Lemonade cover

Lemonade

Released

Full of confessional meditations on infidelity, baptismal self-love rituals, and praise songs for universal black womanhood, Lemonade is 100 percent in the zone. The reggae-trap of “Hold Up” bathes Beyoncé in occasional air horns as she asks, “What’s worse, looking jealous or crazy?” “Daddy Lessons” takes a sonic detour into quasi-country music with N’awlins horns and jangly guitar. And the piano ballad “Sandcastles” brings forgiveness into the space after an album-length reflection on marital infidelity. The aftermath—both the liberation anthem “Freedom” (featuring Kendrick Lamar) and black feminist anthem “Formation”—suggests that after we free ourselves, we free the world.

Miles Marshall Lewis

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