album, I was sure: that’s exactly what it is. Light pop that you can forget right away. 3/5

It sounds extremely early-00s. Also, it's extremely hypocritical. In Survivor, they sing about never talking shit about people on the internet because "my mama taught me better than that," and, "I'm not got' blast you on the radio (I'm better than that), and there are several references to being christian in multiple songs.

Then there's a song called "Nasty Girl" where they admonish women for dressing scantily, with the lyric "Don't walk out your house without your clothes on," while Beyonce is on the cover of the album with her tits out.

Then there are the "independent women," female empowerment songs, yet the aforementioned "Nasty Girl" has the lyric "These men don't want no hot female that's been around the block female." Well, which one is it? Should women dress with the singular focus of male approval, or should they dress in whatever way makes them feel confident and comfortable? Which option has Beyonce with her tits out on the cover of the album?

There are bigger problems in the world, but hypocrisy is annoying. 2 stars.

This is kind of fun. The lyrics are mainly of the female empowerment theme which is a nice change. I would have appreciated a bit more funk/grit. The electronic backing music is pretty soulless. I’m sure ladies have more soul in them than this album indicates. Weirdly even the hymn at the end sounds very clean and controlled. The lack of musical depth is disappointing.

It's alright.

Kelly, Michelle, and Beyoncé are my favorite Destiny’s Child. This is a nostalgic album that reminds me so much of my childhood. It’s amazing to see how much all their voices age matured.

Listening Independent Women 1. I was re-experiencing the feeling of early 2000s clubs in Germany for a minute, which was great. Then, during the same song, I was totally taken out of that moment by all the Charlie's Angels references. I haven't ever considered it, but the callback to such a mediocre movie really sullies an otherwise fun song. The second track was also quite enjoyable, but after that the downhill slide began for me.

These are some obviously incredibly-skilled women, and their voices/harmonies/arrangements are truly impressive. Actually, production in general is great too. Fun sampling and beats in general. There are a lot of ingredients of the highest quality on this album, but they seem to be out of proportion somehow. Overly repetitive song segments, strangely conflicting lyrics that raise women up on one track and put women down on the next, and generally a non-cohesive and sort of uninspiring mess. Many of this songs are 3-4 minutes long, but really wear out their welcome about 2/3 of the way through.

I guess this is like when people say something has potential, but it is yet unrealized.

I don't think this deserves 3 stars, even though there are so many positive elements within. Ultimately, I didn't end up finishing every song on the album because those elements are overshadowed by their detractors

The lyrics can be very silly and the album is about 15 minutes too long, but the voices are amazing, and the melody choices are pleasantly surprising a lot of the time. Also, points for great production.

4.0/5.0: Great