"Haunted" is a song by the American singer Beyoncé from her fifth studio album, Beyoncé (2013). It was written and produced by Beyoncé and Boots. Conceived by the latter following an infuriating meeting with a record label, the song was presented to Beyoncé who decided to record it following similar experiences in the music industry. The song was inspired by the works of English musician Aphex Twin and contains a stream of consciousness rap.
Musically, it consists of two parts titled "Ghost" and "Haunted". It contains a minimalistic sound with keyboards, bass and percussion. Beyoncé raps the spoken word segment of "Ghost" with robotic and reverbed vocals. Lyrically, "Haunted" contains sexually explicit and frank lyrics talking about desire. Many music critics compared its sound with various artists and noted different influences and elements explored in its composition. Upon its release, the song was met with positive reviews, with critics praising its experimental sound and minimalistic approach.
Two accompanying music videos were filmed for both parts of the song and placed separately on the visual album. The clip for "Ghost" was directed by Pierre Debusschere while Jonas Åkerlund served as the director for the second part, "Haunted". The former visual shows various close-up shots of Beyoncé lip-syncing the lyrics, while the latter features her walking in the corridor of a big mansion meeting various actors seen inside the rooms. Critics compared the video of "Haunted" and the singer's look with works by Madonna, most notably with her song "Justify My Love" (1990). The song was performed live during the last European leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and at the On the Run Tour in 2014. Beyoncé also performed it at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards as part of a medley consisting of songs from her fifth studio album.
Background
"Haunted" was written and produced by Beyoncé and New York-based musician Boots, who was relatively unknown before the release of Beyoncé (2013). He was signed to Roc Nation, about six months prior to the album's release and produced 85% of Beyoncé also having writing credits on four of its tracks. During an interview with Pitchfork Media, Boots revealed that "Haunted" was the first song written by him which Beyoncé heard; it was originally titled "I'm Onto You" at that time. Beyoncé liked the song upon hearing it, leaving Boots confused as he felt the song was only showcasing his sad vocals, with a piano recorded on his iPhone as a voice memo.
He also played her the rap of stream of consciousness of "Ghost" during one of their early meetings inspired by an infuriating meeting with a record label. Beyoncé could immediately connect to the topic as she had also experienced the same things in the record industry when people advised her about the sound of her music. For the music of "Ghost", Boots created a beat from a "dreamlike, hypnotic place" working with guitars and building layers inspired by the work of musician Aphex Twin. Boots said, "[Aphex Twin's] works like that are more floaty, more without than within, but I made mine grounded in that thumping beat, so you can't get out of that feeling." He also elaborated about its concept, "It's like that song is leading you by the hand, but you're blindfolded and you don't know where you're going. You're scared and you're not sure what to expect from it, but as the album unfolds, we take the blindfold off and you realize it's a surprise party for you."
Beyoncé also explained the meaning of "Haunted" on her iTunes Radio channel where she also revealed her admiration for Boots, "The song is really about temptation in this music industry and being exposed to this crazy madness." The vocal production of the song was handled by Beyoncé and contains background vocals provided by Boots and Kwane Wyatt. "Haunted" was recorded at Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios, both located in New York City under the guidance of Boots and Stuart White. It was later mixed by Tony Maserati and White at Mirrorball Studios in North Hollywood. The track was eventually mastered by Tom Coyne and Aya Merril in Sterling Sound in New York City. All instruments were provided by Boots, with additional drum programming by Hit-Boy.
Composition "Haunted" is a two-part song, consisting of "Ghost" and "Haunted" collectively running for a length of approximately six minutes. Its composition was described as ranging from contemporary R&B to "straight up experimentalism". Mojo Priya Elan compared the song's composition with works by English band The xx. The song features sexually explicit and frank lyrics in line with a prominent theme of the album about sexuality also present in other songs. Its instrumentation consists of "murky" keyboards and a "creeping", pulsating bassline. Beyoncé sings over mournful piano stabs which are repeated along with drums and airy vocals along with a pounding club rhythm.
