Every Beyoncé Album, Ranked

Beyoncé

Beyoncé released her eighth studio album last night at midnight (ninth if you count The Gift) and the BeyHive is already losing its collective mind. The new album, Cowboy Carter, which serves as act ii of Beyoncé's three act trilogy, is a massive genre shift for the artist, who's moving into country music after previously only dabbling in it.

Of course, Cowboy Carter is only the latest in a long line of tremendous albums from Miss Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Starting with her group Girl's Tyme (which would later become Destiny's Child) in 1990, Beyoncé has been creating music for more than three decades, including five studio albums with Destiny's Child, eight by herself, one with Jay-Z as The Carters and one in conjunction with her work on The Lion King. Plus, there's her massive contribution to Dreamgirls, her Oscar-nominated song in King Richard, Homecoming and it's album, her multiple visual albums and "Woman Like Me" from The Pink Panther soundtrack (which is SEVERELY underrated).

Beyoncé is now systematically working her way through genres created by Black artists who've gone uncredited their work. Act i, Renaissance, was a reclamation of dance music, and Cowboy Carter is a reclamation of country music, which was largely shaped by Black people in the American south despite their contributions being all but erased from history.

To celebrate the living legend that is Beyoncé, her illustrious career and the birth of Cowboy Carter, we've ventured a ranking of Beyoncé's albums, arbitrarily opting to include The Gift, but leaving off her Destiny's Child and The Carters collabs. This ranking is based on cultural impact, album cohesiveness, individual song quality, and overall force of magnitude (plus vibes). That being said, there are no bad Beyoncé albums and arguably no incorrect ranking of these nine albums. All of them are historic and incredible for their own reasons, and each could be claimed convincingly as her best work. So this is a bit of a fool's errand, but nevertheless we forge ahead.

Beyoncé's albums, ranked

<p>Columbia Records</p> — Columbia Records

9. I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008)

Biggest Hit: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (#1)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 9 nominations & 6 wins
Best Track: "Diva"
Underrated Gem: "Ego"

I Am... Sasha Fierce is a fairly divisive album within the BeyHive. On one hand, it marks the zenith of Beyoncé as a commercial, mainstream pop superstar. With hits like "If I Were a Boy," "Halo" and "Single Ladies," it boasts some of Bey's most recognizable songs that even your grandma probably knows. Sasha Fierce proved that Beyoncé was a cultural juggernaut as an individual act separate from Destiny's Child and solidified her place in the wedding reception musical canon. That being said, the two disc format separating the album into a slower section (I Am...) and a faster section named after her alter ego (Sasha Fierce) made each seem incomplete. The album also lacks the scrappy feeling of its predecessors, while not quite reaching the thoughtfulness and purpose we see in her later work. Without Sasha Fierce's success, its unlikely Bey would have had the cache for some of her later work, but looking back it's mostly radio hits that Beyoncé now distances herself from a bit.

8. Dangerously in Love (2003)

Biggest Hit: "Crazy in Love" (#1) and "Baby Boy" (#1)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 7 nominations & 5 wins
Best Track: "Crazy in Love"
Underrated Gem: "Yes"

Dangerously in Love marked Beyoncé's first foray into a solo career (unless you in count "Work It Out" off the Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack), and what a tremendous burst onto the scene it was. The album blasts off with the opening beat of "Crazy in Love," a hard-hitting intro which remains one of music's most iconic to date, two decades later. Like I Am... Sasha Fierce, Bey's freshman album boasts strong singles with "Baby Boy," "Me, Myself and I" and "Naughty Girl" all landing in the Billboard top five. However, Dangerously does feel a lot like a big studio intro that's top-loaded with catchy singles and then padded with some less memorable filler. While even Beyoncé's filler is better than most artists' best work, the B-sides here don't feel as necessary as they do on later albums.

7. The Lion King: The Gift (2019)

Biggest Hit: "Black Parade" (#37)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 9 nominations & 2 wins
Best Track: "My Power"
Underrated Gem: "Find Your Way Back"

The Gift gets a bit of a bad rap within the fandom due to the fact that it's a soundtrack album tied to Disney's live-action remake of The Lion King. While that movie, Beyoncé's performance as Nala in it and the lead single "Spirit" all leave something to be desired, if you're able to excise The Gift from The Lion King and instead process it as a part of the visual album Black Is King, the whole thing is much more rewarding. The Gift is Beyoncé's tribute to Africa and includes a number of African musicians both vocally and in the production credits. Black Is King is perhaps Bey's most visually stunning work to date (we're waiting for those Renaissance visuals tho), and the album's flow is effortless. Beyoncé doesn't appear on every track and the standard edition involves a lot of clips from The Lion King (no thank you), BUT there is much here to love and it's certainly a more complete vision than what exists in Sasha or Dangerously.

6. B'Day (2006)

Biggest Hit: "Irreplaceable" (#1)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 6 nominations & 1 win
Best Track: "Get Me Bodied" (Extended Mix)
Underrated Gem: "Green Light"

B'Day is really an all hits, no skips banger from start to finish. From the moment Bey says "Bass" to kick off "Deja Vu," you know she means business. She launched six hit singles off the album (eight if you included the bonus tracks from The Pink Panther and Dreamgirls soundtracks) and yet somehow both "Freakum Dress" and "Upgrade U" were never even radio plays. While there might not be the full conceptual cohesion here that something like Lemonade possesses, the album is cohesive in that it is a full-speed-ahead, ride-until-the-wheels-come-off, crank-the-volume hit machine. Even when the album does briefly slow down, we get "Irreplaceable," an anthem for the ages. Perhaps it's most important contribution to society, however, is "Get Me Bodied" Extended Mix (which really should be the only version of the song), and the time Bey performed it with Solange at Beychella, dancing full out with a wardrobe malfunction. This was artfully edited out of Homecoming, but those of us on the bootleg know.

