Empowerment The Album: Lizzo's 'Cuz I Love You'

Released on April 19th, 2019, Lizzo’s third studio album has certainly made a splash. The Minneapolis-based artist’s album has skyrocketed in popularity, sending waves across Twitter and critics alike. This album contains eleven tracks total, each dealing with various themes of vulnerability and self-love. Two songs were released prior to the entire album; ‘Juice’ and ‘Cuz I Love You’. These two songs encapsulate the two sides of this album: one in which Lizzo is vulnerable and opens up about her feelings and one where Lizzo preaches self-love and confidence no matter what you look like. Two weeks after the release of ‘Juice’, Bustle wrote “This tune celebrates self-love, and the up-beat tempo is sure to give you that much-needed confidence boost when you're feeling low.” This rhetoric has continued amidst the release of the entire album. According to Metacritic, the album is already considered to have “Universal Acclaim”, with a score of 83/100. Since the release of the album, it has reached #1 on iTunes, beating out Beyonce’s Homecoming album. For a relatively new artist, this is an amazing feat. Lizzo’s album is a variety of empowering anthems that offers everyone the opportunity to find something to love.

Lizzo’s newest album is an epic combination of Hip-Hop, Pop, R&B, and Funk music. Her album masterfully combines these elements to create an album that feels cohesive and well thought out. While one would assume that the combination of so many genres might become confusing and overwhelming, Lizzo manages to complement each genre to the others. The album begins with a Rock/Soul-esque confessional ‘Cuz I Love You’, and quickly transitions to a Hip-Hop feminist anthem. From there, Lizzo tackles self-love and confidence, independence, heartbreak, and emotional availability in an array of hip hop and funk anthems. Of the eleven tracks on this album, my favorites are ‘Juice’, ‘Cuz I Love You’, ‘Better In Color’, and ‘Heaven Help Me’. These songs lean mostly towards R&B and Pop, with the exception of ‘Cuz I Love You’, which is has a heavy Rock influence. These songs stand out to me as some of the most upbeat and empowering for me, however others may find that they relate to other songs more. Something important to note is that while these songs stick out to me in particular, I don’t believe that there is a single dud in the album, or anything that I would skip over.

It may be ambitious to state that an album is a success only one day after its release, however I think that Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You is a monumental success. This album caters to many different people from various backgrounds and seeks to lift every single one of them up in some form. If you’re looking for a pick-me-up, I highly recommend this album. This album is definitely one that is going to attract a younger audience, however, like much of her music, many adults will also want to tune in due to the retro-esque nature of her songs. I find myself streaming this album on repeat, and probably will be doing so for the next week at least. This album is one that you could come back to at any time and never grow tired of. Lizzo’s newest album is one clear coherent message of empowerment and self-acceptance. If you’re looking for something new to listen to this week, stream Cuz I Love You by Lizzo.

Rating: 9.6/10