On “Me, Myself & I,” a woman bids farewell to a heel, confident that she’ll rebound. Beyoncé honors her loving dad on a hidden track, saying she wants her husband and future son to be just like him. “Crazy in Love”(with gangsta rapper Jay-Z), the title track and a remake of Roberta Flack’s 1978 hit “The Closer I Get to You” celebrate romantic love. A woman pressured for sex shows her date the door (“Yes”).
The singer’s hormones are out of control. Beyoncé wants to take a man home on “Naughty Girl” (“I’m feelin’ kind of n-a-s-t-y … I know you want my body”). Similar messages undo “Be With You,” the Sean Paul duet “Baby Boy” and “Speechless”(where there’s “only sweat between us”). The sleazy “Hip Hop Star” involves her daring guest rappers to undress her, which generates a sexually explicit response. That song and “Signs” endorse astrology. The man of her dreams is “a thug that’ll have my back/Do-rag, Nike Airs to match” (“That’s How You Like It”). The million-selling disc also features immodest CD photos.
This founding member of the sultry R&B trio Destiny’s Child (33 million CDs sold) is also a movie actress and the latest Pepsi icon. Her solo debut boasts a few good tunes, but plays the “Bootylicious” card way too often.
