The Yonce Groove
On July 29, Beyoncé graced us all with her highly anticipated seventh solo studio album, act I Renaissance, influenced by the house and dance music of the 70’s through 90’s. While it’s not bold or daring for Beyoncé to make a dance album, songs she could make in her sleep, I was still excited for its release. I remember after experiencing the colossal Lemonade, hoping that her next album would contain songs with iconic choreography, and give us that Beyoncé again. And the album delivered. She’s a regal forty now (she turns forty-one September 4th), who gave birth to three kids, so it would be unrealistic to expect the same Beyoncé of two decades ago. We have yet to see the videos; she did this bizarre thing where she literally dropped click bait lyric videos and teasers—just drop the videos already! I imagine the second act will be the visuals, but I have also read there’s more new music coming, so who really knows. Until then act 1 offers some great songs and the beats are crazy.
As soon as I played the album that Friday it came out on the surround sound system in my living room, I was bowled over by the intro, “I’M THAT GIRL,” because it was so hard and diverged from what I expected. It immediately perked up my ears and set a mood. The beat was so different from what we’ve heard from her, a predecessor for all the crazy unique beats that follow, verifying her ALIEN SUPERSTAR status; she always has had a crazy ear. The intro was exactly what I wanted to hear from Beyoncé after six years since dropping her last solo album. In the years following Lemonade, she’s accomplished so much: she became a mother of three; continued building her Ivy Park empire; released an album with her husband; a visual album for her Lion King inspired album; scored an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, “Be Alive,” written for the film King Richard (which I think she deserved to win); and became the most awarded female artist at the Grammy’s. It feels good to see a woman maturing in this industry and doing it so effortlessly. She just is that girl. Flawless. It’s so powerful to hear a woman own her ferocity and not be humble about it. The lyrics exemplify her indubitable confidence, a theme throughout the tracks: “From the top of the morning, I shine/ Right through the blinds/ Touching everything in my plain view/ And everything next to me gets lit up, too.” She has been telling us to bow down for a reason.
The transitions on Renaissance flow easily like water; Beyoncé’s voice has never sounded better or more impressive. My thrill at the first listen continued right into the next song as I immediately fell in love with the track following the intro, “COZY.” It’s a cool self-love song about loving the skin you’re in, kissing your scars: “Cozy with who I am/ I love myself, goddamn.” I love the use of the word cozy to mean being comfortable in your skin; it’s simple and cool. She’s also just cozy with her voice, sounding strong and completely in command of it as an instrument, making it do anything, which she repeatedly showcases in this album. If you’ve had a chance to see her live it’s remarkable how good she sounds. I’ve been able to see her twice in Philadelphia on the Formation and On the Run tours. It’s no small feat to be able to sing live and dance the way she does, as we’ve seen her do countless times, and never sound out of breath—just listen to Homecoming: The Live Album recorded when she performed at Coachella. Not every artist can record a live album and their vocals sound so clear.
I’ll be honest, when “BREAK MY SOUL” dropped as a single I really didn’t like it. Not even because she was singing about quitting a 9-5 she doesn’t have, although that was a little annoying, I just wasn’t ready for her new sound. It was so left field that I was instantly turned off by the tune. It wasn’t until after I listened to it right smack in the middle of the album that I started to love and appreciate it, adding it to my summer playlist along with the rest of the songs I highlight here. It’s really a great, fun, uplifting song, and Big Freedia on the track sounds just as iconic as “Formation.” It’s one of the best songs on Renaissance, so it’s not a mistake that it became her first solo number one on the charts since “Single Ladies.” I love when Beyoncé’s sassy humor shines through her lyrics like when she rap-sings, “and we back outside/You said you outside, but you ain't that outside/ Worldwide hoodie with the mask outside/ In case you forgot how we act outside.” I didn’t know how she would top Lemonade but she did by offering us new music that sounded so different from anything we’d ever heard from her before. We’ve officially entered Beyoncé’s new era.
“BREAK MY SOUL” follows up with another favorite of mine, “CHURCH GIRL.” Growing up as a church girl myself I couldn’t help but to vibe with this banger. It’s an exuberant song that urges you to let go and move the way you want because only you can judge you, another theme of this album—let go of whatever doesn’t serve you and do whatever makes you happy. And one of the best ways to let go is on the dance floor, which is why this album is so needed after a pandemic and being cooped up inside the last couple of years. I’m obsessed by the fearless message behind the pre-chorus: “I'm warning everybody, soon as I get in this party/ I'm gon' let go of this body, I'm gonna love on me/ Nobody can judge me but me, I was born free.” She reminds us that she’s living her un-American life—that of a free person. The biggest accomplishment of this album is that it shows that after more than two decades of being in the music industry, Beyoncé is still making music we can groove to. In her words: “I ain’t tryna hurt nobody/ Trying to bring the life up in your body.”
In one of the closing tracks, “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM,” influenced by the title of Kilo Ali’s 1990 song "Cocaine (America Has a Problem),” Beyoncé is the metaphorical drug her lover fiends for. Like a drug grabs hold of you, she can, too, as she promises: “When I pull up these jeans, you're mine.” When she released the track list, this title jumped out at me and I expected the song to be about something else, but RENAISSANCE is all about Beyoncé. The category is Bey. She’s the supply her beau needs; she’s the real problem. The closer, “SUMMER RENAISSANCE,” is a great way to end the 16-track hour-long record because it’s the culmination of the sexy goddess vibes we get all throughout RENAISSANCE. The lyrics demonstrate another theme in this jubilant body of work: Beyoncé living unapologetically black. There’s a hilarious SNL skit that came out after Lemonade where white people, after watching Lemonade, learned that Beyoncé was black. She’s always been black, of course, and has always proudly owned it, but with Lemonade came an artist who didn’t have to play by the industry rules anymore; she had earned the right to make the music she wanted whether that meant she charted or not, or if it appealed to white audiences or not. Her song, “BLACK PARADE,” released during the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement, was an exquisite song that celebrated her blackness and stated boldly and firmly that she stood with her people against the injustice and racism of the world. That meant also supporting black-owned businesses. In the closing lines of “SUMMER RENAISSANCE,” she shouts out Telfar, a black owned luxury fashion line and boasts, “So elegant and raunchy, this haute couture I'm flaunting/ This Telfar bag imported, Birkins, them shits in storage.” This is an album for our times as we’re exiting a horrible pandemic. Sonically, it’s the type of album you want to bump in the car. We back outside.