Lemonade.
| Beyonce
Lemonade.
Lemonade is the sixth solo studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on April 23, 2016 by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, accompanied by a sixty-five-minute film of the same title on HBO. It is Beyoncé's second "visual album", following her self-titled fifth studio album (2013), and a concept album with a song cycle that relates Beyoncé's emotional journey after her husband's infidelity in a generational and racial context. Primarily an R&B and art pop album, Lemonadeencompasses a variety of genres, including reggae, blues, rock, hip hop, soul, funk, Americana, country, gospel, electronic, and trap. It features guest vocals from James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and Jack White, and contains samples and interpolations of a number of hip hop and rock songs. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Beyoncé is on a roll. Her latest, another "visual album" with corresponding videos in the mold of her 2013 self-titled set, renders infidelity and reconciliation with a cinematic vividness.
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Rolling Stone
The queen, in middle-fingers-up mode, makes her most powerful, ambitious statement yet.
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The Guardian
Female endurance and pragmatism are celebrated with warmth, anger and wit on this astounding visual album.
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Time
Its songs feel fresh yet instantly familiar, over-the-top but intimate, with Beyoncé’s clarion voice serving as the fulcrum for her explorations of sound and the self.
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Consequence of Sound
Raw yet polished, beautiful yet ugly, all Bey.
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The New York Times
she sings wholeheartedly, encapsulates deep dilemmas in terse singalong lines and touches on ideas and emotions that so many people feel. She is a star whose world is vastly different from that of her listeners. But in matters of the heart, with their complications and paradoxes, Beyoncé joins all of us.
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NME
Beyoncé’s fury at her adulterous husband burns bright on a surprisingly honest and personal sixth album.
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Vulture
Beyoncé’s Lemonade Is Shockingly Good.
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NPR
She was served lemons. And she made the most fire, refreshing, delectable, thirst-quenching lemonade ever known to man. Actually, scratch that — ever known to woman.
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Young Chicago Authors
Beyonce conveys so much information and emotion in her songs, that’s what makes me love listening to them.
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Refinery 29
Beyoncé truly surprised by delivering the most personal narrative she's ever shared with the world. The album is her story of discovering infidelity, wrestling with it, and ultimately forgiving it. It's the most cohesive album of her career, as close to a concept as she'll ever come.
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Time Out
Bey just dropped a politicised new album that slams Jay Z and reaffirms her as the world’s greatest pop star.
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Rockhaq
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.
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The Hoya
“Lemonade” is the ultimate expression of agency and manifestation of the level of autonomy Beyoncé has been able to achieve over her storied career.
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SPIN
Lemonade the album, however, is out to sonorously suck you into its gully gravitational orbit the old fashioned way, placing the burden of conjuration on its steamy witches’ brew of beats, melodies, and heavy-hearted-to-merry-pranksterish vocal seductions. In her mastery of carnal and esoteric mysteries, Queen Bey raises the spirits, sizzles the flesh, and rallies her troops.
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PopSugar Entertainment
Lemonade isn't just another Beyoncé album, though, in my opinion. This project has soul, integrity, and power. I couldn't help but close out my own Saturday night viewing of the HBO special with a certain sense of awe. To me, it seemed complete, whole, fully formed. Even though it's been just a few days, I'm starting to suspect it's my favorite Beyoncé project yet.
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AV Club
Beyoncé's Lemonade was a sweet moment of free Black womanhood and total agency.
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Crack Magazine
Beyoncé has provided a visual album that helps us fully comprehend the power of self-healing and forgiveness. Instead of a fragmented story, this cohesive visual novel vividly details the grieving process as a whole. Lemonade is, intellectually, a reflective piece of work connecting the historical past and present with personal, emotional scars. Through Lemonade, Beyoncé forces us to be in tune with ourselves, to be honest with ourselves, and to decide that liberation from pain and suffering is a reward worth living for.