5. Beyoncé (2013)

Biggest Hit: "Drunk in Love" (#2)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 5 nominations & 3 wins
Best Track: "Partition"
Underrated Gem: "Blow"

In 2024, a decade after Beyoncé dropped her self-titled album and deep into the era of Spotify, streaming and anything goes album rollouts, it's hard to remember what a game changer Beyoncé was. With no prior warning, fans woke up on Dec. 13, 2013 to find that Bey had released not just a full album, but also a full visual album on iTunes. The sheer scope of the feat drove people wild for years to come and spurred the wave of secret albums, surprise drops and large-scale visuals that would follow. In addition to its historical nature, Beyoncé also feels like the introduction of Beyoncé the artist rather than Beyoncé the singer (which is perhaps why it bares her name). The themes of feminism and sexuality weave their way through the whole album and there is an intense dedication to cohesion here for the first time. This is Beyoncé 2.0. (Also, please note that "Grown Woman" is FINALLY available to stream everyone.)

4. 4 (2011)

Biggest Hit: "Best Thing I Never Had" (#16)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 2 nominations & 1 win
Best Track: "I Care"
Underrated Gem: "Schoolin' Life"

4 (Beyoncé's aptly titled fourth album) is easily her most underrated. Following the massive commercial successes of B'Day and I Am... Sasha Fierce, and preceding her rebranding, it's an oddity in her discography that earned little awards attention, didn't produce a top-10 single and is largely overlooked. Tucked inside 4, however, are many of Bey's best tracks. If you're looking for VOCALS, "I Care" and "Best Thing I Never Had" provide some of Beyoncé's finest. If you're looking for a groovy dance beat then "Party," "Countdown" and "Love On Top" are there for jammin. "End of Time" is top-10 Beyoncé. "1+1" is the ultimate love song. "Schoolin' Life" is boptastic. 4 deserves way more praise than it's been given and any true member of the BeyHive is buzzing hard for this one.

3. Cowboy Carter (2024)

Biggest Hit: "Texas Hold 'Em" (#1)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: TBD
Best Track: "YA YA"
Underrated Gem: "Just for Fun"

With Cowboy Carter being a whopping 10 hours old, its near impossible to accurately assess its place in the Beyoncé oeuvre, especially when songs like "Get Me Bodied" have been blasting for nearly 20 years and Renny just had a tour AND a concert documentary. However, it is clear about four songs into a first listen that Cowboy Carter is something special. Beyoncé's take on a country album not only shows deep appreciation for the Black history of country music, but also weaves that tradition into the genres of music Bey has built her career on. Despite being one hour and 18 minutes long, the album never lags and provides listeners with plenty of light and shade. From an opera aria on "Daughter" to a full blown rap solo on "Spaghetti," Bey is doing it all, but somehow everything feels cohesive. There is a DEPTH here that few albums can boast. It is already and will continue to be THE album of 2024.

2. Renaissance (2022)

Biggest Hit: "Break My Soul" (#1)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 8 nominations & 4 wins
Best Track: "Pure/Honey"
Underrated Gem: "Heated"

Launching her three-act musical journey of the 2020's, act i: Renaissance, is Beyonce's ode to Black, queer disco and house music. Coming out of the pandemic, Beyoncé wanted to create a liberated, joyful, inclusive celebration of life that paid homage to the Black pioneers of the genre. Thus came the rebirth of Beyoncé and her most upbeat, dance-focused album since B'Day. Renaissance is a party, but it's also a deeply political message and only an artist like Beyoncé could meld those together so fluidly. From her reworking of Madonna's "Vogue" in "Break My Soul" (The Queen's Remix) to her highlighting of Black women to her salute to her gay Uncle Johnny, everything about Renaissance is brimming with purpose and meaning while also demanding that you "move move move move move." She capped it all off with her concert documentary, which will go down as one of the genre's finest. An album near impossible to beat.

1. Lemonade (2016)

Biggest Hit: "Formation" (#10)
Grammy Nominations/Wins: 9 nominations & 2 wins
Best Track: "Sorry"
Underrated Gem: "Daddy Lessons"

If Beyoncé was Beyoncé's proclamation of feminism, Lemonade was her proclamation of Blackness. With her release of "Formation" and its accompanying visuals, Beyoncé purposefully centered Black feminism and culture in a way that pop artists of her era hadn't before (and in a way that caused such an uproar in conservative corners of the internet that SNL made a skit about it). A reaction to Jay-Z's cheating, a tribute to Black women and an enhanced version of the visual album process she created with Beyoncé, Lemonade was groundbreaking in countless ways. It's Beyoncé's most personal album to date, it's flawless musically and it will stand in the pantheon of greatest albums ever made for centuries to come.

Beyoncé albums in order chronologically

1. Dangerously in Love (2003)
2. B'Day (2006)
3. I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008)
4. 4 (2011)
5. Beyoncé (2013)
6. Lemonade (2016)
7. The Lion King: The Gift (2017)
8. Renaissance (2022)
9. Cowboy Carter (2024)

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Every Beyoncé Album, Ranked