While celebrating a number of moments in my life, this week mattered a bit more. This week is the anniversary of the release of the Lemonade album. I tweeted, posted mean memes and got swept up in the “Formation” because Lemonade 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-prankster-ish vocal seductions. In her mastery of carnal and esoteric mysteries, Queen Bey raises the spirits, sizzles the flesh, and rallies her troops. But all in all it is simply based on every woman’s journey of self-knowledge and healing.
Beyoncé's second "visual album", primarily an R&B album, Lemonade encompassed a variety of genres, including pop, reggae, blues, rock, hip hop, soul, funk, Americana, country, gospel, electronic and trap. But everyone was affected by rocking lemon tree dresses, longer length cornrows , carrying hot sauce and enjoyed everything that was Queen.
Beyoncé set her own bar high with her previous album, so I had high expectations for Lemonade. She definitely surpassed them! Beautiful work, and a song on this album for really everyone. She did a lot of experimenting with this album and I love it-- listen to it a lot on my commutes. Definitely give the visual album a watch as well. Beautifully done!
Nine years later
This one didn't just age well, it got crowned. In January 2025, Rolling Stone named Lemonade the single greatest album of the 21st century so far, ahead of records by Radiohead, Frank Ocean, and Kendrick Lamar. Lemonade marked its 10th anniversary in April 2026, and it's still regularly cited as one of the defining cultural statements of the decade it came out in.
