When life gives you Beyoncé, you get Lemonade. At least that is what happened to the various of us who watched Beyoncé’s visual album on HBO last night. This collection of musical works is spectacular. Nest has gone a social media craze posting stills of his visual masterpiece and quoting the lyrics.
The album’s epicenter is the emotion that erased “Bey” during her marital affair. Yes, “WEDDING!!!” This is not a boyfriend-girlfriend feud, this is…. like this…. put-a-ring-in-it…. but he-still-cheat…. husband and wife quarrel.
The music and poetry performed is an expressive rollercoaster of emotion. He started with “Intuition” which turned into “Rejection”, “Anger”, “Apathetic”, and “Emptiness”. But just when you thought the Kings and Queens of Pop Culture were done, Beyoncé flipped the script with “Accountability,” “Reform,” “Forgiveness,” “Awakening,” “Hope,” and “Redemption.”
Of course everyone seems to be unhappy with the underlined message to stay with the cheater. Many felt the album sent the wrong message. As a dominating figure of feminism and above all a fan of “women’s power” conflicted with the recognition of being subdued. Others felt that this album was his life story and judgment shouldn’t be taken into account.
Beyoncé does not generally open up like this, which raises some interesting questions like: what motivated the tea spill? Is this album the punishment? Who is “Becky with the good hair?” Whatever the case, it looks like Bey and J have nailed it.
Her husband, Jay Z, is featured in one of the 11 videos, but not on any of the tracks. We watched the two revive what was approximately depleted according to this album. The father, mother and daughter all appear in the visual arts, which is not too surprising. Serena Williams has a tricky role in the expressive “Apathetic” video “Sorry”, and is a nice wow factor.
But what shocked the masses was that the appearance of mothers of forever-enshrined sons left too soon. Along with others, Travon Martin’s mother, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner are all front and center in the “Freedom” video, which features Kendrick Lamar.
If you missed it, you do not need to worry, HBO has an encore tonight. Albums and visual albums can even be streamed on Tidal. So get into “Formation” because Bey spilled gallons of Tea, or should I say “Lemonade”.
