The new album from the world’s most revered pop star looks to the past—specifically the history of Black dance music—in an effort to survive the present.
Joy is the subject matter , if you want it .
OnRenaissance , her most experimental and audacious solo record yet , Beyoncé get across a new musical landscape painting in a quest for personal and corporate transformation . In stark demarcation to the bare-ass , intoxicating exposure ofLemonadeand in verbatim conversation with the Afrobeat groove ofThe Lion King : The Gift , Renaissanceis an album about living , powerfulness , beauty , and hope after the storm . Here , Beyoncé immerses us in the female parent beat of the saltation floor ( as producer Eris Drew once touted ) , cleaning us of our grief and strife while molding us into something mend anew .
Renaissanceis part of athree - act projectrecorded during the preceding few year . In a missive post to her website prior to the record album ’s vent , Beyoncé describedRenaissanceas “ a stead to dream and to find escape . ” Crafted during a moment of cultural stillness , she leaned into a dream of the past tense — her unremembered nostalgia — to picture a new future . If whirl hips and sweat - drenched dancing floor and glittering beauty and unshakeable confidence once pushed our ancestors forward , perhaps those things could do it again for us in the nowadays .
Columbia Records
She also points to her Uncle Jonny , her “ godmother , ” as a source of intake . Jonny , who Beyonce ’s mother Tina Knowles - Lawsonrevealed on Instagramwas her nephew , first expose Bey to much of the medicine that inspired this record . smuggled and gay , Jonny died of complications from HIV . His legacy live on in this music , but also serves as a stark reminder of the generation of homophile originative military group who build the excellency of these sounds and passed far too before long . “ Thank you to all of the pioneers who develop culture , to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have go unrecognized for far too long , ” Beyoncé after wrote .
On “ Cozy , ” a fleshly and groovy track about self - empowerment and nerve atomic number 27 - produce by Black trans creative person Honey Dijon , Beyoncé iterate this idea by lyrically embedding the colors of Daniel Quasar ’s Progress Pride flag in the song ’s 2d verse . Quasar ’s flagstone modernized the be Pride flag to include the trans community and singular multitude of color . In a 2018 Facebook post , Quasar also said the novel smutty bar of the flag symbolise “ those living with AIDS and the mark and preconception surrounding them , and those who have been lost to the disease . ”
This is a record about gain itthrough , a musical visit travel the unequaled legacy of sinister joy , queer joyfulness andBlack nance joyin music . From funk to discotheque to house , R&B and Afrobeat , Renaissanceis as much an auditory trip as it is a history lesson .
“ Summer Renaissance , ” which include a sampling of the former , great Donna Summer ’s “ I experience Love , ” is a bouncy disco delight . “ Virgo ’s Groove , ” one of the strong and longest Song on the record , is a carnal , funky mantrap remindful of ' 80s Earth , Wind & Fire . “ het up , ” co - write by Drake , rap into the contemporary popularity of Afrobeat that help as the foundation for Beyonce ’s last acquittance , the 2019 collaborative albumThe Lion King : The Gift .
While each track is trenchant in CRO , none find out of topographic point on the book as a whole . That ’s because if we are to consider Black music as an ongoing story of our pain in the neck , our glory , our promise , then songs of disparate Black - create genres can shape together and sound complete . We see this again in “ Church Girl , ” which sample gospel group The Clark Sisters ’ “ Center Thy Will ” but then transitions into a NOLA bounce - esque ditty about letting loose while staying spiritually faithful . It ’s a sentiment all too familiar to the southern Black fair sex Beyoncé speak to and the southern Black woman Beyoncé is .
In short , Renaissancehas produced some of Beyonce ’s unattackable call ever . “ Alien Superstar , ” the second song on the book bring forth by Honey Dijon , is undoubtedly one of her catchiest , loveliest , most profound tracks . Like the claim suggest , the song invokes something otherworldly in its construction , drifting from the propulsive synths of its beginning into a chorus ( falsify Right Said Fred ’s “ I ’m Too Sexy ” ) that sparks legerdemain in the ear . It is one of the most un - Beyoncé songs on the disk — more lackadaisical and celestial than her signature fierceness — and yet it is impossible to imagine any other artist capable of gliding along the eddy and crook of its output . “ I ’m one of one , I ’m number one , I ’m the only one / Do n’t even waste your metre trying to compete with me , ” she whistle on the chorus — and you believe it .
“ Pure / Honey , ” the penultimate song onRenaissance , extracts a similar humour . It ’s easy the heart of the album . “ Pure / Honey ” is where the story ofRenaissance — its commitment to queer artists of the past and present , its invocation of smuggled pleasure through euphony , its true piquantness for the possibility of life — is actually told . It ’s a call with heft , withsomething to say . It ’s a tour of duty de power of Black artistry and a sonic victory . Complex , imaginative , and well-informed , “ Pure / Honey ” is a medicine nerd , business firm heading and cabaret queen ’s pipe dream . With perfect samples settle throughout ( including puff queen Kevin Aviance ’s “ Cunty , ” MikeQ ’s “ Feels Like , ” and Mr. Fingers ’ groundbreaking house classic “ Mystery of Love ” ) , “ Pure / Honey ” desire the hearer to understand and whoop it up in its chronicle .
And then , before listeners have a chance to plunk too deep into its ballroom glamour , the song glides into something funkier and sweet . feature samples of Moi Renee ’s “ Honey ” and a Greek chorus that sounds like a melding of Prince ’s “ Controversy ” and “ I Feel for You , ” the 2d half of the track soars to new heights . Its only defect is that it does n’t keep conk . “ Pure / Honey ” sounds like it could last forever , pushing the listener into fresh , terrific aural territory .
There is powerfulness in artwork , in music . And album , as an art form , are a watercraft of delivery . Each track onRenaissanceslips into the next , a lineal insult to the shuffle - heavy , playlist - driven polish of euphony phthisis today . Beyoncé , whoredefined the euphony videowith her last two albums , has released no music videos ( yet ) to accompany any of the tracks , including lead single “ better My Soul . " rather , she has released unproblematic , colorfullyric videos , arguably emphasizing the capacity of the musicitself . There are no distractions , no starts and stop , no hinderance here .
I ca n’t help oneself but imagine of the late Prince , a exculpated influence onRenaissance , who once used tracks like “ Diamonds and Pearls ” to tout sexual love as “ the master architectural plan . ” OnRenaissance , a similar substance — love of self , beloved of others , love of possibility , dearest of resilience — may be the bedrock . “ My intention was to make a safe place , a place without judgment , a post to be free of perfectionism and overthinking . A place to scream , release , feel freedom , ” Beyoncé wrote in her missive . Soak it in . Keep hold up . Enjoy .
