Beyonce's songs on Lemonade serve as a continuation of the heartfelt, vulnerable, provocative, and unfaithful statements from her previous album, specifically the song, "Drunk in Love." Despite the pain and rage she demonstrates with her well-selected words, Beyonce still manages to make the album undeniably appealing in that almost sounds like a sermon or a gospel rooted arrangement of songs.
The songs are less pop-induced than her previous ones, and they rarely focus on her passion for music or her love for Jay Z and her family. Instead, she challenges the American music industry's conception of "the black woman," and it's hard to believe how much resentment she has harbored as a well-regarded music sensation for this long.
She uses wild, raw vocals and lyrics to convey her extreme emotions and discomfort around her identity relating to her career and to her husband, Jay-Z, and she samples from other musicians, including Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend. As always, though, Beyonce’s voice is the most powerful aspect of the album; unlike other albums, however, her vocals embody not just pop, but blues and soul music, as well.
Something significant about the album is that its last song almost seems forced - her “forgiveness” and “kisses” for Jay-Z are anything but genuine, which makes her fans and listeners further doubt the future of her family. Overall, Beyonce succeeds in telling her stories that are personal to black experience as an African American woman living and struggling in the United States. Just like Kendrick Lamar, she makes no mistake in conveying her dissatisfaction and lack of faith for the social and economic future of the twentieth century, and her stories truly succeed in illustrating this universal uncertainty.
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