Music Review / Beyoncé…Renaissance

8.20.22

Beyoncé on a horse…cover of her latest album, “Renaissance.”
(Carlijn Jacobs / Columbia Records)

Hello there! As I’ve promised, a review of Beyonce’s new album, Renaissance. I’ve had this album on replay for the past couple of weeks.

This is her seventh studio album, which according to an article I read, celebrates Black culture and that’s what this album is about. It’s also part of a trilogy. The album has that late black 70’s disco feel, with some house, pop, r&b, techno, nu-disco, dance hall, Afrobeats, and so on, and so on. Its like a dj mix of songs you can dance to at a club. As you may or may not know, that most of the songs on the album contain samples of other songs. For example, the first single ‘Break My Soul‘ contains ‘Show Me Love‘ performed by Robin S. and ‘Explode‘ performed by Big Freeda.

They’re were some changes to the album. Lyrics to two of the songs, Energy and Heated had to be changed. ‘Milkshake‘ by Kelis was interpolated on the track, Energy. Kelis was not too thrilled that her song was on the track. She felt that she wasn’t even asked about the whole thing. You can click the link here for more info about it.

Then there is another track, ‘Heated‘. Beyoncé faced backlash with it because of one word, ‘spaz‘ in the lyrics, which for the disabled community is ableist slur. The word has a different meaning in the African-American vernacular English, meaning freaking out. Beyoncé announced that the word will be replaced with ‘blast‘.

Is this her best work? Maybe yes, maybe no. I can say that she’s always inspired to push herself. I do have a few favorites like ‘Alien Superstar‘ and ‘Move‘, featuring Grace Jones and Tems. With an army of writers and producers, like Nova-Way, The Dream, Honey Dijon, Tricky Stewart, and more, Renaissance is becoming a summer soundtrack to remember.

I rate this album 8/10.