Beyoncé

The Diana Ross of Destiny's Child eventually went solo, making songs that weren't quite as good or as spunky as the stuff she did with Kelly and Michelle.

see Destiny's Child

Information: Beyoncé
Suggested first purchase: Dangerously in Love

Dangerously in Love (2003) -- The album begins with "Crazy in Love" and "Naughty Girl." After those two admittedly-good tracks, you can pretty much shut the CD off. There are a few more songs that fail to get you dancing and then the album devolves into ballads where Beyoncé does that vocal-warbling thing that all the annoying young girls do. One song wishes that her "unborn son" (an incorrect lyric for many reasons) could be like her daddy, so at best there's some unintentional comedy to be found (since Beyoncé basically writes lyrics like freshmen write composition papers). Hold out for the eventual greatest hits of Beyoncé's solo stuff to get the first two tracks on a better compilation.

B'Day (2006) -- Probably more consistent than Dangerously in Love, but without the two truly-good tracks of that one. This one has some okay ones, though, like "Ring the Alarm" and "Irreplaceable" (better known as the "box to the left" song). Once again, however, these songs will eventually be on a greatest hits, so just my advice is to wait till then to get you some Beyoncé, folks.

Irremplazable (2007) -- A few months after B'Day came out, the released a "deluxe edition" that had some bonus songs. These are those songs plus one more (a "Get Me Bodied" remix), which means that some fans had to shell out some bucks for shit. These tracks are pretty unnecessary: mostly Spanish versions of B'Day songs and remixes. The only thing really worth having is "Beautiful Liar," a duet with Shakira.