"Ghost" is an ambient song with dubstep beats featuring Beyoncé rapping with recessed and reverbed vocals. The song contains ambient beats, bass and percussion and a poetic spoken word vocal with high loop. It was created by using a minimal approach and a falsetto vocal was applied along with various "warped, ghost-ly" effects. "Ghost" opens with an audio recording of the singer winning a Sammy Davis Jr. Award in 1989 in Houston for a townwide talent show. It continues with a person incorrectly pronouncing her name as "'Bee Awnz' Knowles". According to Spin columnist Brandon Soderberg, the song begins with a "random, frustrating indignity from her youth into a full-blown, racially loaded origin story" and also features expressions of her celebrity. Lyrically, Beyoncé makes a prediction about her album's sales and offers commentary on record labels through a spoken word intro: "I don't trust these record labels, I'm tourin'" and later adds, "Soul not for sale/Probably won't make no money off this/Oh well." Speaking about the record industry, she sings about being bored with labels during the lines, "All the shit I do is boring / All these record labels... boring". The lyrics of the song also discuss the failure of taking risks in the music industry. She also expresses sadness for people having to work banal and monotonous jobs in the lines, "All these people on the planet/Workin' nine to five just to stay alive/How come?".
Soderberg felt that the fast conversational vocal style adopted by the singer was reminiscent of rapper Kendrick Lamar. Anupa Mistry of the same publication felt that she borrowed Lamar's "alien-robot cadence and sings in a pinched choral croon" which she further compared with Bat for Lashes. Una Mullally of The Irish Times wrote that the singer's "monotone" rapping is accompanied by "the flatness of the tone reflecting the repetition of labour". Janice Llamoca from HipHopDX compared the part where Beyoncé sings the line "oh well" with Kanye West's "shrug[s]". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune found the same line to be sarcastic. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine described her vocals during the line as half-rapped and "half-shrug[ed] as if directly countering Scheinman's silver linings playbook". Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone felt that the singer confessed she got "bored" with the "popstar routine" in "Ghost".
During the end, "Ghost" quickly transitions into "Haunted", which is a hip-hop and R&B track. Kitty Empire of The Observer described it as a dance-pop track talking about "being haunted in love". Instrumentally, it consists of percussion and an off-kilter club beat which was compared with Jacques Greene and Burial. Its sound is operatic and the lyrics undersung, with piano chords and various rhythmic effects, such as foot-tapping. Lyrically, it talks about desire, with Ryan Dennehy from AbsolutePunk noting it was about "frank sexual desires". The Village Voice Brittany Spanos felt the song was discussing lingering memories of the past. Trent Wolbe of The Verge compared the sound of "Haunted" with music by bands The Knife, Sade and Boards of Canada. Andrew Barker from Variety found a trance genre similar to Madonna's Bedtime Stories. The song includes sexual lyrics that are reflected throughout the album, including, "The bedroom's my runway / Slap me! / I'm pinned to the doorway / Kiss, bite, foreplay" and "My wicked tongue / Where will it be?" set to "sonorous... and chilly charged beats".
Critical reception
"Haunted" was well received by music critics. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph felt that the "modernist sonic approach is pushed to the fore" on "Ghost". Spin Brandon Sorderberg felt that the line "nine-to-five" just to stay alive" was repeated "way too many times". Anupa Mistry of the same publication described the song as "multi-directional, mood-shifting". Cosmopolitan Alex Rees said the song is a "sharp critique of postmodern culture, except then all of a sudden there's a bunch of nasty sex talk." Mesfin Fekadu from the Associated Press described "Haunted" as a "gloomy" song. Writing for the website The 405, editor White Caitlin felt the singer offered part of her insecurities and flaws through the song and "sheds slut-shaming, the shackled role of uptight matriarch or calculated star". Facts Chris Kelly described its composition as "foreboding" and found a "seductive" and "haunting" hook; he further described the first part as "smoky ethereality". Mojos Priya Elan felt that some of the lines were a "nihilistic streak". In a review for The Quietus, Mof Gimmers described "Haunted" as a "perfect slice of vanguard-pop". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described it as a "two-part dream". Robert Leedham of the website Drowned in Sound felt that the album's "confessional moments are when you connect with it the most", exemplifying the statement with lyrics from "Haunted". Andrew Hampp and Erika Ramirez of Billboard magazine felt that "Haunted" was one of the best songs on the album along with being "[the] most insightful [one]". They concluded that while the song was "one of the album's most staunchly non-commercial moments, but endlessly listenable just the same". Nick Catucci from Entertainment Weekly chose "Haunted" as one of the best songs from the album, describing it as a "moody, genre-melding epic" and noting, "[it] treat[s] relationships with the same raw instinct that suffuses her sex songs". AllMusic reviewer Andy Kellman also chose "Haunted" as one of the highlights on Beyoncé. Una Mullally of The Irish Times deemed "Haunted" the best song on the album and an indicator of the prominent minimalism throughout the whole record.