Survivor

Credit where credit is due. There will not be a more appropriately titled album this year than this one – in Destiny’s Child, card-carrying membership never equals permanent status.

In 1999, former band members LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson claim to have discovered they were fired only when they watched the video for ‘Say My Name’ and saw replacements lip-synching to the vocals they had recorded.

Although lawsuits and recriminations quickly followed, the CD-buying public just seemed to fall ever more deeply in love with the music.

With their cool, credible stop-start arrangements overlaid with dramatic, feisty vocals, the band had hit upon a winning formula. Singles such as the above, ‘Bills, Bills, Bills’ and ‘Jumpin’, Jumpin’’ became instant and huge successes, as did the album from which they came, The Writing’s On The Wall.

For at least half of Survivor’s 18 tracks, the group continue merrily down this hit-making path. The rousing title track and the anthemic ‘Independent Woman Pt. 1’ flamboyantly buttress the feisty, ball-kicking-but-sexy image everyone ever resident in Destiny’s Child has projected, while ‘Bootylicious’ and ‘Sexy Daddy’ should pack any dance-floor.

At every stage, lead singer and bandleader Beyoncé Knowles’ voice blasts triumphantly over the other two members’ harmonising. Her vocal prowess is such that she could eat the likes of Janet Jackson and Britney Spears for breakfast, while she doesn’t pull any punches on the tracks she has co-written either. On the title tune, she roars – presumably with the members who have left/been fired in mind – that, “you thought I wouldn’t sell without you/Sold a million/I’m a survivor.”

When it comes to the ballads, though, the group dip into sentimental schmaltz. Tracks such as ‘Brown Eyes’ and ‘Dangerously In Love’ wallow in soft-focus effects and clichéd lyrics.

The album could have done with some editing, on that regard, otherwise Survivor is hugely impressive and will only help Destiny’s Child in their quest for world domination.