By Ryan Broderick

Beyoncé’s latest album, “I Am… Sasha Fierce,” is a complicated mess. It’s cut into two discs, the first being “I am…” and the second being “Sasha Fierce.” Upon first listen, the question that comes to mind is what is the alter ego all about? The answer, something to do with “creating a sensual, aggressive alter ego.” The real answer of course is that “I am…” is a challenging and interesting take on pop music and “Sasha Fierce” is a piece of garbage.

Each CD opens with a single, “I Am…” opens with “If I Were A Boy,” which is an unbelievable track for the singer. Beyoncé’s done quiet ballads before, but not with the intensity and edge that she pulls off here. Her vocals are strong, the production is sleek and it’s a solid pop song. The rest of the disc continues along the same path, with simple and genuine lyricism. It dips off a bit with “Disappear,” but “Avia Maria” picks it back up and it ends on a more or less strong note.

“Sasha Fierce,” opens with “Single Ladies,” and the anthemic dance song is catchy and strong. The only thing it suffers from is repetition. Three minutes and 13 seconds is far too long for the same chorus over and over again. But the rest of the album tries really hard and falls even harder.

“Diva” is nonsense, “Video Phone” is worse and “Sweet Dreams” sounds like an old Britney Spears B-side.

The fact that a pop record has mediocre filler on it isn’t a surprise, but what is unfortunate is the scale of how much marketing went into the CD’s release. It’s a two disc CD, but there’s no need for this. The standard edition set only has 12 songs. 12 songs fit on CD. 24 songs fit on a CD. Even with all the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition, its only 19 tracks.

What the alter ego really seems to be used for is to hide the fact Beyoncé wanted to go one way with her music and the label wanted to go the other. The minute the album loses its realism it becomes unlistenable.

Another negative aspect of “Sasha Fierce” is the complete lack of Beyoncé’s range. It’s only in the simple power ballads does her range become fully utilized. The dance singles have a smaller range than Natasha Bedingfield, and less hooks.

At the end of it all, Beyoncé’s confused album suffers because it’s stuck between two incredibly contradictory moods and the worst part is, it doesn’t even try and hide the fact. Instead of trying to fix the problems and create some kind of decent, cohesive album, it only tries and monopolize on the imperfections before everyone realizes it is a flawed album.

Don’t pick up the album, buy the singles off iTunes and pretend the rest of the album’s just as good.