bitch im back

As of yesterday, Beyoncé’s back with another visual album and she’s reminding girls of their self-worth and reminding everyone that Black Lives Matter. From music to costume and lyrics to imagery, Beyoncé highlights and puts on a pedestal the two things that would’ve made her the least valued member of society two hundred years ago – her gender and her race.

Just like any other Beyoncé record, she’s reminding girls of their value before some boy has the chance to come in and walk all over it. I think its this which makes Bey most appealing to young women – she’s one of the first women to hit the big time with not only a powerful message for young women, but also with anthem after anthem. She’s got us going mad over some boy we never had and looking up baseball bats on Amazon.

There’s tones in her music which are reminiscent of the history of black people in America. She also dresses continually in periodic dress and many of the videos are set in grand plantation-style houses with haunting trees. Beyoncé has unforgiving references to her history, slavery, Malcom X, and Black History Month and its haunting to every single person regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or class – it speaks to everyone, and misses out no one.

Hold Up is the ultimate song to let off some steam to. We see Beyoncé skipping down the pavement in a sunshine yellow dress smiling at passers by as she swings a baseball bat and smashes up cameras and runs over cars in a monster truck. “What’s worse; looking jealous or crazy? Jealous and crazy” it’s a reminder that beneath the powerful status, sold out worldwide tours, and enviable figure is any other regular girl.

In Don’t Hurt Yourself we see Beyoncé reflecting on the situation in some grotty underground car park, then she lifts her head and loses her shit. Its so honest and everyone watching can’t help but think that that’s exactly how anyone would react if you’d found out that your partner had cheated on you. She's not afraid to throw in curse words but, as always, its done tastefully and only adds to the boldness and invincibility the song makes you feel. She cleverly ties this in with her race – Malcom X’s voice is played in the middle of the song saying “the most disrespected person in America is the black woman” brilliantly bringing together the disrespect she’s faced in her relationship and the disrespect her ancestors have faced in American history.

Sorry, a far stretch from the Bieber record with the same title, has a cameo from Serena Williams – another way in which Beyoncé is showcasing the power of black women. You can sense that her friends and family dragged her along on a night out (the party bus and twerking are the giveaway) to try and get her over what happened, or at least to forget about it for a bit, but she’s still thinking about how he did her wrong as all her moves are performed with him in her subconscious thought. Which I guess is understandable.

6 Inch seems to be a reminder to Beyoncé that she is Beyoncé. And, subsequently, its also a reminded to every other woman that she is worth something, because at the end of the day you’ll always have yourself and your own mini empire that you build. But amongst all that, there's no illusion that the relationship meant a lot to her. Beyoncé’s seen rolling around in the backseat of a car that looks a lot like the stretch from the Partition video, but this time she's sans-Jay-Z. But she's gained a massively stylish floppy black hat so pros and cons. The following scene is a nice contradiction between the way she sings “come back” in a desperate tone, and the burning mansion behind her stance. Also the building is one of those plantation-style homes and she's supported by four other girls who are watching the building burn alongside her.

The next record is very un-Beyoncé. Daddy Lessons sees her embrace a country and western style of record, further proof that Beyoncé can do anything she sets her sights on. In the same way as Grown Woman featured clips from her own childhood, this video has images of her with her father and then lots of other clips of young, black girls with their fathers. The lessons she says she learnt from her father were that he warned her about “men like you” which I think everyone has heard either from their own parents, their friends, or from icons in music and writing and the media in general. Still, not a bad thing to be reminding young, impressionable women of.

Later, we’re treated to a classic Beyoncé ballad. She proves that, even 26 years after the beginning of her singing career, she's till got it. In Sandcastles she emotionally tells of how she knows she ought to and wanted to leave the relationship, but she couldn't. The emotion in this record is so clear from the way her voice breaks when she tries to belt a few lines, to the images of her and Jay-Z as they hold each other and he literally kisses her feet. Its so emotionally intimate, you feel a bit invasive watching the couple interact.

People would be very quick to jump on the bandwagon to say that you should leave your partner if they ever cheated on you, and people like to think that they're strong enough and confident enough to do that. But it’s not always the case. I can imagine that this album, especially a couple of the records on it, speaks to people in that situation in a Rihanna-style Twitter DM conversation with Beyoncé asking for relationship advice. She’s normalised and explained the healing stages of a relationship after a betrayal like that and only someone with the reach that Beyoncé has is able to explain something so personal in a way which reaches millions.

She quite sharply moves onto the topic of race in Freedom. Beyoncé sings a capella to a group of black women all in nineteenth century dress on an intimate stage, and then they all sit down for dinner outside on a long table, featuring Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, the girls from Ibeyi, and Amandla Stenberg – what a guest list. You instantly get a feel for what the record is going to be about before Beyoncé even sings one note. “Freedom, Freedom where are you?” is another unfiltered reference to slavery which once again proves that Beyoncé’s records have so much more depth to them than any other mainstream artist working in pop music today.

The last record is a touching and uplifting ballad about the reconciliation stage of her relationship in which she talks about her love being unparalleled and more genuine than that of any other person. We see clips from her own private videos of her pregnancy and of their daughter’s birthday which show that the empire they built together is much greater than any either of them could build alone.

After the credits, Formation closes the visual album and, although I've read some other articles saying that it feels like it was sort of disjointedly plonked on the end of the tracklist, I have to disagree. The lead single off this album is still one that makes you want to get up and move your hips or at least nod along vigorously at your desk. I feel that Formation would be an excellent way to summarise the album or introduce it so it only seems fitting that it would come last on the tracklist and also as the first song we heard from the album.

Lemonade feels like Beyoncé had something to say. Something she needed to get off her chest just like any other artist. It adds to her credibility, not only as a musical artist, but as any other creative with something to say. Her boldness and honesty shine through throughout the record in a way only she could achieve and, after listening to it, its clear to see that no one can put Beyoncé in the corner.

You can watch Lemonade (The Visual Album) in full here.

TRACK LIST

1. Pray You Can’t Catch Me

2. Hold Up

3. Don’t Hurt Yourself

4. Sorry

5. 6 Inch

6. Daddy Lessons

7. Love Drought

8. Sandcastles

9. Forward

10. Freedom

11. All Night
12. Formation