( EW.com ) -- If show business were high school ( and is n't it , really ? ) , Beyoncé would be a front-runner for valedictorian . She 's a class act on and off the charts , a can-do girl who shares her gifts with everyone while keeping her beyond-fabulous life -- the Obamas on speed dial , Jay-Z at the dinner table -- largely to herself . Over the course of her three previous records , she 's matured from Destiny 's Child-hood into a formidable solo hitmaker with two of pop music 's most transcendent chart-toppers , `` Crazy in Love '' and `` Single Ladies , '' tucked in the pocket of her Deréon jeans . So why does it feel like Beyoncé is struggling so hard to prove herself on `` 4 ? '' The album is an every-song-for-itself welter of conflicting ambitions : It wants to be cutting-edge but familiar , accessible but artistic , hot-blooded but strictly impersonal . Those tensions hurt most in its lumbering first half , a defiant bird flipped at anyone expecting out-of-the-box radio killers . Instead , we get a sleepy recital of ballads , kicked off by the arid Prince-ipality of `` 1+1 '' and `` I Miss You , '' in which Bey pants and sweats and grunts ( except , you know , sexy-like ) , her voice climbing ever higher in search of an octave big enough to hold it . `` I do n't know much about guns/But I , I 've been shot by you , '' she yelps on `` 1+1 , '' as if the love bullet were actually breaking skin . Vocally , she 's never sounded better -- throaty and precise -- but the songs here just are n't her equal . While those efforts at least aim high , a few of `` 4 '' 's lesser tracks feel like they were unsuccessfully bred in studio captivity for mass consumption . The familiar lite-FM bombast of `` Best Thing I Never Had '' proves her 2006 hit `` Irreplaceable '' is just that . '' I Was Here , '' co-written by Diane Warren , reaches Lifetime-movie levels of schmaltz , while the promisingly named `` Party , '' featuring Kanye and Andre 3000 , turns out to be a slow-jam invitation to an after-work mixer with light refreshments . And when the 29 year old mimics Luther Vandross and Diana Ross on the charmingly goofy one-two of `` Love on Top '' and `` Rather Die Young , '' she gets lost in her idols ' polyester-swathed shadows . Unsurprisingly , Beyoncé is at her best when she sounds like no one but herself . She takes her trusty freakum dress out of mothballs for the marching-band funk of `` Countdown , '' which includes such joy-inducing non-lyrics as `` Me and my boof , and my boof boof riding . '' On `` Run the World ( Girls ) , '' the first single off the disc , she turns cheesy postfeminism into a martial foot-stomper that crackles like a burst of pirate-radio agitpop . ( It bombed accordingly on the mainstream charts . ) And the terrific `` End of Time '' seethes with off-balance harmonies , MJ-style `` Off the Wall '' horns and a bionic Bo Diddley beat , all while Bey howls her eternal love to everyone and no one in particular . It 's exactly the kind of genre-busting risk that few other current pop stars would even attempt , let alone pull off flawlessly with a no-big-thing shrug . With more moments like that , `` 4 '' might have been an album fully worthy of her talent . As it is , though , even star students get the occasional B . See the original article on EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2010 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
The album 's first half is full of artistic experimentation , culminating in a sleepy collection of ballads . Vocally , she 's never been better , but the songs are n't she 's equal . The singer is at her best when she feels like no one but herself , such as in ` ` ' ''