With Heaven On Our Side

Beyoncé & Jay-Z “Lovehappy”

Everything Is Love seems as though it was deliberately designed by Beyoncé and Jay-Z to be the third part of a trilogy about their marital troubles that began with her Lemonade and his 4:44. Those records are both quite good and focused, examining potent emotions of betrayal and guilt while also delivering thoughtful meditations on race and culture. This one is more like a victory lap in which they spend a little time addressing the dynamics of their reconciliation, but mostly flaunt their outrageous wealth, treat their small children like IP, present their family as an aspirational brand, and air petty grievances with the music industry. (They’re not appreciated enough, you see.) The music is pretty good relative to other people’s records, but compared to what Beyoncé does regularly and what Jay-Z accomplished with No-ID on 4:44, it’s all rather ho-hum. It mostly just sounds smug to me. And complacent.

I feel bad saying this. I like both of these artists a lot, and respect them deeply. I recognize what Beyoncé in particular means to people, and I don’t begrudge anyone’s enthusiasm about this record. But it’s 2018, and it’s hard for me to stomach any kind of ostentatious wealth, particularly when it’s presented as this aspirational luxury lifestyle that pushes people to buy into the worst aspects of capitalism. I have personally moved too far left to not feel alienated by prosperity gospel bullshit. I have no love for celebrity culture, and only really care about these people as musicians. I also don’t like the way Beyoncé has figured out that surprise album drops kills all critical takes on her work by drowning it out in enthusiasm and online publications’ desperate need to hype up trending topics. It makes even minor dissent seem contrarian, or the griping of a killjoy.

“Lovehappy” is the final song on the record, and its lyrics essentially summarize the talking points of the project. It’s also the most musically impressive song – it starts off in a very mid-’90s NYC rap track, but shifts into more of a warm, soulful R&B tune that allows Beyoncé to emote as she faces the future of their relationship with genuine optimism. In some ways it is a thematic reiteration of Beyoncé’s “All Night,” but hey, you didn’t get Jay-Z on that track. I appreciate the nuance of this song, and how it embraces the complexities of adult relationships in a way that rejects binary morality. “We’re flawed but we’re still perfect for each other,” she sings, and I believe that’s probably true. These are two incredibly competitive people who live to triumph over obstacles. This is a love song about doing that.