Beyoncé - Renaissance Review
Beyoncé Reborn.
Back in June, Beyoncé took to Instagram to talk about the inspiration behind her new album Renaissance. She revealed the Studio 54-esque album cover of her wearing a silver bikini astride a disco ball horse. She wrote under the photo, "My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration." She finished with, "I hope you find joy in this music. I hope it inspires you to release the wiggle. Ha! And to feel as unique, strong, and sexy as you are."
Already without hearing a note, we got a sense of what was coming, and as her mother told ET before the album’s release, "She put two years of love into this. Many, many nights [she spent] all night working," she added. "I can’t wait for the world to hear it." So, this was no phone-in for an artist who has sold over 160 million albums worldwide; Beyoncé had something to say.
The wiggle, like much on this album, is a reference to one of the many genres of music that flow through its veins, referring to New Orleans bounce legend Big Freedia’s famous phrase/incantation, “release the wiggle!” appearing here on the joyous journey back into 1990s house lead single “Break my Soul”. Beyoncé is standing on the shoulder of giants. The song is the emotional heart of the album, announcing her intention to elevate the profile of Black and queer people who have been behind so many dance-music innovations.
Like many during the pandemic, it would appear that Beyoncé was itching to get back to the clubs and find that connection in the communal experience, to quote LCD Soundsystem, and to dance yourself clean. Renaissance is her offering, the 16- track album being her first exploration into the world of club culture and music.
The album is a cornucopia of musical styles incorporating elements of house, hip-hop, dancehall, techno, disco, ballroom, gospel, funk, and Afrobeats, to name a few. On “Cuff it”, a disco-tinged anthem that finds Beyoncé “in the mood to fuck something up”, she is accompanied by musical legends no less, with Shelia E. on percussion, Raphael Saadiq on bass and Chic’s Nile Rodgers on guitar. Not satisfied with that, Grace Jones appears on the brilliant mercurial “Move”, a song that starts as a bumping Bounce song with Beyoncé, Jones telling us to “move out the way.” Much like “Move”, the dirty and sultry “Pure/Honey” is a song of two parts. We first find Beyoncé moaning and asking, “you wanna feel my technique?” over Hyphy pounding drums and just as it feels, it is going to end in an X-rated conclusion; the song shapeshifts into a song that wouldn’t be out of place on a Prince album.
In “Church Girl”, the album nods further back to the past, speeding up an old Clark Sisters gospel song, the song seemingly exploring the relationship between the more explicit realms of Black music within the framework of gospel music. Subjecthood is complicated enough for marginalised parts of society, and here, Beyoncé is enforcing that Black women can be free to exist however they feel. “Summer Renaissance” rounds off the album in true disco diva style, quoting Donna Summer’s 1977 I Feel Love with wild abandon, threading the famous refrain through the song much as she has weaved the myriad of genres through the rest of the album.
This is undoubtedly a dense album. Despite the track "Alien Superstar" claiming twenty-two songwriters in total, it genuinely feels like a window into Beyoncé’s mind, a love letter to the music and parts of Black and queer culture she loves and wants to celebrate. Renaissance could quickly sink under this weight, but the craft behind the album and the sheer power of her voice makes sure that it doesn’t; the album isn’t purely academic in its tour of dance music; it emotes. On my first listening, I was brought to tears by the sheer intensity of the transition from the tracks “Energy” to “Break My Soul”, quite something for an album that has the reach it does. If this is Beyoncé’s rebirth, we’re in for a treat.