There's a reason Beyonce Knowles is one of the richest women under the age of 30 (just). She knows how to shake it, she knows how to sell it, but most of all, she knows how to sing.
Other than things like being married to another musical powerhouse, it's Beyonce's vocal range that sets her apart from the other chart-topping pop artists intent on stealing her crown.
By favouring melodramatic love ballads over cheap thrills on her fourth album, she has given herself a chance to really show them off.
Though the Whitney Houston-like opener is refreshing, it soon becomes clear that Beyonce's at her finest when she gets riled up or self-righteous - throwing in heart-thumping bass and fist-pumping bellows - and for these reasons, feisty songs like I Care are the most powerful on the album.
She warned us she'd ditched the angry face, but it's still surprising that, other than the sampling of Major Lazer's Pon de Floor on dance single Run the World (Girls), the album is not the list of clubbers' hits we've come to expect.
