Released: July 29
Beyoncé adopts a sleek club sound on her first album in six years, ‘Renaissance’.
Firmly rooted in dance floor territory, the LP follows the superstar’s last solo outing ‘Lemonade’ and sees her draw inspiration from artists from across the decades with a host of samples and collaborations.
“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” she writes of the project, which was conceived during the pandemic, in the album’s liner notes.
“It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving.”
Across 16 tracks, she covers a plethora of genres, including deep house, Afrobeats and, of course, the 1980s, which is experiencing its own renaissance thanks to albums such as ‘Future Nostalgia’ (Dua Lipa) and ‘After Hours’ (The Weeknd).
But what’s striking on the long-player – Beyoncé’s seventh overall – is the mellow atmospheric quality that runs like a thread through the tracks, with a deep, often political undercurrent present beyond the club-friendly beats.
Lead single Break My Soul, for example, is a defiant anthem that strives for freedom and liberation from life’s challenges, over an earworm sample of Robin S’ Show Me Love.
Cuff It, one of the most instant tunes on the LP features contributions from Chic legend Nile Rodgers and percussion from Sheila E, while Move is another powerful ode to human connection which reads as a vocal face-off between guest stars Tems and Grace Jones.
Other tracks – such as Alien Superstar and Pure/Honey – harken back to the origins of popular dance music, referencing ballroom culture and the influence queer artists have had on shaping the genre.
It comes to a head on closer Summer Renaissance, which itself samples Donna Summer’s disco classic I Feel Love and brings Beyoncé’s dance floor story full circle, with the sounds of the 1970s once again lighting up the charts and soundtracking clubs worldwide.
The choice to omit ballads entirely from the collection is one that’ll undoubtedly divide longtime fans who have become accustomed to the diva’s more powerful, soulful moments on her long-players.
But what’s inescapable and wholly welcome is the fun that Beyoncé has over the course of the project, which is undoubtedly her most joyous release in years.
With the project set to arrive in three acts, we’re perched to see where Bey takes her sound on the next instalment of ‘Renaissance’.
‘Renaissance’ is available now.
