A week after snippets leaked out, we”re getting a full listen of Beyonce”s “Girls (Who Run the World)” and it”s clear she”s taking no prisoners. Listen to it below.
For all its sassiness, her mega-hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” was basically an old-fashioned look at marriage being the ultimate goal. That Bey is gone, replaced by a fierce, trash-talking female, who isn”t looking for man”s proposal to validate her self-worth. Even when she coos “Boy… I hope you still like me,” you know she”s going to throw that boy to the side as soon as she”s done with him.
Musically, the Diplo-produced “Girls” is more of a chant than a song and it feels like it came straight out of Bollywood by way of a very cool sample of Major Lazer”s “Pon de Floor.” (The rhythm sounds more Indian to us, but the video supposedly features 200 female African dancers). After a dozen listens or so, it”s grown on us. At first, we thought it was a throw-away track, but we”re coming around and love the percussive precision and lack of an identifiable chorus. There”s not a lot of build here; it stays at one level from start to finish, but it works. We also love the part about “Who runs this mutha,” which may be the hippest shout out to Mother Earth we’ve ever heard.
The word is that Beyonce will drop a new album in late June, right around the same time she headlines Glastonbury.
[Update: Stream removed upon request of the artist.] Check out this link for a site that still has the single streaming.