There’s plenty of refrains here, but hardly any sing-along choruses as expensive as it may have been to produce, it seems to have little concern for marketability. It’s a different interpretation of freedom than the one she’s offered in the past, when it was delivered with fiery urgency. It’s as adventurous as anything Beyoncé has done before, but she allows herself to be more playful, loose, and even frivolous, riffing over fluid, rhythmic production and unconventional song structures that might throw some people off. There really is no narrative thread, which is perhaps the most refreshing thing about it. Even the word “nurturing” sounds humorously misleading for an album that’s more often carnal than tender in its intimacy (“He thought he was loving me good/ I told him go harder,” goes one line on ‘Thique’).įor such an immaculate pop album, RENAISSANCE is rough in more ways than one.
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I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible.” She reiterates this sentiment in the liner notes for RENAISSANCE, adding that it’s intended as a “safe place, a place without judgment,” and “a place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking.” Even those who might cringe a little reading the phrase “love and laugh again” in this context surely had little doubt that Beyoncé would follow through, but the nuanced history woven into these tracks is still surprising and slyly subversive. Last year, teasing the title and throughline of the new project, she told Harper’s Bazaar: “With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love and laugh again. In theory, what Beyoncé is offering aligns with what most pop artists have promised in the wake of the pandemic. There is both sharpness and breadth to its approach, rendering it an exhilarating listen despite its hour-long runtime: a marvel of synthesis that successfully interpolates a single, unified vision. The 16-track album is a celebration of and a journey through various dance genres made mostly by and for Black and queer people, from New Orleans bounce to disco and house music, one that pays tribute to both the unique characteristics of each style with flawless track-by-track production and, through its seamless sequencing, their radical entanglement. Though she remains committed to the themes of liberation and self-empowerment as well as her role as an archivist, it’s the first time it so boldly extends beyond her own legacy-building. It’s a Beyoncé project through and through – who else (except maybe a couple of those listed in the credits) could afford to make it? – but the way she moves beyond the conventions of her prior output can have a dizzying effect. The pop luminary’s widening perspective is evident on RENNAISANCE, her first solo album of new material in six years, which sounds expansive even when you consider it’s only part of a teased trilogy. Even without its accompanying Netflix special, her live album Homecoming revealed the true scope of an artist who, after setting a precedent with the surprise roll-out of her 2013 self-titled album, was clearly capable of harnessing and reimagining the universal appeal and lasting impact of her music beyond a single album cycle. Her Disney+ film Black Is King served as a visual companion to The Lion King: The Gift, but was also an attempt to spotlight Black history and African tradition through a modern lens. Though an ambitious storyteller, Beyoncé’s gift perhaps isn’t for telling stories so much as framing them, a skill she’s been cultivating from the beginning of her career but which has been at the heart of her work post- Lemonade. Reclamation was the big selling point of her 2016 masterpiece Lemonade, a visceral portrait of infidelity that was as cinematic of a statement as its visual accompaniment. Beyoncé’s music, especially over the past decade, has thrived on narrative.