No tags yet.
Lemonade, The visual album by Beyoncé dropped in 2016 was a admittedly one of the most acclaimed and thought provoking artworks of the decade. The album both on visual perspective and storyline as well as musically flowed within itself and followed a cohesive, moving storyline which displayed a level of vulnerability never really before seen by the artist. The visually striking album raked a high rating on IMBD of 8.1 which complemented the directional work of not just Beyoncé but Kahil Joseph and Todd Tourso while Warsan Shire takes full credibility for the writing portion of the project.
The album follows the sensitive and personal subject of Beyoncés rocky relationship with husband Jay Z where she explores her deepest emotions through the journey of betrayal and adultery to healing and reflection all lined with the royal-like grace which she is so famously known and respected for. Throughout the story she never victimises herself once and sends a strong message to the world regarding Love, family and forgiveness which again underlines the social power of the superstar as, not many women can drop a whole album in which song 3 is about not needing a man in your life to validate your power and then onto song 10 about learning to forgive a person beyond their sins and mistakes all in the name of true love.
The album gathered a lot of acclaim however also brought into question the artist true motivations behind the project challenging the idea of it being a publicity stunt and a tale of make-believe, however rumours were put to sleep when rap legend Jay Z come forward and wholeheartedly admitted to having cheating taking on his part of the blame.
The album is broken down into 11 parts which each separately correspond to an emotion the artist experienced throughout her journey and then tied to a song on that chapter, with spoken word incorporated in between. The chapters and track-list are as follows:
1. "Intuition" - Pray you catch me
2. "Denial" - Hold up
3. "Anger" - Dont hurt yourself
4. "Apathy" - Sorry
5. "Emptiness" - 6 inch
6. "Accountability" - Daddy lessons
7. "Reformation" - Love Draught
8. "Forgiveness" - Sandcastles
9. "Resurrection" - Forward
10. "Hope" - Freedom
11. "Redemption" - All night
12. Formation
From chapter to chapter the lyrics, tone of voice and attitude change appropriately to impeccably mirror and translate the emotions she is singing about while the spoken word she incorporates in between each one etches its way into the viewers subconscious perhaps much more than the lyrics. The poetic genius which is that of "Lemonade" was done in collaboration with modern poet Warsan Shire who melts seamlessly with Beyoncé as her and the Kenyan born poet share similar matters close to heart one of which is female empowerment and the celebration of their melanin.
This collection of carefully curated spoken word, music and vulnerability resulted to the world literally stopping for a week where the only subject matter was Lemonade, regardless of who you were we all stopped, we listened and we are still listening.