Just a hunch: This won’t be the last time the sun goes down on a new version of Beyoncé’s “Standing on the Sun.” An alleged stream of the tropical-flavored pop song has surfaced (via Just Jared), and while this galloping, piano-gleaming bit of beach-blanket pillow talk is unmistakably the same one previewed in a recent H&M commercial, it’s also disappointingly half-baked. When Beyoncé debuted “Standing on the Sun” live in Belgium last month, she broke into a swaggering rap verse and a wild, dancehall-channeling, near-instrumental breakdown. Here instead, there’s a more conventional second verse that makes uninspired moves: The lyric “my body is magnified” gets updated to “my body is glistening.” Unflattering, no? At least Mrs. Carter-Knowles didn’t feel compelled to draw from the ’90s alternative-rock canon or name a song after her guest vocalist. Look for “Standing on the Sun” to rise again.
