Beyonce & Jay-Z’s ‘Everything Is Love’ Completes a Trilogy Begun with ‘Lemonade’ and ‘4:44’

While we’re still absorbing the nine songs Jay-Z and Beyonce unexpectedly dropped on Saturday afternoon with their “Everything Is Love,“ on first blush the album seems to be the conclusion of a sort of marriage trilogy.

By Jem Aswad – LOS ANGELES (Variety.com)

It began with ’s 2016 album “Lemonade” and her widely discussed stories of infidelity — even a person mistaken to be the real “Becky with the long hair” in “Sorry” was harassed by fans — continued with Jay’s tales of contrition on his “4:44” last summer, and apparently reaches a happy ending with “Everything Is Love.”

Not only does everything about the album — its visuals, its lyrics, its shared musical spotlight — telegraph a happy, equal marriage that’s weathered its storms but come out stronger, the lyrics to the closing song “Lovehappy,” with its throwback ‘70s soul chorus, familiar sample and tag-team vocals, could be a wedding song for a new generation.

Nowhere are the lyrics shared more equally than on that track, which is basically set up as a look-back conversation between the two:

“Happily in love, haters please forgive me,” Jay begins. “I let my wife write the will, I pray my children outlive me.”

Beyonce continues:
I give my daughter our custom dress, so she gon’ be litty
Vintage pieces by the time she hit the city
Yeah, you f—ed up the first time, we had to get remarried
(Jay: Yo, chill man!)
We keepin’ it real with these people right?
Lucky I ain’t kill you when I met that b—h

Jay:
Nah, aight, aight
Y’all know how I met her, we broke up and got back together
To get her back, I had to sweat her
Y’all could make her with a bag, I had to change the weather
Move the whole family west but it’s whatever
In a glass house still throwing stones
Hova, Beezus, watch the thrones

Beyonce sings both the chorus and the song’s outro and conclusion:
You did some things to me, boy you do some things to me
But love is deeper than your pain and I believe you can change
Baby, the ups and downs are worth it, long way to go, but we’ll work it
We’re flawed but we’re still perfect for each other

Sometimes I thought we’d never see the light
Went through hell with heaven on our side
This beach ain’t always been no paradise
But nightmares only last one night

Damn, look at us now
Pray, pray for the vows
Way up now, yes, and a way, long way down
We came, and we saw, and we conquered it all
We came, and we conquered, now we’re happy in love

Beyonce Jay-Z