"I Care" is a song recorded by the American singer Beyoncé for her fourth studio album, 4 (2011). It was written by Jeff Bhasker, Chad Hugo and Beyoncé and produced by Bhasker and co-produced by Beyoncé with Hugo playing rhythm guitar. The song was recorded at the MSR Studios and was mixed by Jordan Young aka DJ Swivel at KMA Studio in New York City. "I Care" is an R&B power ballad, which also contains elements of soul music and rock music. Built on a hand-clapped rhythm and pulsating beats, the song's instrumentation consists of screeching guitars, low-profile synthesizers, pounding drums, heavy percussion instrument and a piano. In "I Care", Beyoncé admits her vulnerability to her indifferent love interest with both honesty and power. She sings with heartfelt emotion over cooing background vocals and scats alongside a multi-octave guitar solo towards the end of the song. "I Care" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Italy on March 23, 2012 as the seventh overall single from 4.
"I Care" was acclaimed by contemporary music critics who highlighted the heartfelt emotion, sadness and resentment with which Beyoncé sings. Critics also complimented the way she made effective use out the power in her lower register in the first and second verses until her voice slowly builds until the commanding chorus is reached. They generally praised the guitar solo and the vocal power of Beyoncé which was displayed by "I Care" among other songs on 4. Following the release of 4 in early July 2011, "I Care" charted number 35 on the South Korea Gaon International Singles Chart, based on downloads alone. The song was part of Beyoncé's set list for her revues 4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé (2011) and Revel Presents: Beyoncé Live (2012) as well as The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour (2013). It was also used as an interlude in her The Formation World Tour (2016).
Background
"I Care" was written by Jeff Bhasker, Chad Hugo and Beyoncé while production was handled by Bhasker and Beyoncé. A private listening party for Beyoncé's fourth studio album, 4, was held on May 12, 2011. She offered a select group of fans a preview of five songs from 4 and the official video for the lead single "Run the World (Girls)". On that occasion, "I Care" was one of the songs previewed. Beginning on June 16 to June 27, 2011, the songs from 4 were available to listen to in full each day on Beyoncé's official website, paired with its accompanying photo spread from the album packaging and an insightful quote. On June 17, 2011, "I Care" was the second song to be chosen. The quote found Beyoncé commenting that "I Care" is one of the many ballads which take on matters of the heart. In February 2013, Bhasker revealed that the song was initially written for his first studio album Born on the Fourth of July released in July 2013. He described the sound of his version of "I Care" as "a little more pure version".
Production
Jordan Young aka DJ Swivel mixed "I Care" at New York's KMA Studio. He told Sound on Sound, "I didn’t really know I was going to mix 'I Care' until the last minute. Luckily, during the course of the album, I had a couple of days to myself and I mixed it just because I felt like it, so the demo was already somewhat mixed, and B[eyoncé] let me do the final mix also."
"I Care" comprised 75 tracks in total: 35 for the music and 40 for the vocals. According to Swivel, the main challenge in mixing "I Care" was hand‑aligning every single drum shot as it was time-consuming. He said, "It's super‑monotonous, but it's the best way I can do it. If you Beat Detective the drums to the grid, it's never perfect." As the layering of the drums had to be right on the millisecond, Swivel did one kick and snare at a time. This helped him ensure that the kicks line up with the programmed drums, hence preventing any phase inversion. Accordingly, each drum punched through as strongly as the last. The inspiration for the main drum sound on "I Care" came to Swivel at around four o'clock in the morning during a mixing session. He took a large plate sound from Avid’s D‑Verb plug‑in, rolled the high frequencies off at 8.6 kHz, and sent it through an SSL channel strip with a gate on it, setting the release time to 0.6 seconds. He said, "It's a really basic plug‑in, and I used a very [19]80s‑sounding gated reverb."