The Ingredients of Lemonade

Throughout the album “Lemonade”, Beyoncé brings the listener on a path through her emotions after discovering the infidelity of her husband. Whether this really happened to her, or if she was just writing to an audience to sell tracks and empower a group of people, she succeeds at both of these tasks. I would say that this is what art is all about as a whole.  It is about delivering a message to a group while expressing yourself and trying to gain acknowledgment. The stages of betrayal are very relatable to many people, so in listening to and watching “Lemonade”, certain songs really stick out to me as key milestones in her album.

First, in the opening track “Pray You Catch Me” it starts with Beyonce kneeling and dressed in black.  The word intuition flashes across the screen and she opens with the line "You can taste the dishonesty, it's all over your breath." This obviously refers to the discovery of Jay-Z’s lack of loyalty. She says, “I pray you catch me listening”, showing that she has some incentives to let him know that she is well aware of what is going on.

Her next stage of coping is anger. This phase of the album lasts for about four songs. In the first of these four we have “Hold Up”; a personal favorite of mine, as it starts off with Bey strutting to a reggae instrumental saying “I don't wanna lose my pride but I’ll fuck me u a bitch…  What's worse looking jealous or crazy?” While singing she goes on a frenzy through a block bashing in windows, denting cars, and bursting fire hydrants. Ironically, she does all of this with a smile on her face displaying the liberation she feels from this release of anger. Following “Hold Up” is “Don’t Hurt Yourself”, an aggressive piece to say the least that gives a very punk feel at times. This song uses one of the most dangerous places for women (a parking garage) to show how women or Beyonce can take back power. She ends this song by stating boldly, “This is your final warning, you know I give you life. If you try this shit again, you'll lose your wife.” This song is followed directly by “Sorry” (what might be an apology for rash comments) which in addition to her anger exhibits a non-apologetic attitude towards Jay-Z. She incorporates Serena Williams into this video as a sign of female strength, which definitely gets the job done displaying the duality of the beauty and fortitude of women.

The next rung of this album and phase that she gets through exchanges.  In the song “Six Inch”, a woman “with stars in her eyes” who “fight for power keeping time” is sung of. This section is meant to address the exchange of power and responsibility between lovers (specifically Bey and Jay).  Furthermore, in “Sandcastles” the line "We built sandcastles that washed away / I made you cry when I walked away / And although I promised that I couldn't stay, baby / Every promise don't work out that way" gives the audience a whole new idea of what might be going on in this album.

I think the shortest phase she works through in the album is the portion that expresses her feeling of sorrow. “Forward” is the shortest song on the album, only coming to one minute nineteen seconds.  It is mostly sung by James Blake and made up of short snippets of wishing things had been different.  This then leads into the last and, very possibly, most crucial stage one goes through when betrayed which is forgiveness.

As Beyonce says in the spoken word portion of “All Night”, her torturer became her remedy. The lyrics, “Found the truth beneath your lies/ And true love never has to hide", illustrate how she has healed over time. When these words are sung it is quite emotionally impactful due to the meaning behind what she has to say as well as the video montage of clips of true love from both Beyonce’s family and around America.

This is the tail end of the album and shows full acceptance and forgiveness, concluding her therapeutic journey. I think this album as a whole shows women that they are entitled to their reactions to certain circumstances, but at the end the best way of healing is forgiveness.