Beyonce's Bible

The second album from the group, Destiny's Child turning a new page to their commercial peak. Destiny's Child were praised for their RnB tracks that contained a lot of attitude but at the same time there are many people who thought Destiny's Child was just a complicated project created by Matthew Knowles to make his eldest daughter, Beyoncé famous. It was the last album to feature Letoya Luckett and Latavia Roberson as they were removed for complaining about how unfairly they had been treated and how Beyoncé and Kelly always got the better treatment.

When I was a kid I always thought LeToya was Michelle Williams before an extreme facelift until I watched a documentary about Destiny's Child. I first purchased the album on Itunes for £4.99 and then bought the album again from Cash Converters for 75p in case of a crash.

Writing's On The Wall is my favourite album from the group and possibly my favourite thing from Beyoncé, her solo work is good, but not as great as this album. Over the years, Beyoncé's lost the rawness in her voice and I think nowadays some of her high notes feel forced and can sometimes be unpleasant to listen to. She's still good, but not as outstanding as she used to be.

What I love about this album is the vocals. Beyoncé's vocals are very strong and she sounds like a born leader. She might not have the most original voice, but her voice is full of identity and sounds very distinctive. It easily overpowers the other girls. I like the sweet tone in Kelly's voice that saves her voice from being drowned by Beyoncé's lead vocals sometimes. The backing vocals provided by LeToya and LaTavia are rather deep and subtle. Latavia sounds a bit too bland to be on lead vocals, but it sounds very raw and gives a nice mellow feeling in the background.

Another thing I like about the album is the themes in the lyrics. They seem to be born from honest experiences and things a lot of women can relate to. There's a lot of energy and convincing attitude in the album that helps deliver a very sassy and mature RnB album with good elements of urban hip-hop. There's a good mixture of themes and I can see why it's done so well in the mainstream music market. I quite like the inlay design and contents in the album, but I think the cover is a bit of a let down because the background looks too busy and their poses look a bit too stiff.

The album starts with a rather strange introduction. It sounds very oriental, but still weird. The girls act like goddesses trying to create new commandments for relationships. What makes it even more strange is that Beyoncé only has one line in the song. No singing in the intro, just spoken words. The way it goes at the end of each track there is a commandment spoken. Each of these commandments revolve around relationships. They give the album a very good flow but are useless if you're just wanting to download a few tracks.

I think the album can deliver some very good morals while at the same time sing about having fun and doing the occasional sin. One of it's musical let downs is that some of the tracks seem to be fillers. The singles have been finely selected. The album is very targeted at women, I think. It's like a flick chick album.

My favourite tracks from the album are Bills, Bills Bills, Temptation, Now That's She's Gone, Jumpin', Jumpin', Bug A Boo, Confessions and Say My Name. My least favourites would be the intro, Hey Ladies, and Where'd You Go.

"At first we started out real cool taking me places I ain't never been

But now, you're getting comfortable ain't doing those things you did no more

You're slowly making me pay for things your money should be handling." - Verse 1 to Bills, Bills, Bills

I find Confessions and Temptation very easy to remember because of their cheekiness to them. Hey Ladies and Where'd You Go are a bit weak compared to the rest of the tracks and I find Hey Ladies a bit too whiny for my liking.

Bills, Bills, Bills is an instant stand out for me because it was the first song from the album I listened to. I enjoyed the use of attitude and I think the vocals give it a very fab effect. She Can't Love You is a very classy track, but not a track that has aged well, which is understandable since the album's been around for over 10 years now. I think the track that sounds the least dated is Sweet Sixteen, it mentions teenage pregnancy which has been a growing issue in the UK. The track also has LaTavia and LeToya in the lead which makes the track sound a bit quirky.

"She fell in love with a man who was so fine (so fine)

He made her promises, yeah

She didn't stop to think if he was serious

(No, no, no)

Until she had his baby

Sweet sixteen." - Verse 2 from Sweet Sixteen.

Overall I think it's a very good album full of interesting concepts and a fine mixed bag of R&B with other influences of hip-hop, pop, urban and soul.

1) Intro (The Writing's On The Wall) - "Our objective of this meeting today is to discuss Destiny's Child's Commandments of relationships." - 2/5

2) So Good - "I know you hate it, but I'm so good so good so good." 4/5

3) Bills, Bills, Bills - "You triflin',good for nothing type of brother.Silly me,why haven't I found another?" 5/5

4) Confessions - "I might as well come clean. What you feel about that baby?" 5/5

5) Bug a Boo - "You make me wanna throw my pager out the window." 5/5

6) Temptation - "Cause boy your body's callin' and temptation is killin me." 5/5

7) Now That She's Gone - "You've made me wait too long, I'm gone..." 5/5

8) Where'd You Go - "It has been 5 days you haven't called me... Do you still want me? Still need me?" 2/5

9) Hey Ladies - "But he's got to go, he's got to go!" 2/5

10) If You Leave (featuring Next) - "If you leave her, I'll leave him. We'll pack our bags, don't say a word." 3/5

11) Jumpin', Jumpin - "Cause it's 11:30 and the club is jumpin', jumpin'!" 5/5

12) Say My Name - "Could it be that you are at the crib with another lady?" 4//5

13) She Can't Love You - "And there's no way her love's as good as mine." 4/5

14) Stay - "Well if I loved you a little bit longer, If my love was a little bit stronger, Would you stay, stay? " 4/5

15) Sweet Sixteen - "Sixteen, thought she knew it all and so she ran away " 5/5

16) Outro (Amazing Grace... Dedicated to Andretta Tillman) - "This is for you Ms. Ann, who is now with our Heavenly Father, who made the real commandments." 3/5

bonus track - 17) Get On The Bus (Bonus Track featuring Timberland) - "I don't really care, cause there's no more us." 4/5