B'DAY (20th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION)

B'DAY (20th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION)

After the 2003 release of Dangerously in Love, her chart-topping, award-winning solo debut, Beyoncé was, in a word, busy—with wrapping up her work with Destiny’s Child, the trio that launched her career; with her first tour on her own, which had her headlining London’s Wembley Stadium; but also with her crossover success in movies, as she booked starring roles in and filmed The Pink Panther and Dreamgirls. When she eventually made it back into the studio, she convened an all-star lineup of producers, including Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes, Darkchild, and more, and built on the momentum of Dangerously in Love by recording its follow-up in less than a month. Given the resulting hits of B’Day—which was, indeed, released on September 4, Beyoncé‘s birthday—it’s easy to see why. She was inspired in the midst of the most prolific artistic stretch of her life to date, and she was eager to push the creative envelope as far as she could. B’Day’s singles have sharper teeth than their predecessors, from “Upgrade U,” the second JAŸ-Z collaboration on the album (the first being the smitten “Deja Vu”), to the vengeful and explosive “Ring the Alarm” and the bittersweet “Irreplaceable,” which rewrote the script on post-breakup independence. The galloping beat of “Get Me Bodied” and discordant melody of “Freakum Dress” remain some of the most recognizable sounds in Beyoncé’s catalog. Subsequent editions of B’Day featured “Beautiful Liar,” her smoldering duet with Shakira, as well as Spanish versions of “Irreplaceable” and “Listen,” her original, traditional ballad for the Dreamgirls soundtrack. But the 20th-anniversary edition of B’Day offers up the largest haul yet from the depths of Queen Bey’s vault. Outtakes and deep cuts abound, like “MORNING DEW (DONK),” Pharrell collaboration “CAN I WATCH YOU,” and “CREOLE,” a single that was included on international variants of the original deluxe. The 31-song tracklist also includes one-off singles (like “CHECK ON IT,” her smash from the Pink Panther soundtrack) and “CUERPO (TUMBAO),” a vibrant Latin update of “Get Me Bodied” that not only features a sample from salsa queen Celia Cruz’s “La Negra Tiene Tumbao,” but also an appearance from Maluma. At the end of the track, Bey jokes that her “Spanish is not very good lookin’”—but we disagree. Additional Spanish reworks of B’Day standards, such as “Get Me Bodied” (or “Mueve el Cuerpo”) and an unforgettable version of “Irreplaceable,” “IRREEMPLAZABLE (COMO LA FLOR),” featuring a seamless tie-in of the late tejano star Selena’s “Como La Flor,” abound as well. It’s a B’Day gift two decades in the making.