She's dreaming that if she were a boy

Co-written by Toby Gad, a longtime ingenue supporter who gave Fergie her Song of the Year with "Big Girls Don't Cry," this tearjerker is circular in structure, its unending cadences suggesting that the problem B's addressing is eternal. This isn't just another breakup song; it's an elegy for female empowerment, Beyoncé's admission that no amount of money, fame or skill can solve the basic inequity between her man's heart and her own.

The lyric starts out with Beyoncé musing about all she'd do if she could be anatomically and hormonally altered: eschew grooming, embrace booze, dog after every lady in sight. Cute, and at this point a smile underlies her delivery. But then she hits her upper register, and the sorry sneaks in: She's dreaming that if she were a boy, if a man could have a woman's sense of empathy, things would be different.

By the second verse, she sounds resigned, ticking off more cruelties that male empowerment allows. "I'd put myself first," she mutters. But she can't -- she returns to the chorus, and her imploring vision of life as (with?) a "better man."