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. Everything Is Love debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, and it reached the top five on charts in Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, the album won for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Background and recording
View of Paris La Défense Arena (formerly named UArena), where the album was partially recorded.
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 4:44 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 album was reportedly conceived for years.
Music critics generally categorized Everything Is Love as hip-hop and R&B with prominent influences of trap and classic soul of the 1960s–1970s. Craig Jenkins from Vulture wrote that Beyoncé played the role of an "R&B heavyweight" doubling as a "formidable rapper, showcasing her talents for vocal belting and complex rap cadences. In a review for The New York Times, Jon Pareles opined that Everything Is Love exuded less vulnerability than Beyoncé and Jay-Z's respective albums Lemonade and 4:44, with references to classic hip-hop, R&B, and "disorienting electronic soundscapes".
"Like the fifth act of a hip-hop and R&B Shakespearean comedy, Everything Is Love finds our lovers reunited, their misunderstandings resolved, their vows renewed (Beyoncé: 'you fucked up the first stone/ we had to get remarried'), and their family looking ahead to decades of more peaceful prosperity. Outrageous, multiple-mansioned, diamonds-and-watches-and-Lambos prosperity, symbolically tied to an agenda of black capitalism as racial uplift and reparations."
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
Following the album release, the Louvre created a guided tour of the art displayed in the "Apeshit" music video.
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
The surprise release of the album was announced during their On the Run II Tour concert in London
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 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.
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Everything Is Love received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 from 22 critic scores.
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 4:44—"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 The Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick pointed out, "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, tough Beyoncé demands attention on this surprise album, [...] despite the ups and downs detailed on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Jay-Z's subsequent mea culpa4:44. 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
Select year-end rankings (2018) for Everything Is Love
Everything is Love debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 123,000 album-equivalent units, (including 70,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week. The album debuted on the chart after less than six full days of activity on Tidal, and four days of activity on all other digital retailers and streaming services. In its second week, the album dropped to number four on the chart, earning an additional 59,000 units. In its third week, the album dropped to number eight on the chart, earning 33,000 more units. In its fourth week, the album remained at number eight on the chart, earning 29,000 units. In 2018, Everything is Love was ranked as the 70th-best-performing album of the year on the Billboard 200. On January 14, 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States.
.png)
