So while Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were basically clawing at each other trying to up their album sales, Beyoncé was apparently just hanging out in the background going “Oh what’s that? Trying to get your fans to buy multiple copies for a chance to meet you? That’s cute. Here’s an entire visual album I’m releasing on iTunes without a trace of marketing beforehand, because BLAMMO! BEYONCÉ, MOTHERF*CKER!” Us Weekly reports …
Friday the 13th is turning out to be a pretty lucky day for Beyoncé fans. Just after midnight on Dec. 13, the “Love on Top” singer released a surprise new album, Beyoncé, via iTunes. As previously reported, the so-called “visual album” features 14 songs and 17 “complementary videos,” with guest stars Drake, Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean, Jay Z, Destiny’s Child band mates Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, and daughter Blue Ivy, 23 months.
“I see music. It’s more than just what I hear,” the 32-year-old superstar says in a promotional video about the album, posted to her Facebook page shortly after the LP hit Apple’s iTunes store. “When I’m connected to something, I immediately see a visual or a series of images that are tied to a feeling or an emotion — a memory from my childhood, thoughts about life, my dreams or my fantasies. And they’re all connected to the music.”
Beyoncé wanted her fans to see those images, too. “I wanted people to hear the songs with the story that’s in my head, ’cause it’s what makes it mine,” she explains. “That vision in my brain is what I wanted people to experience the first time.”
You know what? I’m legit kind of stoked about this. I love it when artists try something new and different, and it’s nice to see she’s actually trying to sell it on the merits of her work rather than just plugging the sh!t out of it every chance she gets.