Performer Notes

Beyonc's sixth album loomed once "Formation" and its video were issued ahead of the superstar's Super Bowl 50 half-time performance. Two months and a couple weeks later, it appeared as a culturally seismic visual album. Loaded with layers of meaning and references, and experienced en masse through its televised premiere, Lemonade honored black sisterhood with the presence of Warsan Shire, Serena Williams, and the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. Subsequently given audio-only release, its title comes from a popular proverb given extra personal relevance by Beyonc's grandmother-in-law, whose citation is heard here during a crucial moment in the sequence. Mrs. Knowles-Carter indeed turns her own lemons into Lemonade. She uses the platform to demand contrition from her adulterous partner, assert her excellence, reflect upon the bonds with the men in her life, and their relationships with other women, and wonders if her trust can be earned back. The cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyonc's contemporaries. She sometimes eclipses herself in terms of raw emotion, as on the throttling Jack White encounter "Don't Hurt Yourself." At the low-volume end, there's more power in the few seconds she chokes back tears while singing "Come back" -- timed with the backing vocal in Isaac Hayes' version of "Walk on By" -- than there is in most contemporary ballads. 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. (Another distinguishing factor is the length of credits which, due to a vast assortment of collaborators and samples, exceeds that of the self-titled album.) Lemonade can also be heard as the dark flipside of Beyonc. When "Dishes smashed on the counter" is bleakly observed, just before "Pictures snatched out the frame/Bitch, I scratched out your name and face" is delivered with seething wrath, it's hard to not flash back to "Drunk in Love," in which the presumably same couple were revelrous in the same room. After the first three-quarters play out in compelling if somewhat erratic fashion, Lemonade closes with a torrid stretch. "Freedom" is a marching anthem of resilience and preservation, produced by Just Blaze with a glowing guest verse from Kendrick Lamar. The loved-up "All Night" is a tangle of emotions and hints at reconciliation, facilitated by the horns from OutKast's "SpottieOttieDopaliscious." And then, at last, there's the strutting "Formation," simultaneously a tack-on and an ideal finale, where Beyonc delights in her blackness, femininity, and Southern origin with supreme wordplay. ~ Andy Kellman

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone - 5 stars out of 5 -- "LEMONADE is an entire album of emotional discord and marital meltdown, from the world's most famous celebrity; it's also a major personal statement from the most respected and creative artist in the pop game."

Spin - "As a body of songs, LEMONADE presents Bey at her most skilled and fully matriculated as a pop studio maven and conductor of the present's preferred orchestral mode: creative file-sharing."

Entertainment Weekly - "[H]er boldest, most ambitious, best album to date." -- Grade: A

Mojo (Publisher) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "With its wealth of sonic adventure, its thoughtful merger of the personal and the political, and its four choice guest spots, LEMONADE is a dazzling example of pooled talent coalescing around an iconic doyenne."

NME (Magazine) - "LEMONADE's first four tracks are a thrillingly honest sucker-punch from a famously guarded pop star..."

Pitchfork (Website) - "Even on an album stacked with some of Beyonc's best recorded vocal performances to date, 'Don't Hurt Yourself' has her belting to a whole other dimension..."

Album: Lemonade [Yellow 180 Gram Vinyl] [Gatefold Cover] *
#	Song Title		Time
	Disc 1
1)	Pray You Catch Me	More Info...	0:03
2)	Hold Up	More Info...	0:03
3)	Don't Hurt Yourself (Feat. Jack White)	More Info...	0:04
4)	Sorry	More Info...	0:04
5)	6 Inch (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...	0:04
6)	Daddy Lessons	More Info...	0:04

Album: Lemonade [Yellow 180 Gram Vinyl] [Gatefold Cover] *
#	Song Title		Time
	Disc 1
1)	Pray You Catch Me	More Info...	0:03
2)	Hold Up	More Info...	0:03
3)	Don't Hurt Yourself (Feat. Jack White)	More Info...	0:04
4)	Sorry	More Info...	0:04
5)	6 Inch (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...	0:04
6)	Daddy Lessons	More Info...	0:04