4 by Beyoncé

4, Beyoncé's fourth studio album, arrived on June 24, 2011 through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia, and it's the sound of a pop superstar deliberately stepping off the treadmill. It was her first record since parting ways with her father and manager Mathew Knowles, made after a hiatus that got her creative juices flowing again, and she pointed it at old-school rhythm and blues rather than whatever the charts were doing. She co-produced with a crowd that included Babyface, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, Switch and Ryan Tedder, with André 3000 the lone featured guest.

The result is warmer and more restrained than the blockbusters before it, borrowing vocal moves from 1970s and 1980s soul, funk and hip-hop, while the songs weigh up monogamy, self-reflection and women's power with grown-up steadiness. She took it to Glastonbury as a headliner, it spent more than one week on top of the Billboard 200, and "Love On Top" won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.