Music Review: Beyonce swoons, grinds on third CD

@SL_body_copy_ragged:On Beyonce's new album, the 27-year-old singer-diva-icon gives her on-stage, bump-n-grind alter-ego Sasha Fierce co-billing.

"I AM ... SASHA FIERCE" is her attempt at a concept album, with the disc split into two.

There's the swoony, ballad heavy "I AM ...," which Beyonce says reveals her true self "underneath all the exciting star drama." Then there's the more modern, hip-hop-influenced "SASHA FIERCE," which Beyonce calls "more sensual, more aggressive."

Does the split-personality attempt work? As a total package, not quite. Individual songs such as the role-reversal jam "If I Were A Boy" and saucy "Video Phone" shine, while other tunes just don't produce enough oomph.

Vulnerability is nothing new for Beyonce, who touched on her sensitive yearnings on 2003's solo debut "Dangerously in Love." But she came roaring back in 2006 with "B'Day," the kind of woman-in-control hit album that scorched club roofs with its rapid-fire grooves.

"I AM ... SASHA FIERCE wants it naughty and nice. Still, with only 11 songs on the full album's standard version, splitting the two sides is unnecessary. Each disc isn't strong enough to maintain the momentum "B'Day" did, even with five extra songs on the album's deluxe version.

Beyonce, for all her big-haired, big-voiced fabulousness, apparently has some identity issues like the rest of us. But if other worthy one-named divas have successfully straddled that divide between vulnerability and powerhouse sexuality without an alter-ego as a buffer, so can Beyonce.

-- Associated Press