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Discussion: Complex: LEMONADE Best Album Of The Year
Member Since: 3/31/2012
Posts: 11,016
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Complex: LEMONADE Best Album Of The Year
1. Beyoncé, 'Lemonade'
Quote:
Lemonade is the best album of the year because I would relive the horrors of 2016 just to wait and receive it again, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
To say Beyoncé found her blackness on this album would be to completely misrepresent an artist who, from day one, has molded her career out of black forms, genres, and aesthetics in homage to virtuosos like Aretha, Michael, Janet, Prince, and Luther. Lemonade is not an album of discovery but rather an exhibition of what can be achieved by an artist well aware of her destiny (and heritage). In an era where pop beloveds of the previous decade are scrambling for relevance, Beyoncé has moved on from defining a genre to inventing new ones.
At once studio album and film, Lemonade is a glorious fiction that pushes the bounds of autobiography and black femmehood. From the furiously devoted lover in “Hold Up,” to the femme fatale on “6 Inch,” to the mournful soul on “Forward,” and the freedom fighter on, well, “Freedom,” Beyoncé sets up visual tropes and then shatters them sonically. Not to be outdone, her visuals, too, have secrets. Like Easter eggs for the initiated, Lemonade the film rewards its watchers for knowledge. Not knowledge in any whitewashed philosophical sense, but a deep familiarity with the roots and pasts (and presents) of black diaspora.
Upon its release, engaging with Lemonade was to watch a cultural event unfold in real time. While white people were mostly concerned with investigating “Becky with the good hair,” black audiences gathered to unpack Beyoncé’s tributes to the goddess Oshun (“Hold Up”), Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust and a rich literary archive of black womanhood including Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrision.
Aside from its included intertexts (to which I’ll add audio samples as wide ranging as Led Zeppelin and Isaac Hayes), Beyoncé once again assembled a range of collaborators who, like her, take their craft seriously. Music industry favorites such as producers Diplo and Mike Will Made-It and directors Jonas Åkerlund and Melina Matsoukas collide with the arresting poetics of Somali poet Warsan Shire. Whether featured artists like Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, and James Blake showed out for the Queen, or if Bey expertly employed their strengths, it’s hard to say. Regardless, Beyoncé shows once again that music isn’t a solo process. When you collaborate, you get gold (or platinum, as it were).
Lemonade is the best album of the year because it is a complete, artistically cohesive project that contains new avenues, new thoughts, new moods, and new modes of being together. All this while privileging black femmes, to boot? Standing ovation, she’s gotta have it. —Laur M. Jackson
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2. Chance the Rapper, 'Coloring Book'
3. A Tribe Called Quest, 'We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service'
4. Kanye West, 'The Life of Pablo'
5. Travis Scott, 'Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight'
6. Frank Ocean, 'Blonde'
7. Solange, 'A Seat at the Table'
8. Rihanna, 'Anti'
9. Schoolboy Q, 'Blank Face LP'
10. Bon Iver, '22, A Million'
11. Kendrick Lamar, 'Untitled Unmastered'
12. Danny Brown, 'Atrocity Exhibition'
13. Young Thug, 'Jeffery'
14. Anderson .Paak, 'Malibu'
15. Drake, 'Views
16. Young Thug, 'Slime Season 3'
17. Kaytranada, '99.9%
18. Kevin Gates, 'Islah'
19. YG, 'Still Brazy'
20. Lil Uzi Vert, 'Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World'
43. Lady Gaga, 'Joanne'
49. Ariana Grande, 'Dangerous Woman'
View the rest http://www.complex.com/music/2016/12...yg-still-brazy
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Member Since: 5/2/2012
Posts: 15,418
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WHEW. Talent ****ing WON.
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Member Since: 3/31/2012
Posts: 11,016
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The acclaim, the impact.
Iconic masterpiece
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Member Since: 6/6/2011
Posts: 48,509
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The acclaim w0w
ANTI snatching #8. 24K Magic #28 too
Quote:
It’s an album that’s worth listening all the way through, for the deep cuts and unexpected moments; you don’t want to miss the excellent cover of Tame Impala’s “Same Ol’ Mistakes” or the whiskey-soaked, last-call anthem, “Higher.”
Vocally, she’s never sounded better, and the stoner vibe makes so much sense, it’s amazing it hadn’t arrived earlier. But don’t be worried about the lack of bops—the bonus track “Sex With Me” is one of the best pop songs of the year. I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.
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SWM ha acclaim
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 21,331
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Another day, another praise
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 14,942
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Great write up and not a bad top 10.
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Member Since: 9/5/2011
Posts: 9,174
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ANTI.
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Member Since: 8/3/2012
Posts: 19,910
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Bon Iver being the only white in there
Good list anyway. Just illustrates the black excellence this decade.
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Member Since: 2/9/2012
Posts: 8,949
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Top 10 was flawless up until Schoolboy Q and Bon Iver.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 39,618
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The Knowles girls being the female trinity
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Member Since: 3/31/2012
Posts: 11,016
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43. Lady Gaga, 'Joanne'
49. Ariana Grande, 'Dangerous Woman'
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 1,227
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Beyoncé number 1 again as pure usual and I'm happy to see chance at number 2 . Grammy nominations tomorrow don't run don't hide I'm coming for y'all ass.
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Member Since: 2/2/2014
Posts: 7,203
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More praise for ANTI!
So proud of her. Very promising for her next albums.
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Member Since: 8/6/2015
Posts: 4,822
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no james blake? unlike complex. edit: nvm
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Member Since: 9/1/2013
Posts: 15,765
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Quote:
Originally posted by PULSE.
43. Lady Gaga, 'Joanne'
49. Ariana Grande, 'Dangerous Woman'
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Member Since: 8/1/2012
Posts: 5,315
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4. Kanye West, 'The Life of Pablo'
11. Kendrick Lamar, 'Untitled Unmastered'
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Member Since: 10/10/2011
Posts: 16,324
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Another one. Completely deserved
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Member Since: 6/22/2011
Posts: 20,940
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Quote:
Originally posted by thirdward
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!!!
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UGH LEGEND
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 8,025
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Lemonade stays winning....
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 46,848
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Quote:
Originally posted by PULSE.
43. Lady Gaga, 'Joanne'
49. Ariana Grande, 'Dangerous Woman'
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