After two highly successful albums, the former lead singer of Destiny’s Child and R&B’s favorite diva Beyonce recently released her third album “I Am?Sasha Fierce.” While her latest installment is actually a double album displaying two different personalities of the Queen B, it does not seem to measure up to her two previous works.

“I Am?Sasha Fierce” has a split personality, for lack of a better term. The “I Am” portion of the album set displays a softer side of Beyonce while she makes a complete 180-degree turn and reveals her alter ego in “Sasha Fierce” in the second portion.

In an October article from Reuters, Beyonce said that she created her new alter ego to protect her from who she really is. She goes on to say that Sasha Fierce is a more aggressive and glamorous side of her mixed in with sensuality that comes out when she’s performing on stage.

Most of the songs from “I Am” have a down tempo acoustic pace to it like Beyonce’s first hit single “If I Were A Boy,” which follows the footsteps of “Irreplaceable” from her second album “B’Day.” “Halo” provides a more melodramatic sound that you would not normally hear from Beyonce. She also displays her wide range through her singing ability that never fails to impress. “Ave Maria” is more of a creative gentle drum track that resembles the original melody Ave Maria, one of the many instances where Beyonce would go the distance by trying to do so much in one song, which sometimes works against her.

Overall, “I Am” unveils a rather vulnerable version of Beyonce with tracks that are generally slow-paced and soothing, but nothing spectacular. There aren’t too many catchy choruses and you may find yourself skipping some of the tracks due to loss of attention span.

In “Sasha Fierce,” Beyonce brings out her fun side with hard-hitting, attitude filled tracks, some of which are memorable and some disastrous. “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” is Beyonce’s second hit single, an easy favorite for DJs to play at clubs and can get any crowd on their feet, especially the ladies. Yes this is the same song that Justin Timberlake danced to as Beyonce’s back up dancer in a leotard and heels on Saturday Night Live. This is basically Beyonce at her best.

“Sweet Dreams” provides more electronic beats, also something you do not hear often from Beyonce, but catchy none-the-less.

“Radio” includes even more electronic beats which are more techno-like, but creative somewhat goes down the drain here since the main theme that tends to repeat itself is simply how Beyonce is “in love with her radio”.

Beyonce then flaunts her sensual side with “Video Phone”, a track with more hip-hop beats and a general theme of her giving consent to record her on a videophone. Still, not a lot of innovation here, especially coming from someone of Beyonce’s caliber, “Video Phone” just sounded like an attempt to appeal to the status quo of hip-hop today.

The worst attempt at being aggressive from Beyonce is apparent in “Diva”.

The first offense is that the beats are similar to the displeasing single “A Milli” by rapper Lil’ Wayne. It is the same bass-filled drumbeats recycled through the song, an uncreative style that has marred the hip-hop genre today.

Then Beyonce states in the chorus “A diva is a female version of a hustla” and goes down the road of playing a thug-like role for the rest of the song. Towards the end of the song, she raps “This is a stick-up, stick-up, I need them bags all that money, stick-up stick-up you see that mask where that money?”

I personally rather see Beyonce resort back to her “Independent Woman” days and be a symbol of power for women than a thuggish figure in “Diva” that she doesn’t need to portray at all. Well, I guess since if a diva is a female version of a hustla’, then “Diva” is a female version of “A Milli”. At least “Diva” is not filled with as much vulgar language as “A Milli”.

As an avid fan of Beyonce, who has been my top celebrity crush since junior year of high school, yes it’s true; I must admit that I am a little disappointed in “I Am?Sasha Fierce.” Some of it was fierce, but not the kind of fierce I was expecting. It certainly does not quite reach the caliber of “Dangerously In Love” and “B’Day.” Beyonce at this stage of her career could have done a lot better in terms of creating a knockout album, especially since she still has a beautiful singing voice.

The guest artists are also noticeably absent from this. Although Beyonce usually does not need anyone to add spark to her tracks, a collaboration or two could have helped since some tracks did need that extra spice.

A track with Jay-Z would have been nice, especially since Forbes crowned them as the richest power couple. Jay, with his veteran rap resume, provides a unique “swagga” on every track he appears on. Plus, almost every single from Beyonce that featured Jay-Z was a hit single: “Crazy In Love,” “Deja Vu” and “Upgrade U.”

For all of the die-hard Beyonce fans out there, who are still dying to get your hands on “I Am?Sasha Fierce”, the album is still worth adding on to your collection. Otherwise, you are better off purchasing your favorite selected tracks from iTunes. As for me, I confess that I’m still ‘Crazy In Love’ with my Queen B.

Nick Hunte can be reached at [email protected]