During extensive touring the following year, the album changed as she conceived of creating a visual accompaniment to its songs and resumed recording sessions with electronic producer and rock musician Boots.

Beyoncé's desire to assert her full artistic freedom served as inspiration for the album's dark, personal subject matter, which incorporated feminist themes of sex, monogamy, beauty standards and relationship problems.

[11] She resumed work in early 2013, performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's second inauguration and headlining the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, where there were expectations she would debut new music, although these rumors never materialized.

[11][22] She invited the "world's best" producers and songwriters to accompany them, including Sia,[23] Timbaland, Eric Bellinger, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Justin Timberlake and The-Dream.

[15] In an interview for Vogue in January 2013, Jason Gay described Beyoncé's attention to detail as "obsessive" when observing her studio, noting the vision boards she created for inspiration, which contained potential song titles, old album covers and pictures of performances.

Similarly, the bassline of "Partition", which Beyoncé found reminiscent of hip hop music during her early romance with Jay-Z, influenced her to accompany the track with sexual lyrics.

[30] In October, the album began taking shape and "Standing on the Sun" and "Grown Woman" were removed[nb 5]—songs which had been previewed in 2013 on television advertisements—from Beyoncé to fit in with its minimalist approach.

She highlighted the immersive experience of Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) as the principal influence for creating a body of work that "people would hear things differently and ... actually be able to see the whole vision of the album".

[28] It was also carried into how the visuals were created, with the videos for "Drunk in Love", "Yoncé", "No Angel", "XO" and "Blue" shot without prior preparation, as the singer found enjoyment in the spontaneity of the filming locations and in resisting the urge to perfect them.

[33] Noting some of the visuals' explicit content and exposure of her body, Beyoncé said she found shooting them liberating and expressed her intention to demonstrate sexuality as a power that women should have, and not lose after becoming a mother.

[26] The song is divided by a brief interlude of camera clicks and the whirring of a car window, before launching into a second-half that melds synthesizer pulses with finger snaps to create a Southern hip hop bassline.

[45][56] Described by Entertainment Weekly's Nick Catucci as a "slippery, six-and-a-half-minute funk excursion",[49] Beyoncé adopts a slow, harmonious vocal[45] as she instructs her love interest to watch her perform a striptease.

[26] The doo wop-inspired duet with Frank Ocean "Superpower" is sung in the lower register of both singers, while employing girl group harmonies similar to Beyoncé's work in Destiny's Child.

"Heaven" is an emotive, piano-led hymn with gospel elements,[26][45] while "Blue" is built on a piano melody over which Beyoncé sings of the love for her daughter, using her full vocal range.

[66][68] "Ring Off" is described as a midtempo reggae ballad that features dancehall rhythms with slight elements of dubstep, and addresses the end of a marriage between Beyoncé's parents, Tina and Mathew Knowles.

Throughout 2013, Beyoncé worked on the project in strict secrecy, sharing details of the album with a small circle of people and continually shifting the deadline, which was only finalized a week before its release.

[13] In early December 2013, Beyoncé and her management company Parkwood Entertainment held meetings concerning its release with executives from Columbia Records and the iTunes Store, using the code name "Lily" for the album.

I took all of my insecurities, all of my doubts, all of my fears, and everything I've learned [and] I applied it into this project.After the album's release, Beyoncé performed "XO" during the remaining stops of the North American leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in December 2013.

[112] Accompanying the release of "XO", the other lead single "Drunk in Love", featuring Jay-Z, was serviced to urban contemporary radio stations in the United States on December 17, 2013.

[112][119] On April 24, 2014, the music video for the fourth single "Pretty Hurts" was made available for streaming via Time magazine's official website to accompany Beyoncé's feature as one of the world's most influential people.

[25][26][27][126] Summarizing the album for Pitchfork, Jillian Mapes calls Beyoncé "MJ-level talent met pop-perfectionism in a moment that defined album-cycle disruption [and] a victory lap Bey took as pop feminism's reigning goddess".

The New York Times' chief critic Jon Pareles described the tracks as "steamy and sleek, full of erotic exploits and sultry vocals" noting that "every so often, for variety, they turn vulnerable, compassionate or pro-feminist".

She noted that the tracks demonstrate Beyoncé's desire to retain complete sexual agency, while also forgoing the expectations of pop songcraft by placing female pleasure at the forefront unquestioningly.

Pitchfork writer Carrie Battan of the same publication wrote that Beyoncé was "exploring sounds and ideas at the grittier margins of popular music" and rejecting "traditional pop structures in favor of atmosphere".

[25] Noting the lack of "guaranteed hits", NME believed that the "low-key, moody production throws the spotlight on the words and the images brought to play" and described it as her most experimental work to date.

[43] Rolling Stone's pop critic Rob Sheffield found Beyoncé's boldness among its best attributes, believing the album is at its "strongest when it goes for full-grown electro soul with an artsy boho edge".

[46] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times highlighted a desire to push creative boundaries among the tracks and admired "how the music similarly blends the intimate and the extravagant",[56] while Entertainment Weekly writer Nick Catucci concluded that the album was characterized by "clashing impulses—between strength and escape, megapop and fresh sounds, big messages and resonant lyrics".

[47] Kitty Empire of The Observer noted the diverseness of her vocals on the album's up-tempo songs and found the singer ranging between "squeaky sexed-up falsettos, hood rat rapping, wordless ecstasies and effortless swoops".

"[216] Forbes' Zack O'Malley Greenburg included Beyoncé on his "Music Industry Winners 2013" list, noting that the singer "didn't make use of any of the perks of [being signed to a large record label]—the "machine" we're told is so necessary.

[218] Beyoncé is credited with the popularization of the surprise album, and the act of releasing a project without prior announcement has subsequently been executed by many artists, including Drake,[219] Kanye West,[220] Kendrick Lamar,[221] Rihanna,[222] Azealia Banks,[223] Nicki Minaj,[224] Miley Cyrus,[225] U2,[226] Frank Ocean[227] and Eminem.