First reviews land for Beyonce and Jay-Z's joint album: 'A happy, equal marriage'

Beyonce and Jay-Z, surprise new album dropped accompanied with incredible visuals.

Beyonce and Jay-Z have dropped their surprise album Everything is Love during the London leg of their On The Run II tour.

The album acts as the conclusion to a set of earlier works from the pair, outlining the rocky past years of their relationship.

It's been dubbed "the conclusion of a sort of marriage trilogy", by Variety.

Everything is Love also has The Carters emphasising their status as the world's biggest super couple, though the Guardian's Alexis Petridis cites this as one of the album's few flaws.

"Listening to Jay-Z and Beyonce bragging about their wealth and all-round wonderfulness is substantially less interesting than listening to them pick over the flaws in their relationship," he wrote.

The music video for APES**T — which accompanied the release of the album — was shot in the Louvre museum in Paris, with The Carters performing in front of the Mona Lisa creating quite the spectacle.

Hip hop attitude at its finest! Black hair is political and standing there in front of Mona Lisa and combing our "nappy" hair, this is so so powerful #Apeshit pic.twitter.com/JCD8D1hjhG

— Abigaëlle (@Abimeca) June 17, 2018

Despite the negative outlook from The Guardian, Variety's Jem Aswad sees the album as a reflection of a full and equal marriage, and also cites Lovehappy as a future wedding soundtrack.

"Its visuals, its lyrics, its shared musical spotlight telegraph a happy, equal marriage that's weathered its storms but come out stronger ... the lyrics to the closing song Lovehappy, with its throwback '70s soul chorus, familiar sample and tag-team vocals, could be a wedding song for a new generation."

The album as a whole acts more as a Beyonce album according to Djbooth's Yoh Philips, but this doesn't take away from its overall brilliance.

"Bonnie and Clyde made beautiful music, with a message about love that is certain to fill every heart with joy. They're right — everything is love."