Beyonce “Start Over” new song

Beyonce’s 4 found its way to the interwebs three weeks early, which puts her in the same camp as Britney Spears and Lady Gaga when their new discs were presented to the world much earlier than their release date. The 12-track album is certainly ballad heavy, starting with the emotional torch song “1+1″, eventually working its way to the manic panic of “Run The World (Girls)”. Somewhere in the middle of this spectrum is a love song called “Start Over”, which you can hear below.

The song begins with warbly, lighthearted drum beats, and Bey, who is most comfortable either reaffirming her individuality or expressing her love for a man, sticks to the latter in this midtempo jam, as she attempts to start a relationship all over again.

“Maybe it’s over, maybe we’re through, but I honestly can say I still love you,” sings Beyonce. “Maybe we reached a mountain peak and there’s no more left to climb / and maybe we lost a magic piece and we’re too blind to find / Let’s start over.”

This song, though, elevated by Beyonce’s gorgeous vocals, is fairly paint-by-numbers — say what you will about “Run The World (Girls)”, but it’s certainly got personality. What’s missing from “Start Over”, and a handful of other tracks on 4, is that they could have been recorded by anyone and ended with similar results. In our opinion, what she needed to do this time around is procure more polarizing songs and take bigger risks — at least then half of her fans would love it, as opposed to her entire fanbase shrugging at everything they hear.

If you did your iHunting and got your virtual paws on Bey’s latest, tell us — are you loving 4 till the end of time, or do you wish she would just start over?