Beyoncé’s Lemonade released

Lemonade Beyoncé

Released: April 23, 2016 Peak: 11 US, 110 RB, 11 UK, 11 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.4 UK, 5.9 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Pray You Catch Me Hold Up (8/16/16, 13 US, 6 RB, 11 UK, 37 CN, 25 AU, platinum single) Don’t Hurt Yourself (with Jack White) Sorry (5/3/16, 11 US, 4 RB, 33 UK, 40 CN, 74 AU, platinum single) 6 Inch (with The Weeknd) Daddy Lessons Love Drought Sandcastles Forward (with James Blake) Freedom (with Kendrick Lamar) (9/6/16, 36 US, 21 RB, 40 UK, 60 CN, 62 AU) All Night (12/6/16, 38 US, 23 RB, 60 UK, 73 CN) Formation (2/6/16, 10 US, 6 RB, 31 UK, 32 CN, 17 AU, platinum single) Total Running Time: 45:42

Rating: 4.348 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” The well-known proverb is spoken by Hattie White, Beyoncé’s grandmother-in-law, in the song “Freedom.” WK It serves as the the premise behind Beyoncé’s sixth studio album, a cathartic exploration of the emotional turmoil she endured after her husband, rapper and business mogul Jay-Z, cheated on her. In an interview with Elle magazine, she said, “Everyone experiences pain, but sometimes you need to be uncomfortable to transform.” WK She uses “her heartbreak masterpiece, Lemonade” RS500 “to demand contrition from her adulterous partner, assert her excellence, reflect upon the bonds with the men in her life, and their relationships with other women, and wonders if her trust can be earned back.” AMG She announces on the album, “Nine times out of 10 I’m in my feelings.” RS500 However, this album goes beyond the anger and hurt of a woman scorned. This is an “expansive and personal statement, tapping into marital breakdown and the state of the nation.” RS500 The song cycle explores “her husband’s infidelity in a generational and racial context.” WK “It was a different side than she’d shown before, raging over infidelity and jealousy, but reveling in the militant-feminist-funk strut of Formation.” RS500 Melina Matsoukas, who directed that song’s video, said Beyoncé “wanted to show the historical impact of slavery on black love, and what it has done to the black family, and black men and women – how we’re almost socialized not to be together.” WK Musically, Beyoncé is “claiming her place in all of America’s music traditions.” RS500 The album is rooted in R&B, but also incorporates Americana, blues, country, electronica, funk, gospel, hip-hop, reggae, rock, soul, and trap. WK She drew inspiration from female black singers including Bessie Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie, and Dionne Warwick. WK The album samples and interpolates a number of hip-hop and rock songs and also includes guest spots from James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and Jack White. WK There is “an apparent disregard for appealing to commercial radio that makes Lemonade a distinct addition to her catalog.” AMG It was, in fact, dropped “as a Saturday-night surprise, knocking the world sideways.” RS500 However, the album was not only commercially successful, but the most acclaimed of her career, WK landing a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year and winning for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video. It was named Album of the Year by Rolling Stone and Dave’s Music Database. In 2020, Pitchfork’s Marc Hogan called oit one of the great art pop albums of the last 20 years. WK The Associated Press named it the album of the decade. WK “The cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyoncé's contemporaries.” AMG “There’s more power in the few seconds she chokes back tears while singing ‘Come back’ – timed with the backing vocal in Isaac Hayes’ version of ‘Walk on By’ – than there is in most contemporary ballads.” AMG Lemonade can “be heard as the dark flipside of [previous album] Beyoncé. When ‘Dishes smashed on the counter’ is bleakly observed, just before ‘Pictures snatched out the frame/Bitch, I scratched out your name and face’ is delivered with seething wrath, it’s hard to not flash back to ‘Drunk in Love,’ in which the presumably same couple were revelrous in the same room.” AMG “She sometimes eclipses herself in terms of raw emotion, as on the throttling…Don’t Hurt Yourself,” AMG a “blues metal with Jack White.” RS500 He said, “she took just sort of a sketch of a lyrical outline and turned it into the most bodacious, vicious, incredible song.” WK The song uses an excerpt from a Malcolm X speech and samples Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks,” a song originally performed by Memphis Minnie that referenced the displacement of hundreds of thousands of African Americans during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. WK That song and Daddy Lessons, on which she goes “outlaw country,” RS500 illustrate how genres established by African Americans are now seen predominantly as white music. WK “After the first three-quarters play out in compelling if somewhat erratic fashion, Lemonade closes with a torrid stretch. Freedom is a marching anthem of resilience and preservation, produced by Just Blaze with a glowing guest verse from Kendrick Lamar.” AMG “All Night is a tangle of emotions and hints at reconciliation, facilitated by the horns from OutKast’s ‘Spottie Ottie Dopaliscious.’ And then, at last, there's the strutting ‘Formation,’ simultaneously a tack-on and an ideal finale, where Beyoncé delights in her blackness, femininity, and Southern origin with supreme wordplay.” AMG Notes: The streaming edition of the album included a demo of “Sorry.” A sixty-five minute film aired on HBO which featured 11 chapters which corresponded to the songs on the album. It was released as a second disc to Lemonade.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Andy Kellman RS500 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/24/2020; last updated 4/21/2022.

