Much like the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Arya Stark banging Gendry, everyone in the world remembers where they were when Beyoncé dropped her sixth album, the artistic endeavour and musical tour de force that was Lemonade. Conversely, many Spotify and Apple Music users will also remember the bittersweet realisation that the album would not be available to them without purchasing it from iTunes, signing up to Tidal or making a trip down to HMV (RIP) to pick up a physical copy (weird flex but ok).
Well three years to the day, fresh off the back of her Netflix special and accompanying live album, Homecoming (which received glowing reviews and Pitchfork’s highest album score in the past four years), Beyoncé has done us a solid and dropped the record on Spotify and Apple Music.
And for those who are taking advantage of the change of heart by blasting Hold Up on repeat this morning, there’s an extra treat! Beyoncé finishes off Lemonade with a demo version of Sorry, the track that birthed perhaps Lemonade’s most iconic line: “better call Becky with the good hair”. This version, though lyrically very similar, is a much softer, production sparse and, as Vulture dared say, a “more Solange-esque” version.
To borrow a half-baked pun that accompanied the release from Spotify this morning, “When Beyoncé gives you Lemonade…”