Beyoncé Lemonade
As she proved with 2013’s self-titled album, dropped without warning as an iTunes exclusive, Beyoncé has both mastered and reinvented the album-release rollout. Over the weekend, she once again turned the music industry on its ear with new 12-song set Lemonade, unveiled in an hour-long HBO special, and then made available immediately afterward on Tidal.
The singer and hubby Jay Z—who are among the streaming service’s owners—are the focus of the bold, high-concept album, which lyrically finds her traversing the various stages of a marriage in trouble. Lemonade is best experienced for the first time via its film counterpart, which sews the individual tracks together with spoken word interludes, a cue clearly taken from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.
Beyoncé can essentially do whatever she likes at this point in her career, evident from the arty musical direction on this record. You won’t really find a crossover pop single like “Crazy in Love” or “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” this time around. Instead, she flexes her creative muscles—and her million-dollar pipes—zigzagging through genres without losing force or focus.
There’s the country twang of “Daddy Lessons;” the rock-tinged “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” sampling Led Zeppelin and featuring Jack White; and the minimal “Hold Up,” which finds Diplo lacing her with sparse harps. The Weeknd-aided “6 Inch” breathes new life into an overused Isaac Hayes “Walk on By” sample, perhaps its best interpolation yet. The Lamar-guesting/Just Blaze-produced “Freedom” is another standout, meshing powerful gospel crooning, church organs and sampled ’60s psychedelia. By the time previously released club banger “Formation” hits, it almost feels like a tacked-on bonus track.
Lemonade feels like a response to those who have argued the album format might be dying out—a bold, honest, personal and sonically beautiful record that didn't pander to the pop audience, and it works even better when paired with its visual elements. We can only imagine what she has in mind for the upcoming tour.
