32. Beyoncé, "Lemonade"

 

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is such a towering figure in American culture generally, and American music specifically, that even I was aware of this album's release, and as a middle-aged straight white man, I am so far outside of the general hype cycle that I have to look things up on Urban Dictionary to understand jokes on social media.  But even though I had heard some of the songs and knew some of the references - ohhh, that's where "Becky with the good hair" comes from - I had never sat down and just listened to this whole album all the way through.  Do you want to just cut to the chase?  I think it's a very good album but does not seem like the 32nd best album of all time.

With a title based on the old saying about what you do when you're given lemons, the album is all about Beyoncé reclaiming her power after being disrespected in her marriage by her husband, Jay-Z.  The very first lines of the album lay out what's going here:

You can taste the dishonesty
It's all over your breath as you pass it off so cavalier
But even that's a test
Constantly aware of it all
My lonely ear pressed against the walls of your world

It's a quiet, reflective song, with minimal instrumentation, the centerpiece being Beyoncé's famously lovely voice.  Things get moving more in the second song, "Hold Up," which I really, really like, a vaguely calypso-esque composition that manages to nod towards Andy Williams' "Can't Get Used to Losing You" and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps."  

The album's first single, "Formation," was an immediate sensation, a trap/bounce/R&B hybrid that was the most-searched song on Google in 2016.  It's a complex, layered arrangement, an unblinking statement of Black pride and experience in America in the early 21st century.  Just about everyone named it the Best Song of 2016, and it's been called the best song of the 2010s by more than one publication.  

There are guests like Jack White and James Blake on here but for my money the best is Kendrick Lamar, who drops a fantastic verse on "Freedom," a gospel-influenced song that's stirring and powerful even before Kendrick gets there:

I'ma wade, I'ma wave through the waters
Tell the tide, "Don't move"
I'ma riot, I'ma riot through your borders
Call me bulletproof

It is a powerful fucking song, about oppression and inequality and fighting back.  The video for the song made its themes explicit, with images of the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner with photos of their deceased sons.

This is gonna be so normie of me, but my favorite song on the album is "Daddy Lessons," a country/zydeco stomp, an absolute jam, about her troubled relationship with her father, but at the same time how he taught her to be strong.  It also has a very strong pro-gun message, which must have been very confusing for racist wingnuts!

Daddy made me fight, it wasn't always right
But he said, "Girl, it's your second amendment" (Ooh)
He always played it cool, but Daddy was no fool
And right before he died, he said, "Remember..."

(Beyoncé's father is not, in fact, dead.)  It's such a great song, full of life and just a fantastic melody and you can just feel it in your bones.

One of the most powerful songs, to me, was "Sandcastles," one of the few ballads on the album, a simple song built on a quiet piano part and Beyoncé's anguished voice, singing about the broken promises and violent fights that have plagued her marriage, but with a somehow hopeful tone hinting that now that everything is out in the open, something new might emerge.  Just a lovely song.

I don't know, maybe this album is too good for me.  Like maybe I'm not smart or evolved enough to really appreciate it.  I think it's very, very good, but maybe it's just not for me, you know?  And that's fine.  You know what?  Maybe it is the 32nd best album of all time.  I changed my mind.  I'm listening to it again right now.  

Is this album in my personal Top 100? It's not, but Beyoncé, it's me, not you.