Day 296: Destiny’s Child – Survivor
I probably haven’t listened to a Destiny’s Child album in about 22 years, today seemed like a good day to dust that bad boy off and see if it’s still good. I’ve listened to a whole lot of Beyonce as an adult but I don’t think I’ve ever gone all the way back to listening to Destinys Child, aside from hearing a song or two here and there when I’m out. “Survivor” in particular is hard to miss, I don’t know why that one is so pervasive.
Album cover courtesy of Columbia Records
Destiny’s Child was an American girl group, formed in Houston in 1990. They started off as a six person group called Girl's Tyme, but reduced to four girls after Beyonce’s father started managing the group. There was a varying cast of characters in the group until the year 2000 when the final line-up was solidified as being Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.
Survivor was released as the group’s third studio album in 2001 as the first album with the classic three person line-up, as Farrah Franklin had exited in June 2000. It became a hit after the lead single "Independent Women Part I" became a massive hit from being featured in the underrated cinematic masterpiece Charlie’s Angels. Most of the album was co-written and co-produced by Beyoncé, who at the time was taking more creative control of their sound.
The album mostly stands the test of time, which makes me happy – I clearly knew quality even as a 7-year-old. And of course it’s good, Beyoncé does not miss. I mean, name a bad Beyoncé album, there isn’t one. The only bad thing I can immediately think of is the Destiny’s Child Christmas song "8 Days of Christmas", which is not only the world’s worst Christmas song but also happens to be one of the worst songs of all time.
The exception to it having aged well is the incredibly poorly aged “Nasty Girl”, where the ladies chastise a scantily clad youth in incredibly harsh terms for four straight minutes, which makes for a fairly uncomfortable listening experience. Hearing women sing songs about how men won’t like you if you’re a slut feels jarring these days, which I think reflect well on how we’ve progressed as a society.
However, Survivor is an album with very big differences in quality. It has absolute all-time classics like “Independent Women Part I” with relative stinkers like “Apple Pie À La Mode” and the aforementioned “Nasty Girl”. But when it’s good, it’s great. The beginning of the album has some of their classic bangers, while the second part of the album has ballads. It feels like they really rein in their worst impulses at the end, where slower, emotional songs like “Dangerously in Love” and “Emotion” really let you appreciate the vocal talent on show.
I can’t really fault it too much, despite there being weaker songs peppered in. I do wish they’d made it a bit shorter and cut things that don’t reach the quality they’ve already established on the album. It’s still a 7/10, with some songs significantly better and some a whole lot worse.