BEY IS BACK! RENAISSANCE OUT NOW!

After six years, Queen Bey is back with her highly anticipated seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE!

Being the first album since 2016’s universally critically acclaimed Lemonade, Beyoncé has brought the dancefloor to us!

She’s got that motivation; she’s on her own vibration; she’s taking her new salvation and has built her own foundation with her floor-filling dance record, Break My Soul, with Robin Stone (a.k.a. Robin S)’s 1993 dancefloor record, Show Me Love, and Big Freedia’s 2014 track, Explode, and in the process, has impacted nightclubs, radio stations and the entire world!

It’s been revealed by Beyoncé that we’re not getting one, not two, but three acts of RENAISSANCE.

Instantly, we knew it wouldn’t stop at one act of the album because as soon as pre-orders for RENAISSANCE went live on her official store, this indicated to all of us that we’re getting more from this hotly-anticipated record which she said she created throughout the past three years and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Below are both editions of the RENAISSANCE album artwork!

RENAISSANCE (Standard Edition)

© ***Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records, Spotify, Apple Music, 2022***

Coming in at 16 tracks for Act 1, RENAISSANCE is already making waves worldwide, as videos surfaced on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms of everyone celebrating and dancing to BREAK MY SOUL.

I’M THAT GIRL
COZY
ALIEN SUPERSTAR
CUFF IT
ENERGY (feat. Beam)
BREAK MY SOUL
CHURCH GIRL
PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA
VIRGO’S GROOVE
MOVE (feat. Tems & Grace Jones)
HEATED
THIQUE
ALL UP IN YOUR MIND
AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM
PURE/HONEY
SUMMER RENAISSANCE

She knows that if you ain’t that outside with the worldwide hoodie and the mask outside, get COZY because you’re in for a floor-filling album that is so good you’ll CUFF IT!

You can tell how much this album has given me goosebumps as I reference the tracks because I’ve waited so long for Beyoncé to release new music.

To listen to Queen Bey’s seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE, click/tap below to play the album in full on Spotify!

Six years of patience paid off as the first act of RENAISSANCE has left me trembling and immersed in the beauty and power of the record from beginning to end.

I cannot help but feel that she immersed us with her technique in PURE/HONEY.

She wants us all to study her technique, meet her in the middle, and dance all night!

We needed a SUMMER RENAISSANCE, and she served!

Queen Bey released a message to celebrate the album’s release:

“THIS THREE ACT PROJECT WAS RECORDED OVER THREE YEARS DURING THE PANDEMIC.

A TIME TO BE STILL, BUT ALSO A TIME I FOUND TO BE THE MOST CREATIVE.

CREATING THIS ALBUM ALLOWED ME A PLACE TO DREAM AND TO FIND ESCAPE DURING A SCARY TIME FOR THE WORLD.

IT ALLOWED ME TO FEEL FREE AND ADVENTUROUS IN A TIME WHEN LITTLE ELSE WAS MOVING.

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.

I WANT TO GIVE A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO RUMI, SIR, AND BLUE FOR ALLOWING ME THE SPACE, CREATIVITY, AND INSPIRATION, AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY BEAUTIFUL HUSBAND AND MUSE, WHO HELD ME DOWN DURING THOSE LATE NIGHTS IN THE STUDIO.

A BIG THANK YOU TO MY UNCLE JONNY. HE WAS MY GODMOTHER AND THE FIRST PERSON TO EXPOSE ME TO A LOT OF THE MUSIC AND CULTURE THAT SERVE AS INSPIRATION FOR THIS ALBUM, THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PIONEERS WHO ORIGINATE CULTURE, TO ALL OF THE FALLEN ANGELS WHOSE CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE GONE UNRECOGNIZED FOR FAR TOO LONG. THIS IS A CELEBRATION FOR YOU.

THANK YOU TO MY PARKWOOD CREW. MY SLAB. DREAM AND ALL OF THE TALENTED PRODUCERS INVOLVED. MAMA I LUHHH YOU, TO MY FATHER, MY O,G., MY FIRST TEACHER: YOU INSPIRE ME IN EVERY MOVE THAT I MAKE. I LOVE YOU.

TO ALL OF MY FANS: 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.

LOVE Y’ALL DEEP,

B”
BEYONCE.COM (OFFICIAL MESSAGE TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF RENAISSANCE)

Apple Music’s review of RENAISSANCE can be found below:

“Unique, strong and sexy—that’s how Beyoncé wants you to feel while listening to RENAISSANCE. Crafted during the grips of the pandemic, her seventh solo album is a celebration of freedom and a complete immersion into house and dance that serves as the perfect sound bed for themes of liberation, release, self-assuredness and unfiltered confidence across its 16 tracks. RENAISSANCE is playful and energetic in a way that captures that Friday-night, just-got-paid, anything-can-happen feeling, underscored by reiterated appeals to unyoke yourself from the weight of others’ expectations and revel in the totality of who you are.

From the classic four-on-the-floor house moods of the Robin S.- and Big Freedia-sampling lead single “BREAK MY SOUL” to the Afro-tech of the Grace Jones- and Tems-assisted “MOVE” and the funky, rollerskating disco feeling of “CUFF IT”, this is a massive yet elegantly composed buffet of sound, richly packed with anthemic morsels that pull you in.

There are soft moments here, too: “I know you can’t help but to be yourself around me,” she coos on “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA”, the kind of warm, whispers-in-the-ear love song you’d expect to hear at a summer cookout—complete with an intricate interplay between vocals and guitar that gives Beyoncé a chance to showcase some incredible vocal dexterity. “CHURCH GIRL” fuses R&B, gospel and hip-hop to tell a survivor’s story: “I’m finally on the other side/I finally found the extra smiles/Swimming through the oceans of tears we cried.”

An explicit celebration of Blackness, “COZY” is the mantra of a woman who has nothing to prove to anyone—“Comfortable in my skin/Cozy with who I am,” ” Beyoncé muses on the chorus. And on “PURE/HONEY”, Beyoncé immerses herself in ballroom culture, incorporating drag performance chants and a Kevin Aviance sample on the first half that give way to the disco-drenched second half, cementing the song as an immediate dance-floor favourite. It’s the perfect lead-in to the album closer “SUMMER RENAISSANCE”, which propels the dreamy escapist disco of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” even further into the future.”
Apple Music’s Review of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE.

I can confidently say this album, alongside Dangerously in Love, B-Day, I Am…Sasha Fierce, 4, BEYONCÉ & Lemonade that RENAISSANCE is an upbeat floor-filler that will amplify nightclubs and radio stations around the world, but this record truly amplifies Beyoncé’s unique sound and her inspirational creative direction and is truly an empowering and fiercely vocal album that inspires us all to live in the moment and to embrace ourselves and be our true authentic selves.

If you enjoyed my review of Beyoncé’s hotly-anticipated seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE, I would love to hear your feedback on the album, and I would love to hear your thoughts on my review of Queen Bey’s masterpiece.

Alex Smithson

MN Album Rating: 10/10

© The featured image consisting of the official album title, RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), including the official album and limited edition vinyl artwork, RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), the featured image consisting of the limited edition vinyl album artwork for RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), the Spotify Playlist consisting of the album, RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), the line “BEY IS BACK AND I’M SLEEPING REAL GOOD AT NIGHT!” from the lyrics of Break My Soul, the RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE) message released by Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, the Apple Music Review of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), and other material shown in this review of Beyoncé’s album, RENAISSANCE (written as act i RENAISSANCE), are copyright of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records, Spotify & Apple Music. Full copyright goes to the respective owners.