Tom: Let this one run for a minute or so before you start to judge it. It’s a slow burner.
Tim: Ooh, that chorus is good. Like, actually good.
Tom: By the time it got to the bridge, I was really enthusiastic about this – and I can’t explain why. It’s not close to anything we normally review, but it’s got this steady, inexorable build to it that means that the final chorus is a proper lighters-in-the-air moment.
Tim: Part of it, for me, is that it’s not typical Beyoncé. That’s also one of the reasons I really liked Rihanna’s most recent one – woke up to it on the radio, thought ‘ooh, this song’s good’, then Dev stuck his general rubbishness in and said it was Rihanna and I sat up with a ‘WHAT’.
Tom: Pity about the “sucks to be you right now” lyric, which rather spoils the moment for me, but I can live with it.
Tim: Meh, I’m not bothered. I do sort of wish the verses could be as energetic as the chorus, but, as you said, I can live with it. Very much, in fact.
Tom: I’ve just figured out how to save the verses: sing the verses of ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Backstreet Boys over the top of them. Seriously, try it.