Are you shocked that Bey has the most acclaimed album by a female popstar?

[AJH219 4,448]

Yes I'm shocked, simply because critical consensus doesn't mean crap to me. Like a Prayer, and every thing produced by Madonna (despite what some deluded fools think) and also Gaga, is vastly superior to anything Beyconce has ever done and ever will do. I will NEVER bow down to her, and it truly makes me nauseous others do.   

[StrawberryBlond 14,829]

Yes, I am shocked because it's only a decent album, nothing more or less. There's a big lack of "wow" moments on it. So many songs are just so middle of the road and nothing much going on in them, not even huge Beyonce vocals. There are other artists who make this kind of music a lot better. And I just don't think it would be praised to this extent if it had been made by anyone else. All Beyonce's albums are massively overrated. I don't understand what it is critics think is so amazing. Unless she pays them, which is a distinct possibility. 

9 hours ago, Varo Yan said:

Even Rolling Stone noticed that in 1 song "Hung Up" worked 15 co-writers...

That is reason enough alone to not give it an amazingly high score. Real artists don't need this amount of co-writers to write such a short, simple song that's supposed to be a deeply personal and confessional moment. Most songs that are this personal only have the artist and one other person on the credits because if it's this precise, it must have come almost entirely completely come from the person who it happened to. But a song as personal as Hold Up having this many co-writers sends alarm bells and gives a real glimpse into how involved Beyonce really is with her work. You could say "Maybe the 15 people each wrote one line and Beyonce wrote the rest" but I counted it and depending on what you regard as full line, there are little over 20 lines of completely original lyrics (not including repeated ones and the Get My Swag On quote), meaning that it translates as the other way around - the co-writers did almost all the work and Beyonce likely just changed a word or two. I am always shocked at the amount of people it takes to write one simple song these days. It seems like the more simple the song is, the more writers it has! How does that work? So, I think, when albums like this appear, they can only be given so much praise. It's clear who the real talent is behind it. I imagine a lot of us would be thrown if the credits could be written in a way that tells the exact truth about how much an artist contributed.

Let's look at how it works out. Including Beyonce...

Don't Hurt Yourself - 7 writers.

Freedom - 8 writers.

6 Inch - 12 writers.

All Night - 12 writers.

Hold Up - 16 writers.

Not including the interlude, the album only has 11 songs. So, just under half the album was heavily helped by others. Some "artist." So, I don't know how this goes on to be praised when the real creators are so obvious and aren't getting the props they deserve.