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Music

Is Beyonce Surprise Releasing an Album Tomorrow?

Prepare to "literally die".

Ever since Beyonce surprise released her self-titled fifth album in 2013, members of the Bey-hive fan club have waited with baited breath. As she showed with the surprise release for more recent "Formation" video, their Queen has something of a knack for unleashing lavish, bountiful projects on the world at a moments notice.

Beyonce's power is so enthralling, so encompassing that it feels like she could reign over any given day of her choosing. All she has to do is release some new music. According to rumours that've been spreading around the internet over the past few months, the day of reckoning for the Bey-hive is coming sooner than we think. As in, sound the alarm, because we could all be listening to a new Beyonce album in the next few weeks. Maybe even tomorrow.

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The singer embarks on her Formation world tour on April 27, making it likely that she'll release some new music before then. Perhaps more interesting, though, are some very suspect tracklists that surfaced on the internet in the past few days, which purport to a new Beyonce album being released on April 1. Here is one of those tracklists.

To the untrained eye, the above picture looks like a legitimate tracklist, with Beyonce's management company Parkwood Entertainment printed in an authoritatively large size, near the top. Then there's a feature list that seems to have descended from the high heavens, with D'Angelo, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, FKA twigs, JAY Z, A.G Cook, Arca, AK Paul, Timbaland, Grimes, Dev Hynes and… (gasp) a hell of a lot more all listed in the album's writing and production credits. Does that mean the tracklist above is real? Or is it an elaborate April Fools joke, set up by someone with a Snapchat account and easy access to a printer?

As always, it's worth taking the above photo with a pinch of salt. An entirely different tracklist with a similar appearance - Parkwood Entertainment printed on the top, list of features in the middle, the same release dates - appeared online in the last few days. Given Beyonce's star power, there's a small chance the credits for the album could be genuine, but then there's the title of the tracks, whcih don't seem entirely implausible because nothing in this world is impossible, yet make the whole thing feel like it's been dreamt up by an eager fan, with the track "The Other (Other) Woman (Feat Rihanna)" standing out with particular gauze. With that said, we will happily eat our words when we're jamming the repeat button on a Rihanna and Beyonce collaboration (feat AK Paul, Dev Hynes, Grimes, and twigs) on our way to the pub tomorrow evening.

Whether these tracklists are real or fake, it's practically confirmed that B6 lays firmly on the horizon. So what do we know about it? Previous collaborater Boots has worked on the album, telling Buzzfeed it's "the most exciting album" he's been involved with. She's been spotted filming at several locations, presumably for a new release. Then there's Future, Sia, and D.R.A.M, who all say they've been in the studio or writing with Beyonce over the last few months.

Increasingly, there's a real sense that Beyonce's next album could be one of the most politically important and weighty of her career so far. "Formation" changed the way we listen to Beyonce forever. To call it a pop track would be an understatement; it's a notably complex meditation on female blackness. In the last few days, there have been unconfirmed reports that the singer may include the parents of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown in her latest video, holding up pictures of their deceased sons faces. Then there was her Superbowl performance, which appeared to reference Malcolm X and civil rights movements. As an artist who rarely speaks to the press, Beyonce's latest album is likely to be one grand statement.

Whether it's tomorrow, next week or later in the month, Beyonce will release an album in the very near future. Until then we sit, bouncing up and down on our wheeled office chairs, listening to "Formation" on repeat, waiting for the Queen to come and slay. And when she does, a lot of people will "literally die".