Marillion Marbles released

Marbles Marillion

Released: May 3, 2004 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: neo-progressive rock

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. The Invisible Man [13:37] Marbles I [1:42] Genie [4:54] Fantastic Place [6:12] The Only Unforgivable Thing [7:13] Marbles II [2:02] Ocean Cloud [17:58] Tracks, Disc 2: Marbles III [1:51] The Damage [4:35] (10/11/04, --) Don’t Hurt Yourself [5:48] (7/12/04, 16 UK) You’re Gone [6:25] (4/19/04, 7 UK) Angelina [7:42] Drilling Holes [5:11] Marbles IV [1:26] Neverland [12:10] All songs written by Hogarth/ Rothery/ Kelly/ Trewavas/ Mosley. The Players: Steve Hogarth (vocals, percussion) Steve Rothery (guitar) Pete Trewavas (bass) Mark Kelly (keyboards) Ian Mosley (drums)

Rating: 3.818 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Quotable: “A stunning collection of finely crafted songs with heartfelt lyrics that are very eccentric but stirring and often wonderful” – Neil Daniels, MusicOMH.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “There are not many artists who have the confidence or sheer talent to record a concept album in the artificial state of contemporary popular music…Marillion, the cult prog-rock band, have excelled themselves with Marbles; a superlative album largely made of atmospheric emotional pop reminiscent of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and early Pink Floyd.” ND Since their debut with “Script for a Jester’s Tear in 1983, similarities with the aforementioned bands have always plagued Marillion. The ‘other world’ artwork, extended songs and idiosyncratic music are blatantly going to result in the three bands being lumped together…Yet those inevitable comparisons should actually be seen as flattering, and they do not undermine Marillion’s brilliance at creating strong melodies and powerful emotions.” ND “For many out there who only remember ‘Kayleigh’ from way, way back in the dark ages known as the mid-‘80s, this is not the same Marillion, yet in a way it is.” DD Marillion has not “changed or modernized their sound like so many bands attempt to do when their star begins to descend; [instead they just continue to] “evolve.” DD “The band are aiming for windswept, organic rock and sound like a-ha meets Rush in a rest home for acid casualties. But there's a lot to like.” BC “Marillion…make the kind of music they want to make regardless of current public taste or persuasions of record executives. As the press release for Marbles states, Marillion refuse ‘to compromise by bowing to marketing pressures, focus groups or record labels.’” ND They “are underdogs, who after each album seem to disappear only to make a surprising comeback…They rarely enter any ‘Greatest Bands in the World’ polls, but superficial debates hardly concern them. They have a very strong and dedicated fanbase, who by pre-ordering Marbles helped to create campaign funds to promote the album” ND and pay the “band's recording costs, with the faithful rewarded by mentions in CD sleeves.” BC Few bands can claim to have such a mass of loyal, international followers.” ND This same process “produced their previous effort, a quixotic blend of prog and trip known as Anoraknophobia. Their newest promised to be far more ambitious…it would be a two-disc set of new music housed in a hardcover book. Sounds interesting, but packaging music has little to do with music…The question was whether Marbles would be worth the hype.” DD It proves to be “a stunning collection of finely crafted songs with heartfelt lyrics that are very eccentric but stirring and often wonderful.” ND What is noticeable about Marbles, and indeed most Marillion records, is the painstaking attention to detail - it is as if every lyric and every note was held under intense scrutiny in the studio until absolute perfection was achieved.” ND ”Where some groups are content to let their songs be soundtracks to their listeners’ moments, this group has collected a bunch of songs that cannot provide background. These songs are moments in and of themselves.” DD “Each song on the album has its own feel and identity. Constantly changing moods, Marbles is an unpredictable and dramatic, but intriguing journey…Jazz, pop, rock and even touches of techno have presence here; such talented musicianship and obvious love of music represents Marillion’s undeniable desire to evolve.” ND “Steve Hogarth, the voice of the band, has come into his own as a lyricist, reaching down into the most poetic side of the group’s personality to