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The Independent
Fiery, insurgent, fiercely proud, sprawling and sharply focused.
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13th Floor
It is a brave record from someone who could have easily rested on her laurels. Instead, she makes a conscious effort to put herself out there in an unfiltered way; she both raises herself up in power anthems and delves deep into her own insecurities. Lemonade is about the struggles and rewards of being a black woman, trying to keep hold of her sanity and decide whether to stay with her cheating man, a man that may also be gunned down at any moment due to police violence. Whether or not you are a Beyoncé fan it is worth listening to, if for no other reason than that it is destined to become an iconic record.
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The Telegraph
Lemonade is by far Beyonce's strongest album.
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DJ Booth
Like To Pimp a Butterfly, it only takes one listen to know you're dealing with a potential game-changer, an album other artists won't even bother trying to copy because they simply couldn't. This is an album that sits squarely at the center of American life, particularly Black life, while also managing to be deeply personal. And if that seems like it's a lot to get from just one run through the album, you're right. But sometimes an album doesn't need to be repeated for you to know there's greatness in it; you can feel the sun's brightness even when your eyes are closed. Right now there's Beyoncé, and then there's everyone else. No surprise there.
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EW
Of course, many will still obsess over what it was Jay Z did and with whom. If you want to spend your time speculating, cool—that’s your deal. But Beyoncé’s not thinking about that. She’s too busy putting out her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date. Middle fingers up.
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The Seattle Times
Beyonce takes a fierce stance on ‘Lemonade’.
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Soul in Stereo
Lemonade is an album by a black woman for black women — the rest of us are spectators at best. It’s an audio depiction of their faults, their struggles and their victories.
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Jessi Malay
Although there is so much pain and heartbreak in the album, Beyoncé still comes out stronger than ever. This is one of the first albums where she really pushes the boundaries of her sound and lyrics. Not only is the album breaking headlines, but Beyoncé’s Lemonade film shows her running around smashing things with a baseball bat and throwing her wedding ring at the camera. Clearly- Beyonce is not a woman to be messed with.
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IBTimes India
Overall, although an album like "Lemonade" was not expected from her at this stage of her career, it actually establishes the fact that Beyonce is one of the most powerful female singers of this age.
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Slant Magazine
Lemonade is Beyoncé’s most lyrically and thematically coherent effort to date.
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The Line of Best Fit
Beyoncé’s latest record is cinematic in scope, with gaudy production and high profile features, but it’s also deeply, and often uncomfortably, personal. It’s Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear but viewed through the all-revealing scope of the Internet Age, and that makes for an engaging and revealing listen.
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Student Edge
The collateral damage is real. The reputations have shifted. The artist has finally spoken, far beyond herself and her sole experiences. And the music's pretty great too.
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Respect Magazine
Whether this album simply becomes a conversation about marriage, infidelity, and how to get through troubles within relationships, I think that this album will leave a lasting impact on the world. People stopped what they were doing and they listened to Beyoncé. People felt her emotions and her vulnerability. People related. People cried (I am sure). I think that this is some of Beyoncé’s best and most complete work yet and I am looking forward to her either winning a Grammy this year or hearing Kanye say that she deserved the Grammy.
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Drowned in Sound
Beyoncé 'dropped a Beyoncé' with a vengeance - and she’s outdone herself in the process.
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The Verge
Beyoncé's Lemonade is a dazzling social drama with a decent soundtrack.
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Dead End Follies
Musically calculated risks for sure, but she ventured way out or her comfort zone to create what I believe to be by far the most important album of her career and, commercially, perhaps the most important album of 2016.
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Spectrum Pulse
As I said, I've never been a Beyoncé fan, but if Lemonade is a sign of the experimentation, delivery, and writing to come, she might just win me over yet.
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The Upcoming
Clearly unafraid of any criticisms that may be levied against her, Beyoncé has decided to demonstrate that she is more than just a one-trick pony. Lemonade is something completely new from arguably the biggest superstar on the planet. Something completely new, and at the same time completely brilliant.
