Harold wrote:When the next Mega-Critic update is posted, Lemonade is very likely to displace Blackstar at #1, and you know what? It may deserve it.
Going to have to disagree with this one. This is obviously a great album, as was Beyonce's previous effort. But comparing this to some of the better albums released this year, "Blackstar" obviously included, seems absurd to me. Comparing this to anything in the AM top 500, an obvious analogy to placing #1 on MCC, is equally baffling.
Without going into too much of a review - which I don't think is necessary, everyone on the Internet has done this for me at this point - "Lemonade" is one of the most intelligent pop albums of the decade, perhaps the most intelligent. But I have a very difficult time believing anyone who truly believes this album is anything resembling 'perfect.' "Blackstar" is perfect, for its message, its music, its creation. Everything. Some of the albums on the top of the MegaCritic list have a very obvious bearing of greatness throughout to their name already.
This album has faults. The ballads in the middle, "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles" namely, are incredibly inspirational pieces of music that leave me detached from the wonderful flow that the album has elsewhere. And that plunge is probably the fault of "Daddy Lessons," an incredibly strange song to drop in the center of a tirade about love, marriage and the inspiration that women bring. I get the connection, but the sudden moment of country pop leaves me very sour.
"Lemonade" leaves me a bit at end. There's no doubt in my mind that poptimism is going to launch this thing to the upper echelons of the MegaCritic chart. But anything higher than ~7th place is going to leave me disappointed, a destiny I'm already set in my mind with.