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From Pitchfork:
Queen Bey is back. Beyoncé's excellent self-titled record was surprise-released at the end of 2013. And now, the same night that she premiered the HBO special "Lemonade," she's done it again. Lemonade is available now via Columbia/Parkwood, streaming exclusively on Tidal. The album features appearances from Jack White, James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, and the Weeknd. Find previews of all the tracks below.

Update (04/23, 10:11 p.m. ET): Jon Brion is responsible for the strings on the album. Meanwhile, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Soulja Boy have both been credited on "Hold Up" for samples of "Maps" and "Turn My Swag On" respectively. Diplo, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Emilie Haynie, and Father John Misty have writing credit on "Hold Up" as well. Jack White and Led Zeppelin have writing credit on "Don't Hurt Yourself," which samples Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." "6 Inch," featuring the Weeknd, was co-written by him alongside The-Dream, and samples Animal Collective's "My Girls." Outkast is sampled on "All Night," which was also produced by Diplo.

Before its premiere, "Lemonade" was reported to be a "docu-style special" in the same vein as 2013's "Life is But a Dream." Instead it turned out to be another "visual album," with cameos from Jay Z and tennis star Serena Williams. Update (04/23, 10:24 p.m. ET): The film also features appearances from Amandla Stenberg, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Zendaya.

Earlier this year, Beyoncé joined Coldplay at Super Bowl 50 for a controversy-generating performance of "Formation." She later denounced criticism of the performance, saying, "If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me." That night, she announced the Formation World Tour, which kicks off next week. She previously teased new music in the campaign for her new clothing line Ivy Park.


Lemonade:

01 Pray You Catch Me
02 Hold Up
03 Don't Hurt Yourself [ft. Jack White]
04 Sorry
05 6 Inch [ft. The Weeknd]
06 Daddy Lessons
07 Love Drought
08 Sandcastles
09 Forward [ft. James Blake]
10 Freedom [ft. Kendrick Lamar]
11 All Night
12 Formation

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I'm not a big Beyoncé fan but am loving that album releases no longer have to be planned months and months in advance. Surprise albums are awesome.

nasesco417

I saw the special on HBO Go. It was pretty good but I'm not a fan of these "exclusive" releases. An album should be easily accessible across multiple platforms.

Decker

Seriously, fuck Tidal. I don't want four or five artists trying to force the public to subscribe to yet another music subscription service in order to have access to their new albums. If they want to debut their album early on their site or have an exclusive streaming window for a week or two, that's fine. But to force everyone to get Tidal as the only way to hear the new Beyoncé or Kanye album is stupid and counter-productive. The recording industry is dying and the last thing they need is to make it much harder to buy albums that would otherwise be huge hits.
My daughter was begging for me to subscribe to Tidal last night because she wants to listen to the new Beyoncé album and I told her that I never will, not even for a free month, just on the principle. That is not how popular music should work. Kanye's album did very poorly because of this release strategy and I hope Lemonade suffers as well. This trend must die.

The Questyen

It is just an exclusive streaming window. The rest of the exclusive albums including Kanye's eventually went to other platforms.

TomOpus

Haven't heard it, of course, but on the news they were saying the song lyrics are about a troubled relationship. Like the saying goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

BDB

The video on HBO was amazing.

Rypro 525

if you wanna give Tidal 17.99 https://lemonade.tidal.com/ Word is that its supposed to go on itunes tonight

Decker

Okay, I see that now. Thanks.

I see it's available on MP3 through Amazon and includes the film, but does not say what format the film is. Does it show up in your Amazon Video library if you buy the MP3?

dsa_shea

Life must have handed her lemons so she made lemonade.

Decker

Yeah, that's what the title is about.

dsa_shea

I hope she is not all bitter and shit about the life she has as it could have been like mine for the past two months and still going.

Decker

When you're Queen Bey, you don't expect to get cheated on -- even if you're married to a dog like Jay-Z apparently.

Throwing Copper

Apparently, the Lemonade special on HBO is not airing multiple times. I can't find it anywhere on DirecTV, on demand or on HBOGo.

That sucks. Wanted to hear the music on it. Album is getting rave reviews saying it's her best work.

Ropes Pierre

goddamn Rachael Ray! Stick to your cooking and leave Bey's man alone!!

Throwing Copper

Finally heard the album, it is very good. Surprised she could pull something like this off or that she would even attempt it.

Decker

I bought it and listened to it yesterday. Yeah, it's a really good album. Very strong -- front runner for Album of the Year, especially after Adele's last album underwhelmed and didn't live up to its lead single.
Jay-Z is in the doghouse big-time.

Thrush

cliff notes?

hdnmickey

I was able to listen to it but was not as impressed as the rest of you, or the critics. EW gave it an A+! I didn't think it was even THAT much better than the last "surprise" album.

I do think the song with Jack White is not only awesome, but also a very cool departure for somebody like Beyonce. Wish more artists like her would do songs like that.

Obi-Wanma

Pull what off? Releasing a "surprise" album? Isn't this 2 surprise albums in a row for her?

Decker

Josh-da-man

That's getting good reviews?

Sounds fucking awful.

RichC2

I'm not a fan of hers, but most of it sounds pretty good, just not when it's hacked up like it is right there.

Brack

My favorite track so far:

Decker

Yeah, that was a request for Cliff Notes of the cheating references on the album - of which there are plenty.
If you chop up 10 second snippets of Revolver, it probably wouldn't sound that good either.

Throwing Copper

Uhhh, pull off such a fucking great R&B record that is all over the place with different styles. It is one hell of an album and will be on damn near all the Top 10 lists at the end of the year.