On the fifth track of her eponymous album, Bey gives us the chillwave piece of her musical puzzle. Gliding smoothly over a cascading beat, Bey waxes poetic in a mesmerizing falsetto about the imperfection of her and her lover. Lush and rich, with basslines and synths reminiscent of sounds from the ‘20s, “No Angel” demonstrates a vulnerability in Beyoncé’s usually rock solid attitude towards her partners: she still loves this guy even though he’s not perfect, even if he makes mistakes. It offers a more human version of Beyoncé, and adds a degree of rawness and genuineness to how she portrays relationships.

The music video that accompanies “No Angel” is considered one of the highlights of the visual album, giving a view on the subculture that is the Houston hip-hop scene. It features a variety of moderately well-known rappers in the Houston scene, and is mostly centered around the people that live in several Houston communities. Short clips of Bey, notably in a white mink coat, were filmed in a Melbourne, Australia suburb; all else is filmed inside Houston.

The video’s directed by @lilinternet, who detailed his original call to action for Bey’s video in an interview with Vice:

She had seen Diplo’s “Express Yourself” video which I directed and liked my style of capturing New Orleans. A rapid and surreal flurry of emails, treatments, and meetings later, and we were off to Houston. The project happened very rapidly.

He continued to elaborate on the vision behind the video.

She wanted a real tribute to Houston, and my thing is really immersing myself in a location, opening my eyes to the more subtle beauty that exists in a place. Accidental, innate, environmental beauty. […] We wanted to shoot for eight days, which is a long time for a music video these days, but I knew from “Express Yourself” that you can’t cover a place by spending 48 hours there.