Release Date: April 23, 2016
Label: Parkwood, Columbia
Genre: R&B
Length: 45:49
Click the link to watch The Music Video
- Pray You Catch Me
- Hold Up
- Don’t Hurt Yourself (featuring Jack White)
- Sorry
- 6 Inch (featuring The Weeknd)
- Daddy Lessons
- Love Drought
- Sandcastles
- Forward (featuring James Blake)
- Freedom (featuring Kendrick Lamar)
- All Night
- Formation
Beyoncé , Kevin Garrett,Diplo, Ezra Koenig, Jack White, Wynter Gordon, Kevin Cossom, MeLo-X, Danny Boy Styles, Ben Billions, Boots, Mike Dean, Vincent Berry II, James Blake, Jonathan Coffer, Just Blaze, Mike Will Made It
Singles
01. “Formation”
Released: February 6, 2016
02. “Sorry”
Released: May 3, 2016
03. “Hold Up”
Released: August 16, 2016
04. “Freedom”
Released: September 9, 2016
Lemonade received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 92, based on 33 reviews. AllMusic writer Andy Kellman felt that “the cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyoncé’s contemporaries.” In Spin, Greg Tate wrote that the album “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.”
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that the album “feels like a success” and that Beyoncé sounded “genuinely imperious”. The Daily Telegraph writer Jonathan Bernstein felt it was her strongest work to date and “proves there’s a thin line between love and hate.” Nekesa Moody from The Washington Post called the album a “deeply personal, yet … a bold social and political statement as well”. Writing for The New York Times, Jon Pareles praised Beyoncé’s vocals and her courage to talk about subjects that affect so many people, and noted that “the album is not beholden to radio formats or presold by a single”. Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune felt that “artistic advances” seem “slight” in context towards the record’s “more personal, raw and relatable” aspects, where it came out as a “clearly conceived” piece of music, meaning it had a “unifying vision” for what may have lent itself to being “a prettily packaged hodgepodge”.
Reviewing the album in The Independent, Everett True wrote that it “is fiery, insurgent, fiercely proud, sprawling and sharply focused in its dissatisfaction.” Ray Rahman wrote for Entertainment Weekly that Beyoncé is way “too busy putting out her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date”, declaring simply “middle fingers up.” Writing a review for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield opined that she affirmed her “superhero status” with this album. Jillian Mapes of Pitchfork wrote that her pursuit of “realness” gives the album a certain “quality to it that also invites skepticism”. In The A.V. Club Annie Zaleski wrote that it was “yet another seismic step forward for Beyoncé as a musician.”
Shahzaib Hussain, writing for Clash, stated: “Lemonade is Beyoncé at her most benevolent, and her most unadulterated. Treating her blackness not as an affliction but a celebratory beacon, Lemonade is a long overdue, cathartic retribution.” In the NME, Larry Bartleet said the album was “sweet but with an edge”. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the album “is her most lyrically and thematically coherent effort to date.” Maura Johnston of Time wrote that its tracks were “fresh yet instantly familiar” with an “over-the-top but intimate” sound. Jamie Milton of DIY wrote that “there’s so much more than an enthralling story to draw out of this all-slaying work”, where “Beyoncé can count herself as a risk-taker breaking new ground, up there with the bravest.” Exclaim!’s Erin Lowers wrote that “If you’ve ever been handed lemons, you need Lemonade.” Britt Julious of Consequence of Sound described the album to a “gift” Beyoncé has given to the listener that is “raw yet polished, beautiful yet ugly.” PopMatters writer Evan Sawdey felt few albums could ever be considered “as bold, complex, or resolute as Lemonade,” and the BBC’s Mark Savage noted that Beyoncé had become an albums artist, with a range extending beyond that of radio play. In 2016, it was reported that the University of Texas at San Antonio would be teaching a course on the album called “Black Women, Beyonce & Popular Culture.”