RENAISSANCE
Unique, strong, and sexy—that’s how Beyoncé wants you to feel while listening to *RENAISSANCE*. Crafted during the grips of the pandemic, her seventh solo album is a celebration of freedom and a complete immersion into house and dance that serves as the perfect sound bed for themes of liberation, release, self-assuredness, and unfiltered confidence across its 16 tracks. *RENAISSANCE* is playful and energetic in a way that captures that Friday-night, just-got-paid, anything-can-happen feeling, underscored by reiterated appeals to unyoke yourself from the weight of others’ expectations and revel in the totality of who you are. From the classic four-on-the-floor house moods of the Robin S.- and Big Freedia-sampling lead single “BREAK MY SOUL” to the Afro-tech of the Grace Jones- and Tems-assisted “MOVE” and the funky, rollerskating disco feeling of “CUFF IT,” this is a massive yet elegantly composed buffet of sound, richly packed with anthemic morsels that pull you in. There are soft moments here, too: “I know you can’t help but to be yourself around me,” she coos on “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA,” the kind of warm, whispers-in-the-ear love song you’d expect to hear at a summer cookout—complete with an intricate interplay between vocals and guitar that gives Beyoncé a chance to showcase some incredible vocal dexterity. “CHURCH GIRL” fuses R&B, gospel, and hip-hop to tell a survivor’s story: “I\'m finally on the other side/I finally found the extra smiles/Swimming through the oceans of tears we cried.” An explicit celebration of Blackness, “COZY” is the mantra of a woman who has nothing to prove to anyone—“Comfortable in my skin/Cozy with who I am,” ” Beyoncé muses on the chorus. And on “PURE/HONEY,” Beyoncé immerses herself in ballroom culture, incorporating drag performance chants and a Kevin Aviance sample on the first half that give way to the disco-drenched second half, cementing the song as an immediate dance-floor favorite. It’s the perfect lead-in to the album closer “SUMMER RENAISSANCE,” which propels the dreamy escapist disco of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” even further into the future.
Beyoncé’s seventh album is not just a pop star’s immaculate dance record, but a rich celebration of club music and its sweaty, emancipatory spirit.
Renaissance is one of Beyoncé’s best albums to date: it doesn’t walk in the footsteps of its predecessors but instead makes its own path, going to places we didn’t think Beyoncé would go.
The superstar’s first studio album in six years is indebted to house music and New Orleans bounce, keenly reclaiming gentrified genres
Geared towards lighting up the club (and TikTok), this is Queen Bey’s most upbeat collection yet
In a catch-all spirit of musical modernism, trap, house, glitchtronica, disco, ragga, South African gqom and future funk are all lobbed into a heady mix, with songs blending into each other and shifting course mid-flow
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From the moment Beyoncé's RENAISSANCE begins, Queen Bey herself tells you exactly who she is: "I'M THAT GIRL." For her seventh album, her le...
On ‘I’m That Girl’, the opening track from her long-gestating seventh album ‘RENAISSANCE’ – the first act of a planned trilogy - Beyoncé offloads a series
The superstar’s seventh solo album is a kaleidoscopic barrage of disco, soul, house and dancehall that puts other post-pandemic party albums in the shade
Beyoncé can make you move – after a run of more personal, introspective music, Renaissance is a celebration of the club
Beyoncé's 'Renaissance' displaces us from both history and the present and situates us in her unique ecosystem. Read our review.
While 'Renaissance' occasionally sports more style than substance, Beyoncé emerges as the re-coronated Queen of Pop and the reigning regent of eclecticism.
RENAISSANCE by Beyoncé album review by Sam Franzini. Beyoncé's first solo project in six years, is a testament to fun, creativity, and passion
On her unapologetically escapist seventh album, the pop superstar unleashes everything from disco bangers to global house hedonism
Beyoncé makes one thing perfectly clear to the world early into her delirious new album Renaissance: “I’m one of one/ I’m number one/ I’m the only one.”
Bey is back and she’s sleepin’ real good at night. It’s no question as to why: she’s getting regular catharsis on the dancefloor and satisfaction in the bedroom. At least, that’s the Beyoncé we’re presented on Renaissance – this is the rebirth of the superstar as a club regular, a weekend warrior, a thotty, a
The diva's exhilarating tribute to 1980s and 1990s club music – and Right Said Fred – will be filling dance floors for years to come
In her first proper solo release since 2016, Beyoncé's sense of freedom throughout Renaissance is palpable
Musical life begins at 40 as Beyoncé lives up to the highest expectations. Album review by Joe Muggs