Pharrell Williams is blown away by Beyonce's new album Lemonade.
The 34-year-old singer debuted her latest record on husband Jay Z's streaming service Tidal during an HBO special which aired on Saturday night (23Apr16). She's already received rave reviews for the album, from her fans and peers alike, and among those impressed with Lemonade is Pharrell.
Speaking at the filming of The Voice on Monday night (25Apr16), Pharrell told Entertainment Tonight: "She's an artist and she's expressed herself and I think it's a beautiful piece of work. I think the theme, the overarching theme of forgiveness is just such a beautiful message and we need that in the world right now. We need it."
The album includes guest appearances from The Weeknd, Jack White, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar. It also tackles themes such as feminism, race and adultery, and Pharrell praised Beyonce for being brave enough to broach such topics through her music.
"I think what she's done that is rare to mainstream media is (that) she took a singer-songwriter approach to her lyrics," he said. "There's no fluff... It's the real thing and that's awesome.
"One of the most disappointing things when you buy a bag of chips is like, when you open the bag and it's only half-full of chips. She gave you a full, real instalment and it was no fluff. There was no crumbs and it was good to the last drop.”
Pharrell wasn't himself involved in the making of the record but thinks it ticks all the right boxes.
“It's just a really good musical emotional excursion, I think she did a wonderful job,” he added. “It's Lemonade, so it had a little tang, but it had a lot of sugar. It was so sweet.”
