Lemonade
Released
Full of confessional meditations on infidelity, baptismal self-love rituals, and praise songs for universal black womanhood, Lemonade is 100 percent in the zone. The reggae-trap of “Hold Up” bathes Beyoncé in occasional air horns as she asks, “What’s worse, looking jealous or crazy?” “Daddy Lessons” takes a sonic detour into quasi-country music with N’awlins horns and jangly guitar. And the piano ballad “Sandcastles” brings forgiveness into the space after an album-length reflection on marital infidelity. The aftermath—both the liberation anthem “Freedom” (featuring Kendrick Lamar) and black feminist anthem “Formation”—suggests that after we free ourselves, we free the world.