Last night we attended something called a "listening party" for the new Beyoncé album. This essentially meant we got to hear two-minute clips of every song from the album, I Am... Sasha Fierce, complete with introductions from Beyoncé's daddy. Here are our notes from the session:

  • I Am... Sasha Fierce is a double album. The I Am side showcases Beyoncé at her most vulnerable and romantic, whereas the Sasha Fierce side spotlights her ferocious, sassy stage persona.


  • The 'Standard Edition' features eleven tracks spread across the two discs, whereas the 'Deluxe Edition' features a whopping 16.


  • Though the I Am side consists entirely of ballads, it's more varied than you might think. 'Satellites' is intimate and near-acoustic, a couple of tracks have a soft rock sound, and 'Ave Maria' writes a new song around a sample from, you've guessed it, 'Ave Maria'.


  • The Sasha Fierce side is mainly R&B club bangers, but it also houses a couple of ballads, an electropop track and 'Ego', which has a classic soul vibe.


  • The next single is probably going to be 'Halo', a dramatic, muscular ballad produced by Ryan 'Bleeding Love' Tedder.


  • Other producers who've worked on the album include Stargate, Amanda Ghost, Babyface, Rodney Jerkins, Sean Garrett and Tricky & The Dream.


  • There are no guest artists at all on I Am... Sasha Fierce. As Matthew Knowles says, "It's all about Beyoncé".


  • 'Ego' offers a few clues as to why the Beyoncé/Jay-Z relationship works so well. "I love his big ego", she sings, before admitting later on: "I got a big ego."


  • "A diva is a female version of a hustler," Beyoncé sings on 'Diva', a track that has all the swagger of a 50 Cent single.


  • Our favourite track - on first listen - was 'Sweet Dreams', an electropop song with a fairly lethal hook. It's not, in case you're wondering, a Eurythmics cover.


    • All pretty exciting, isn't it? Needless to say we'll give I Am... Sasha Fierce the full album review treatment when we've heard it properly.