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The Play Voice
It illustrates her versatility as an artist: she can do anything from a touching slow song to a powerful, fast-paced pop song. However, the one complaint is that the songs are a bit repetitive, all over the place and not as cohesive because they seem to be there to supplement the visual aspect of the album. But this is Beyoncé we’re talking about — she can pull off any genre and make the music as catchy as always.
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The Irish Times
With the combination of personal and social issues, Beyoncé is using her powerful platform to educate and enlighten. Lemonade is an unusual album and only Beyoncé could serve us something so refreshing.
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The Bulletin
“Lemonade” is queen Bey’s most accomplished work yet.
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Howl & Echoes
No one ever does it like Beyoncé does it, and that includes going through a marriage breakdown. Everything she does is a game changer, and LEMONADE is absolutely no exception.
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The Rocky Mountain Collegian
“Lemonade” is more than just a story of infidelity, heartbreak and the redemption of a relationship that formed and grew in the spotlight. Beyoncé experimented and pushed the limits in both her sound and message. The copulation of sheer quality and the vital messages within this album are addicting and a force to be reckoned with. “Lemonade” is truly a gift given to us by the Queen Bey herself.
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The Self Help Hipster
If Beyonce’s Lemonade is Koolaid, I’m full on sipping. The sounds of Lemonade are so versatile and it’s just so strong. If Life gave Beyonce lemons, and this is the lemonade she makes of it? Hashtag goals.
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Sputnik Music
The album is not perfect, but it is and always will be a defining moment for music and for Beyonce. A piece of art that can reach a wide audience and that delivers its message fully and beautifully, Lemonade is worth a listen and, dare I say, a Grammy.
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DIY Magazine
Far from just being an oh-no-he-didn’t tour de force, ‘Lemonade’ matches context with real substance.
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CelebMix
We are in love with this album. Beyoncé has reached a new level of musical queenliness and has set the bar incredibly high for new music. We love how raw, real and relatable Beyoncé has been and she’s appealed to so many people through the art of different music genres while still being herself. Beyoncé has moved Forward with her music and she isn’t Sorry! This album is open about feelings and it’s like Beyoncé is a friend to us just speaking on her feelings and confiding in us. We love how Beyoncé is being more risque, just when we thought we couldn’t love you, even more, Queen Bey!
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Spectrum Culture
This is not an album about being Beyoncé. It’s about something far more universal: feeling used, abused, mistreated and stepped on. Lemonade channels these emotions into 46 minutes of music that never forsakes pop sweetness for catharsis, or vice-versa; they become one and the same. This is Beyoncé’s best album yet and one of the most compelling cases ever made for the pop album as confessional art form.
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Nigel Clarke Reviews
The new Beyonce Lemonade album is a sensation that will be pondered over and studied for years to come, and if nothing else the music is absolutely fantastic! All hail the queen still has the crown!
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The Gateway
Anyone who’s been cheated on will find Lemonade immensely satisfying, and anyone who admires honesty and brilliant production will arrive at the same conclusion.
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HipHop DX
It is both album and manifesto, and illustrates the true power of art. The power to conjure back from the dark the voice of people the world has chosen to ignore.
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The Daily Beast
Lemonade is as refreshing as it is jarring. It’s, well, it’s like lemonade in that respect: so smooth and delicious you crave it, yet so so bitter and strong you pucker after a gulp and ponder if you’re ready for another sip.
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All Music
Romantic conflict is nothing new for her, but there is a degree of concentration and specificity, and an apparent disregard for appealing to commercial radio that makes Lemonade a distinct addition to her catalog.
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Billboard
Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Is a Revolutionary Work of Black Feminism.
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Groove Magazine International
‘Lemonade’ is a gem achieving her words, ‘You know that you’re the b***h when you cause all this conversation’, because ‘Lemonade’ definitely has had people talking and quoting making this undoubtedly her best effort till date and the best album of 2010s decade.
