Beyoncé is one of the only living musicians who can stop the world with new music. She was a superstar even before she went solo from Destiny’s Child, and over the past two decades her influence in pop culture—from film to fashion to philanthropy—has grown right alongside her artistry. The music industry’s album release strategies were reworked after her decision to surprise-drop her self-titled visual album in 2013. Beyoncé and its videos—along with Lemonade, an explosive document of resilience in the face of infidelity and nationwide racial injustice in 2016—marked a creative high point in the icon’s career to date. Though she has kept busy with rap collaborations, her live album Homecoming, and the Afrobeats-laden Lion King soundtrack, Bey hasn’t dropped a solo album of new work in the past six years.
Renaissance, her seventh studio album, is arriving at an interesting time, as different forms of dance music—Jersey club, disco, house, UK garage, and more—are taking over pop music. Shortly after Drake unleashed his dance project Honestly, Nevermind last month, Bey released Renaissance’s first single “Break My Soul,” which flips samples from Big Freedia’s “Explode” and Robin S.’s influential house track “Show Me Love” into a sweaty groove perfect for a summer teeming with heat waves. Renaissance delivers fierce club energy in suit—soulful, kinetic jams used as a vehicle to explore love, lust, and liberation in the COVID age.
As expected with any Beyoncé release, the credits are star-studded—guest vocalists Grace Jones, Tems, and Beam; songwriters The-Dream, Jay-Z, Drake, Syd Bennett of the Internet, and Leven Kali; producers Mike Dean, No I.D., the Neptunes, Raphael Saadiq, Skrillex, Honey Dijon, and A. G. Cook among many others. It’s a staggering amount of talent in one place, and for all the pomp, Renaissance mostly manages to stay focused by putting energy where it’s needed most: the dancefloor.
Here are five things that stood out on the first few listens of Beyoncé’s Renaissance.
The album’s first single “Break My Soul” showcased bounce and house music, but the album also has a survey of disco (“Cuff It,” featuring licks from Chic mastermind Nile Rodgers and percussion from Sheila E.), funk (“Plastic Off The Sofa,” “Virgo’s Groove”), ballroom (“Alien Superstar,” “Pure/Honey”), and techno (“Thique”). Closing track “Summer Renaissance” mixes an interpolation of the 1976 Donna Summer classic “I Feel Love” with thumping drums from Mike Dean that break through the humidity, making the song feel almost like a remix. On “Church Girl,” producer No I.D. combines a fuzzy vocal loop with 808s to create the most soulful twerk anthem this side of a Megan Thee Stallion song.
There’s a playfulness to the way Beyoncé hops across sounds and eras on Renaissance that’s bolstered by the album’s light lyrical density. The ripped-from-the-headlines urgency of Lemonade has been replaced by paeans of love, connection, and giving your all to the power of the moment. That feeling is most evident on “Move,” a vocal sparring match between Nigerian star Tems, Jamaican polymath Grace Jones, and Bey on the ad-libs. Overall, this is the most unabashedly fun new Beyoncé record since 2006’s B-Day.
During an acceptance speech with her husband at the 2019 GLAAD Awards, Beyoncé dedicated her Vanguard Award to her late Uncle Johnny, who she described as “the most fabulous gay man I’ve ever met.” She penned a loving tribute to her uncle, whom she called her “godmother,” in the Renaissance CD booklet: “[He was] the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and the culture that serve as inspiration for this album.” Dance music of all stripes was built by queer artists, and that history hovers through and around Renaissance. Her chants of “the category is…” and other language used within ball culture and queer communities also stand out in the music. You can hear the clear influence of Black transgender DJ/producer Honey Dijon, who’s credited on “Cozy” and “Alien Superstar,” and queer alt-R&B hero Syd, who helped write the sweet-and-smooth “Plastic Off the Sofa.” A personal reflection comes at the end of “Heated”: “Uncle Johnny made my dress/That cheap spandex, she looks a mess.”
Like any dance record worth its salt, Renaissance is dripping with sex and suggestion. If the pulsing rhythms of the music aren’t enough, wait until you get to lyrics like “Keep him addicted, lies on his lips, I lick it,” from the standout “Alien Superstar,” or “On my body, boy, you got it/Hit them ’draulics, while I ride it” from “Cuff It.” Bey’s uninhibited nature comes across with a little more effort when she’s attempting to work new-ish slang into her dance floor lexicon. She reminds us multiple times that she’s here to be “thotty,” and not even Beyoncé can make the phrase “tig ol’ bitties” sound modern. But who cares when she’s having so much fun being horny on main?
Over the last decade Beyoncé has really leaned in on her rap skills—she's held her own on the “Savage Remix” and against Jay-Z on Everything Is Love. There’s nearly as much rapping as there is singing on Renaissance, including some of her most electric performances to date. Her cadence on the hook of “Church Girl” is Ginsu-sharp, and she slips into the pockets of the marching drums on “Cozy” with ease. Combined with the album’s focus on dance music history—the second verse of “Church Girl” is accented by a Triggaman break, a Southern rap and bounce music staple—Beyoncé’s raps draw even more lines between the interconnectivity of Black music.
Renaissance was first announced as “Act I” of an upcoming saga, and the album’s liner notes confirm that Beyoncé will follow it up with at least two more “acts.” She has said that all the music was made during a creative burst at the peak of COVID, and that it was inspired by her children, her husband, and her team. But what could these multiple parts entail? One theory: The music is the driving force behind Renaissance more than a specific narrative arc; if Act I is a culmination of various forms of Black music and their effects on pop across the 20th and early 21st centuries, it’s possible that Act II and Act III might look at the way it moves in the present and forward into the future. Beyoncé has accomplished a lot over her nearly 30-year career, but a full-blown musical trilogy is new even for her. Like every piece of art that bears her name, the anticipation is half the fun.
