Album Review: Beyonce – Lemonade

I will hold my hands up now, I am by no means a Beyonce fan. This review won’t refer to her previous work because I’ve never really listened to any of it. The singles I’ve heard on the radio always seemed to encapsulate all the things I didn’t like about pop & R&B music. On the surface, it seemed overproduced, soulless, with a chorus cooked up in a boardroom to sink a hook into your brain and never let go rather than through genuine experience. Beyonce always had the talent to elevate its artistic standard, but there was none of her experience in the music. Lemonade changes everything I thought I knew about Beyonce.

On release, Lemonade received a lot of attention from both fans and the media due to the album’s lyrical content, which seemed to hint at infidelity on the part of her husband, rapper Jay Z. Any previous concepts I had about R&B being rap’s love-preoccupied cousin have been completely blown out of the water with this album. Beyonce rages and laments at her husband’s betrayal across all 12 tracks, asserting her dominance as both the icon she is and as a woman, mother and wife.

Beyonce’s deconstruction of what R&B is takes her into unexplored territory. Daddy Lessons is a country song, featuring a New Orleans jazz intro that quickly turns into a fast-paced country riff. Beyonce even pitches her vocals in the style you would expect of artists like Taylor Swift or the Dixie Chicks (who feature on the track).

Lemonade is more than I ever thought it could be. Beyonce sings with her usual soul and unimpeachable talent whilst tearing R&B up from the roots and experimenting with unexpected genres. More fool Jay Z or anybody else that wants to come for Queen Bey.
– Sam Brookes

Following the two introductory tracks, Pray You Catch Up, a standard melancholy piano-led lamentation on her suspicions about her husband, and Hold Up, a calypso style plea as she insists that nobody can love her husband the way she does, Beyonce completely lets rip on Don’t Hurt Yourself. A vicious, rage-filled track, full of screamed lyrics and a frantic tempo, Beyonce threatens to leave or even get revenge on her husband in this stomping rock anthem.

Final song, Formation, is easily the stand out track on the album. Beyonce ends the album by trying to turn over a new page, asserting her dominance and strength as a woman. She humblebrags about her talent, position in the entertainment business and the amount of money she’s made, whilst taking aim at those who try to bring her down, based on her gender or race. She doesn’t need a man or anyone else at the end of the day and you’d better damn well remember that.

Lemonade is more than I ever thought it could be. Beyonce sings with her usual soul and unimpeachable talent whilst tearing R&B up from the roots and experimenting with unexpected genres. More fool Jay Z or anybody else that wants to come for Queen Bey.