Notes on the new Beyoncé album

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 Mathew 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.