★★★★★ 5/5

Deviating from the upbeat pop R&B sound she has epitomized, Beyoncé’s flash release of her visual album “Lemonade” has captured the attention of many by combining somber and melodic audio with cinematic and diverse visuals to embody her journey through loss, infidelity, inequality and retaliation in an hour-long album. Being the sixth studio album and second visual album Beyoncé has released as a solo artist, “Lemonade” stands alone amongst the rest as it blends her usual R&B, pop, and soul with spoken word and rock, among other genres. While “Lemonade” is Beyoncé’s second visual album, its predecessor featured individual music videos for each track, while “Lemonade” was released with an hour-long film airing on HBO.

   The film is divided into eleven distinct segments: Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Hope and Redemption. The sectioning lucidly creates distinct chapters of emotions and its stages. The visual album uses and adapts poetry and prose written by the Somali poet Warsan Shire which Beyoncé delivers in. While sardonic and enraged in some tracks and vulnerable and morose in others, Beyoncé proffers an array of diverse sounds catering to different genres and exploring new territories in music. The frequent use of layered airy vocals and synth textures reinforces the anticipation and foreboding of the film as a whole. Looking on the emotions and actions of a woman scorned, the film shifts from rustic and eerie realism, fantastical surrealism to realistic horror. With the scenery varying greatly in color scheme, style and brightness, the film dramatically jumps to different scenes including the South, to urban cities as well of Beyoncé’s home movies.

   The diverse and meaningful, symbolic visuals provoke cryptic ideas about race, gender, power, marriage, infidelity, parenthood, and the experience of women in America.

   Though the album is largely about  a woman’s struggle and fight of infidelity, “Lemonade” also encompasses the battle of women and black women in particular, integrating clips of black activist Malcolm X, and the unbreakable resolve of the black family. The complex balance of “-Lemonade” between its images, messages, confident musical sprawl, and pointed storytelling are evidence Beyoncé is still finding room to grow even at what feels like the peak of her powers.

   Straying from her usual sound and empowering lyrics of love and femininity, the tale of deceit, defeat and rage compellingly  told in “Lemonade” were more emotional and confessional. The album addresses the Black Lives Matter movement and includes the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown, who are featured holding pictures of their sons — young victims of police brutality.