Album review: 'Lemonade is Beyonce’s finest album yet'

Who is “Becky with the good hair”? Why did Solange Knowles lose her temper with Jay-Z in that Las Vegas elevator in 2014? Can a show-business marriage ever really endure? In the days since Lemonade materialised in a figurative puff of smoke on the Tidal streaming platform (it is now also available on iTunes), Beyonce’s surprise sixth studio album has been picked over endlessly for gossipy nuggets, the mystery deepened by an accompanying video project brimming with surreal imagery

But even if you could care less for the state of Bey’s relationship with husband Jay-Z , Lemonade is an astounding document. Its greatest achievement is to humanise the most powerful woman in pop. Lemonade is alternately angry, self-admonishing and preachy — but above all it pulsates with vulnerability. Beyonce, that enigma hidden in plain sight, is showing us more of herself here than at any point in her career to-date.