Everything Is Love
Everything Is Love (stylized in all caps) is a collaborative studio album by American duo The Carters (spouses Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter). It was released on June 16, 2018, by Parkwood Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, S.C Enterprises, and Roc Nation. Beyoncé and Jay-Z produced the album alongside a variety of collaborators, including Cool & Dre, Boi-1da, and Pharrell Williams. Additional vocalists recorded for the album include Williams, Quavo, Offset, and Ty Dolla Sign, among others. The hip hop and R&B album explores themes of romantic love, fame, wealth, and black pride. The album  was not made public until its release was announced by Beyoncé and Jay-Z while onstage at a London concert for their On the Run II Tour and later through their social media accounts. It was originally exclusive to the music distribution service Tidal, before given a wider release on June 18, 2018. In its first week, "Everything Is Love" debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200, earning 123,000 album-equivalent units. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, the album won for Best Urban Contemporary Album, and was nominated Best Music Video for "Apeshit" and Best R&B Performance  for "Summer". Recording. Plans about a joint album by the couple were announced by Jay-Z during an interview with "The New York Times" in 2017 when he said that they used "art almost like a therapy session" to create new music. However, since they also worked on their respective albums "" and "Lemonade", and Beyoncé's music progressed more rapidly, the project was temporarily stopped. Rumors about the collaborative project began emerging in March 2018 when the couple announced their On the Run II Tour. The majority of the album was recorded at U Arena in Paris; "Friends", "Black Effect  and Salud!" were recorded at Kingslanding Studios West in Los Angeles, while further recording for "Summer" and "Nice" was done at The Church Studios in London. Beyoncé and Jay-Z co-produced all of the songs on the album themselves, with further producers including Pharrell, Cool & Dre, Boi-1da, Jahaan Sweet, David Andrew Sitek, D'Mile, El Michels, Fred Ball, Illmind, MeLo-X, Mike Dean and Nav. The album was predominantly recorded by Stuart White and Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton. Music and lyrics. According to "Exclaim!" journalist Riley Wallace, "Everything Is Love" is a hip hop album. Mike Wass from "Idolator" observed  a "trap sound and flashy bravado" on the record, while "Respect" magazine's Jasmine Johnson said it "involves trap with a hint of love". Alexis Petridis found the music more rooted in hip hop than R&B, as did Jogai Bhatt of "The Spinoff", who viewed it as a departure from "the sort of contemporary R&B traditionally associated with Beyoncé." Craig Jenkins from "Vulture" said the singer played the role of an "R&B heavyweight" doubling as a "formidable rapper" throughout the album, showcasing her talents for vocal belting and complex rap cadences. The album contains lyrics about the couple's romantic  love, lavish lifestyle, media worship, wealth, black pride and fame; themes that were found to be characteristic of the whole record. Other songs feature the pair singing about their family affairs as well as maintaining their relationship following hardships (i.e. infidelity). "Time" magazine's Maura Johnston regarded the album as another "blockbuster duet in R&B and hip-hop"; comparable to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's soul songs from the 1960s and the 1995 Method Man and Mary J. Blige recording "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By"; while incorporating contemporary elements in the  form of trap beats, critical references to the National Football League and the Grammy Awards, and playing with "public perceptions of the duo's relationship". Jenkins said it extolled African-American entrepreneurship while presenting Jay-Z as "a doting father and husband, an entrepreneur and altruist with ideas about how everyone else should handle their businesses, a king-tier braggart, and a rap legend". Artwork. The artwork for the album is a still frame from the music video for "Apeshit". It features two of Beyoncé's background dancers, Jasmine Harper and Nicholas “Slick” Stewart, at the Louvre—Harper is seen  picking the hair of Stewart while standing in front of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Release and promotion. On June 6, 2018, Beyoncé and Jay-Z embarked on the joint On the Run II Tour, a sequel to their 2014 On the Run Tour. At the end of their second show at London Stadium in London on June 16, 2018, Beyoncé announced to the crowd that the duo had a surprise before leaving the stage. Then, the music video for "Apeshit" played on the LED video screen onstage. Following the conclusion of the video, the words "ALBUM OUT NOW  came across the screen. Everything Is Love" was subsequently released exclusively via Jay-Z's streaming service Tidal and all audience members received a free six-month trial subscription in order to be able to stream the album. The album was also made available for purchase on Tidal's online music store. The release was announced worldwide on the Beyoncé and Jay-Z's respective social media accounts with the artist of the album being monikered as the Carters. On the same day, the music video for the album's second track and lead single, "Apeshit", was released on Beyoncé 's official YouTube channel. It was directed by Ricky Saiz and filmed at the Louvre in Paris. On June 18, the album was made available across numerous other platforms, including iTunes Store, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, Napster, Google Play Music and Spotify. Critical reception. "Everything is Love" was met with general acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 22 reviews. Reviewing the album for "The New York Times", Joe Coscarelli said it "completes the Knowles-Carter conceptual trilogy"—referring to the  previous releases of "Lemonade" and ""—"in an expert, tactical showing of family brand management". Music critic Nicholas Hautman of "Us Weekly" wrote: "It's clear from the very first listen that Beyoncé outshines her husband on much of the record, which really should have been marketed as 'Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z' rather than 'Beyoncé "and" Jay-Z' (or 'the Carters,' in this case). His verses are few and far between in comparison to hers, but it still somehow feels like a balanced body of work from two of the greatest artists of our time." In "The Guardian", Petridis believed the  album retreads braggadocio centering around the duo's wealth and excellence, with less musical daring, but still does so with likeable music, genuine wit, and energy. As per "The Daily Telegraph" music critic Neil McCormick pointed, ""Everything Is Love" certainly doesn’t have the musical expansiveness of "Lemonade". There are neither ballads nor bangers, and not much in the way of melodic song construction at all. Rather, these are snappily repetitive beats on which the stars can put across their message as a form of hip hop conversation." For "Variety", Jim Aswad described it as "solid and generally satisfying, but  not the best from either." Will Hodgkinson of "The Times" reviewed track-by-track, stated: "Jay-Z is as dynamic as ever and the new, though Beyoncé demands attention on this surprise album, [...] despite the ups and downs detailed on Beyoncé's "Lemonade" and Jay-Z's subsequent mea culpa "4:44". Instead they are coming out fighting, with all that fame and money making them defensive, even paranoid, while a mix of classic soul, hard-hitting hip-hop and slinky R&B." "Pitchfork" contributor Briana Younger wrote that the album "is a compromise between the spoils of "Lemonade"s war and the  fruits of "4:44"s labor", and that "within this complex, messy and beautifully black display, the Carters find absolution." Giving the album one and a half stars, Adam Rothbarth of "Tiny Mix Tapes" stated that everything about the album "feels superficial, from the artists' constant pronouncement of their love for each other to their engagement with topics like fashion". He also added that the "most boring aspect of the album is its centerpiece: the couple's obsession with their wealth". Accolades. ! Organization ! Country ! class=unsortable| Accolade ! Ranked ! class=unsortable| Year ! class=unsortable| Source