By: Charlie St. Dennis

This year, we celebrate the 8th anniversary of ‘Lemonade’, Beyoncé’s concept album released after news broke of her husband and longtime partner, Jay-Z, cheating on her. The album explores all of the emotions she went through, and how she dealt with the circumstance. As Beyonce braces to release a new album this month, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore one of my favorite pieces of work by her, one track at a time. Here is my review of ‘Lemonade’, in formation.

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1. Pray You Catch Me – 8/10

The opening track of the album, “Pray You Catch Me” serves as a beautifully soft and gentle opening to the song. A piano-backed ballad, it finds Beyonce learning about her husband’s infidelity. The line “pray you catch me…” is a plea by Beyonce for her husband to find her snooping and to realize she knows what he’s been doing. I love this piece, and think that there’s a lot more to it than just piano and vocals.

2. Hold Up – 10/10

This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. With a beautiful instrumental, a loose sample of Andy Williams’ “Can’t Get Used To Loving You,” the song also touches on the societal standard that women who have been wronged by their partners are supposed to behave. We see this in the video, which begins with a spoken word piece with Beyonce in denial, but then once that’s done, she walks down a city street with a baseball bat, hitting every object in sight. Beyonce challenges these standards with the lyrics “What’s worse: being jealous or crazy? Or like being walked all over lately, walked all over lately?” She ends up deciding, “I’d rather be crazy!”

3. Don’t Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White) – 7/10

Beyonce uses “Don’t Hurt Yourself” to dabble into Rock & Roll, and she succeeds. While Rock is not necessarily my thing, I have immense respect and admiration for her for stepping outside of her bubble. This also features the first guest on the album, rocker Jack White, who carries a verse in the later half of the song. Lyrically, this song is a plea for Jay-Z to recognize that he is married to one of the prettiest, most successful women in the world, and that he needs to show her more respect. The song has been likened to the late 60’s plea by Aretha Franklin, “Respect”.

4. Sorry – 8.5/10

This is definitely Beyonce’s most unapologetic song on the album. It is also the song that makes it most clear that it is about Jay-Z. She references “Big Homie,” which is the nickname Jay-Z gave himself on their duet, “Crazy In Love”. It uses some techno-R&B and dancehall influences, which I really enjoy. She also closes the song with the lyric, “you better call Becky with the good hair,” which I feel is a fun way to introduce Jay-Z’s infamous mistress.

5. 6 Inch (feat. The Weeknd) – 6/10

“6 Inch” samples Isaac Hayes’ rendition of “Walk On By” and is a power anthem of being hardworking, while also talking about Beyoncé’s own vulnerability. The feature from The Weeknd is great, but unfortunately, I feel this song is a bit forgettable.

6. Daddy Lessons – 9/10

I *love* “Daddy Lessons”. It’s Beyonce’s first attempt at country, and boy was it successful. I love the story this song tells, and the classic Country sounds like banjo in the background. Truly a beautiful song.

7. Love Drought – 8.5

I really enjoy “Love Drought”. Lyrically well thought out, and incorporates not-frequently-heard instrumental sounds. My favorite lyric is “10 times out of 9 I know you’re lyin, but 9 times out of 10 I know you’re trying so I’m trying to be fair,” because I really think it well sums up the difficulties she is having while trying to justify her husband’s infidelity.

8. Sandcastles – 10/10

This song was quite the emotional rollercoaster, but I’m here for all of it. She begins the song discussing the “sandcastles” she built with her husband that have since washed away. She struggles with moving on, and doesn’t know why it’s so difficult for her. By the time we get to the second part of the song, she slowly has a change of heart and realizes that she is gonna try to work things out with Jay-Z.

9. Forward (feat. James Blake) – 6/10

By far the most forgettable song on the album. Sorry, not sorry! Does this mean it’s bad? No, it’s just nothing that stands out. The song is almost entirely James Blake, who has a nice, soulful voice, but we aren’t listening for him! We want Bey! I do genuinely like the song, just wish it had more Beyonce.

10. Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – 10/10

I’d say this is one of the best off the album, for both its message and its melody. The song details the struggles that black women in our country must overcome, and the mindset they need to have. It features families of victims of police brutality, who have been forced into the movement, and have to fight regardless of whether they like it or not. It also features young black figures like Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, and Quvenzhané Wallis. And of course, Kendrick Lamar has a feature, which is beautiful. The song became a protest anthem, and has been used at Black Lives Matter rallies.

11. All Night – 10/10

Two of the best on the album, back to back! The song is essentially about forgiveness, and how Beyonce has resorted to making up with her husband and moving on. It’s a really great song, and I also applaud her for her decision here, because that must’ve been hard, and it is probably not the decision I would personally go with.

12. Formation – 10/10

Oh my goodness! So many levels to this one. While not about her husband’s infidelity, this is an ode to Beyonce’s identity and the culture she was surrounded by, notably her mother’s background in Louisiana. The entirety of the video was filmed in New Orleans. The song begins with a sample of Bounce musicians Messy Mya and Big Freedia exclaiming “What happened after New Orleans?” This is said as Beyonce stands on a police car sinking into flooded waters in the Third Ward, which is supposed to symbolize how police and the government didn’t support the predominantly black city, and how the city had to stay on top by sustaining themselves. The song has been studied at universities, used at protests and marches across the world, and captured the attention of conservative commentators who called it “Anti-American.” I won’t speak to that, but I will stay that I Stand With Formation!

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You might not know it, but you will go through a “Lemonade” moment in your life. There will be a “Pray You Catch Me” moment where you long for someone to see what you’re going through. There will be a “Don’t Hurt Yourself” moment where you discover your worth and you realize that you didn’t deserve what happened. There will be a “Love Drought” moment where you get in touch with your emotions, and a “Sandcastles” moment where you make a decision of how to go forward. And of course, there will be an “All Night” moment where you move on and you thrive. These moments have happened, are happening, or will happen, and you can resort to this album for guidance.

While my calculations have my average review being 8.5/10, I would give this album a 9/10. It is Beyoncé’s first conceptual piece, and I think that it was a brilliant way to touch on different aspects of her identity: her cultural identity, marital identity, and familial identity. She remains #1 in my book.

I hope you enjoyed this review, and I implore you to check out the album and accompanying visuals. Let me know your thoughts!