produce songs with specific frames of reference but are not adaptations. Mark Kelly’s keyboards carry the full spectrum of sound, from the Fender Rhodes to the stars while Steve Rothery continues to be one of rock’s most overlooked natural wonders. Some rhythm sections just hold down a beat, but the complicated shifts of tone, from Beatlesque to jazz-inflected to a full-on crunch, is something bassist Pete Trewavas and drummer Ian Mosely make effortless, sounding instinctive. This band is a cohesive whole.” DD “The overseer of this, Dave Meegan who has been with the band as producer since the early ‘90s, is now represented as the sixth member, and rightly so. His ear has helped define the unique…Marillion sound…With mixing assist from production wunderkind and Porcupine Tree impresario Steven Wilson, [Meegan] takes great care to keep things distinctively Marillion.” DD The ”volatile” ND The Invisible Man, “opens the set with a trademark suite” DD “a 14-minute track that makes Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman songs seem like brief interludes.” ND “It is a brooding song with haunting vocals and a steady bass line” ND and it is “never so lingering as to grow boring, and always rising to peak and emotion.” DD “Genie shows the pop-rock side, something the guys have done for years, and how they’ve been ignored this long by the larger marketplace I’ll never know. I dare you to not be singing along by the end.” DD “On every Marillion release there is a song that just gathers you up in a feeling, moves you and soars into the closing portion. This time around, it is Fantastic Place, a song that could be the best thing this group has ever done… From the low-key, blue-eyed blues in the opening one would never suspect the take-off coming, but when it does, the goosebumps must rise.” DD “Disc one closes with another long piece that is as close as rock has ever come to sounding like an Ernest Hemingway novel. Ocean Cloud is a drama and shows how intense these players can get. If you thought ‘The Invisible Man’ rocked, just wait.” DD “Disc Two finds the loose and sexy The Damage [and] the jazzy Angelina,” DD the latter of which is a “lovely hymn to a saucy breakfast show DJ.” BC Second single Don’t Hurt Yourself “may be the closest Marillion will ever get to country music…With the acoustic guitar and a clean fill of steel guitar sliding, this is an excellent driving song filled with singalong potential and rolled-down windows.” DD The first single, “You’re Gone…entered the UK charts at number seven, which proves that their reputation has not been tarnished…There is a void in the charts that is yearning for something new and intriguing, and Marbles comfortably fills that black hole.” ND This song displays “the disillusionment and sweaty fervor of a middle-aged crisis.” BC “Interspersed between the two discs are four short segue pieces, Marbles 1-4. Each one acts as a magician’s left hand, misdirecting you while he sets the trick with the right. Some of them sound ready to burst into larger things while others shed a narrow light on the meaning behind the album’s title… Is it about nascent insanity, the loss of childhood innocence, the intended expulsion of childhood? The mini songs hint at all but still leave you guessing.” DD “The set closes with the last of the long pieces, a rumination of love; the way that it holds us, heals us and sometimes haunts us. There are only fleeting references to Neverland’s characters of Wendy and Peter Pan. The song is more about the eternal man-child relinquishing his youth for that one, true love that does all the previously mentioned things. The music is both wonderful and sad, as if to comment that to love is to open yourself up to mortality, the ultimate end of both love and life, but it is somehow worth it. The tragedy is in leaving it unrequited.” DD “In short, the band has produced the quintessential Marillion release, full of drama, mood, deep blues and euphoric highs.” DD Notes: This double album was also released as an initially more widely available single CD German import. That track listing is as follows: 1. The Invisible Man 2. Marbles I 3. You’re Gone 4. Angelina 5. Marbles II 6. Don’t Hurt Yourself 7. Fantastic Place 8. Marbles III 9. Drilling Holes 10. Marbles IV 11. Neverland 12. You’re Gone (single mix)

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marillion BC Betty Clarke, The Guardian ND Neil Daniels, MusicOMH.com DD DW & John Dunphy, MusicTap.net Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022.