<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"As much as she\u2019s been in the news lately \u2013 singing the national anthem at the Presidential Inauguration, turning in a half time performance that caused the lights to go out at the Super Bowl \u00AD\u00AD\u2013 Beyonc\u00E9&amp;nbsp;hasn\u2019t actually released any new solo material in two years. This changed yesterday afternoon when the singer posted \u201CBow Down/I Been On\u201D&amp;nbsp;to her Tumblr. The track, which was released without context other than some&amp;nbsp;pretty adorable cover art, isn\u2019t a song per se. Instead, it appears to be a mashing together of snippets of two other tracks, which, based on the file\u2019s title, we\u2019re going to assume are titled \u201CBow Down\u201D and \u201CI Been On.\u201DBeyonc\u00E9\u2019s return to making new music after a two-year hiatus is reason enough to get excited, and not surprisingly, the song has already racked up nearly 1.5 million listens on Soundcloud less than 24 hours after it was made public. But it\u2019s unlikely that anyone expected the latest from Queen Bey to sound like this.From its opening seconds, it\u2019s clear that \u201CBow Down/I Been On\u201D isn\u2019t typical Beyonc\u00E9. The beat on the first half of the track comes courtesy of producers&amp;nbsp;Hit-Boy&amp;nbsp;\u2013 who has scored a number of hits with&amp;nbsp;A$AP Rocky,&amp;nbsp;Kendrick Lamar, and, most famously, Kanye West&amp;nbsp;and Bey\u2019s husband,&amp;nbsp;Jay-Z \u2013 and Planet 6. Around the 20-second mark Beyonc\u00E9\u2019s voice comes through in usual strident form, before morphing into something significantly angrier than we\u2019re used to, with the continued \u201CBow down bitches\u201D refrain. It\u2019s startling at first, but once it\u2019s repeated a handful of times you\u2019ve accepted it and all of the song\u2019s out-of-nowhere testiness. As weird as the first section may seem, it\u2019s downright traditional compared with the second, the Timbaland-produced \u201CI Been On,\u201D which kicks off with a cosmic-sounding operatic sample before mutating into a pitched-shifted rap song that reminds us that the singer is from Houston. It\u2019s just as angry as \u201CBow Down,\u201D but definitely more bizarre, especially with the laughing and shout outs to&amp;nbsp;Pimp C&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;UGK.Because the song is so out there, it\u2019s undoubtedly going to confuse a lot of listeners. But whether or not this song is any good is beside the point. What\u2019s most noteworthy about the track is that it\u2019s not at all what we\u2019d expect from a pop star on a return from a long absence. Granted, someone of Beyonc\u00E9\u2019s magnitude can get away with a lot of things \u2013 she\u2019s reached a certain level of infallibility with her fan base \u2013 but it\u2019s rare these days that pop stars step out of their comfort zone. Instead, we\u2019re treated to returns like the one&amp;nbsp;Justin Timberlake&amp;nbsp;pulled this January with&amp;nbsp;\u201CSuit &amp;amp; Tie,\u201D&amp;nbsp;a single that was a fun and lightweight reintroduction to his shiny take on R&amp;amp;B. It was totally fine, but when taken in the context of his solo career, middling at best. \u201CBow Down/I Been On\u201D feels like something else entirely, like the work of an artist at the top of her game, one bubbling over with so much creative energy that anything seems possible, even if it doesn\u2019t necessarily make sense. This isn\u2019t going to go down as a highlight of her career, but it\u2019s a reminder that we don\u2019t know what she\u2019s fully capable of yet.Bow Down / I Been On by Beyonc\u00E9"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/880325/bow-downi-been-on-beyonces-unexpectedly-gritty-return?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+artinfo-all+%28All+Content+%7C+ARTINFO%29>