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The Diamondback
Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ is just about perfect.
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Rappertalk
There’s a painfully adorable moment halfway through the album in which Bey and Jay’s 4 year old daughter Blue Ivy is recruited to perform the outro to a song. The three words she says sum up Lemonade as well as any review could, so it’s only fitting to end this one with them: “Good job, Bey.”
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Digital Music News
Lemonade. It’s the album that Beyonce fans have been waiting for, and it’s actually pretty good.
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Digital Spy
Personal, political, powerful – hell hath no fury like Beyoncé scorned.
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The Edge
With her sixth solo album, Beyoncé slays again with a captivating narrative of infidelity, revenge, and forgiveness.
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Edmonton Journal
Beyonce's serves up powerful Lemonade.
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Financial Times
Whatever its personal motivations, Lemonade is a dazzling work of drama.
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The Young Folks
Lemonade keeps you in an ambiance that is sensed in the room of silence. It’s not awkward, it’s emotionally empowering. It’s like if Inside Out was going on in your head during a really messed up situation, and anger teams up with sadness to create different variations of the main emotion. That’s what it’s like to listen to Lemonade. Beyoncé delivers it with enough impact that it sounds whole and a perfectly mixed album by the Bey.
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The Highlander
This album, while not entirely perfect, is Beyonce’s most ambitious project to date. This visual album is a testament to her ability to not only stay relevant, but consistently be innovative.
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The Washington Post
So go forth and gossip your face off. Just don’t let it drag your eardrums too far away from the sounds Beyoncé has made for you. There’s a serious encounter to be had with this music alone, and you’ll want to throw your entire sensorium into it. If anything, “Lemonade” proves that all of our over-dazzled senses are still plenty responsive, especially to the sound of a singular human voice.
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The Jakarta Post
Staking her claim as one of the most powerful women in the contemporary pop world, she mashes up the personal and the political into a compelling mix in her latest album, a surprise release over the weekend which is as tentpole as it gets.
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Hindustan Times
It all speaks to Beyonce’s undisputed role the queen of pop - not of music, but of culture. It’s hard to imagine any other artist who could drop a project in the middle of our national mourning for Prince and still not only get attention for it, but captivate us so.
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Transpositions
an album such as Lemonade is arguably one of the most important theological releases of this year, bearing in mind its broad popular appeal and insightful probing of ubiquitous, religiously-tinged themes in everyday life.
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Las Vegas Weekly
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.
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Pelican Magazine
Lemonade seems to be Beyoncé’s most mature work yet and while the album includes a variety of genres including country and classic rock, it somehow remains cohesive. The glue which holds the album together is Beyoncé’s adaptation of Somali-British poet Warsan Shire’s poems which thread their way through the album and weave it together into a tapestry. Beyoncé’s sultry voice punctuates the chapters, using the poems as interludes which add context and greater meaning.
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The Free Lance Star
Beyonce's 'Lemonade' contains singer's most fully realized music yet.
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Treblezine
I can tell you the overall emotional potency of LEMONADE is universal, and that its social meaning only enriches its value. I can tell you that its beauty brought me to tears. And I can tell you that this is one of the best albums of the year.
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The Needle Drop
Beyoncé drops her most conceptual and mature album yet — as well as what's likely to be the best pop record of the year.
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Atwood Magazine
Beyoncé had mastered the story before this album. But on this one, she used it really for its true power. She harnessed the story of her life, the one she’s been telling for years, and unified it with the songs she sings. She has put herself in the center of a moment in the country’s long and slow struggle towards racial equality. This moment is big. It’s big because Beyoncé wanted it to be. It’s big because Beyoncé used this moment to create something even bigger than the story she’s been telling. She made a great album.
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Voa News
Beyonce Again Proves to be Center of Pop Universe.
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