The first voice on Beyonce’s latest effort B’Day will throw you off because it belongs to Jay-Z. To be honest, it probably should have stayed that way for the rest of the album.

While the first song and first single “Deja Vu” does give a certain sense of potential, the album sounds like Jay-Z with Beyonce’s voice.

At the beginning of many tracks, she talks – a Jay-Z trademark – and it almost seems as if she has dropped the singing act all together, opting for more staccato vocals – an almost rap.

“Suga Mama” sounds promising enough until the verse kicks in, sporting such lines as “Ima be like your Jolly Rancher / That you get from the corner store / Or Ima be like a waffle cone / That’s drippin’ down to the floor.”

I don’t know about Beyonce, but my waffle cones have never dripped to the floor; I guess when you’re a sugar mama, everything melts off you.

The next track, “Upgrade U,” has next single potential, partially because it has – you guessed it – Jay-Z.

One major problem with most of the songs is the layered tracks of vocals screaming monosyllabic words such as “yup” and “hey,” also a Jay-Z trademark.

The biggest stretch for Beyonce is “Ring the Alarm.” She sounds rather distraught, while still seeming vindicated. No melody, pulsing drums and an alarm are her backing tracks, creating one of Beyonce’s most intriguing songs.

A large portion of the rest of B’Day is over-sexed, over-serious and over-sung. She’s just trying too hard. The majority of the album blends together; however, one song will catch you off guard.

“Irreplaceable” is an emo/R&B track that has no place on this album, and is awkwardly placed toward the end. The beat is an acoustic guitar over a lousy drum loop, sounding like a lesser version of The Streets. It’s really not a terrible song, but in context of B’Day, it completely fails. I can’t tell if I should cry to this during a rainy day or get up and shake my moneymaker.

When listening to B’Day, you get a sense that Beyonce is trying to do way too much. Between the genre-hopping and the Jay-Z self-identity crisis, it’s hard to listen to the whole thing.

Contact reporter Michael Greenwald at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.