Beyoncé this Friday released her new studio album “Renaissance” on all major streaming platforms.
The seventh studio album came six years after the globally lauded “Lemonade” was released in 2016.
“Renaissance” is from Beyoncé ’s label Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia records. She recorded it amid the COVID-19 pandemic and it was almost three years in the works.
“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” Beyoncé said.
“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,” she added.
For this, she collaborated with prolific artists including The-Dream, Nile Rodgers, NOVA, NO ID, Raphael Saadiq, Mike Dean, Honey Dijon, Chris Penny, Luke Solomon, Skrillex, Beam, Big Freedia, Grace Jones and Tems.
The album also came after the release of Beyoncé’s first single “Break My Soul” which arrive at midnight of summer solstice with a minimal lyric video. It comes as a digital single and is also available in a capella and instrumental versions.
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On the other hand, Renaissance’s release sans visual is said to be another culture-shifting move from the artist who has defined an era with reinvention. Beyoncé set out “to reinvent music again,” as described by The Times of London.
The originator of the visual album format particularly released it without visuals to give fans an opportunity to be limitless in their listening journey.
Beyoncé first notified her fans of her album comeback on June 15 through an update in her bio on her social handles, “act i RENAISSANCE July 29.”
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The album is packed with rousing anthems that resonate with everybody. Sony Music Entertainment said it “is a culmination of freedom and escape that encourages unimaginable jubilation, agency, and movement with abandon.”
“The singular intent of Renaissance, a reinvention of four on the floor, is to showcase music that stirs you from the soul and encourages your dancing feet. It is a celebration of a club era when anyone who felt like an outsider sought each other and formed a community of freedom-seekers to express themselves creatively through the rhythm, which we still celebrate today. Welcome to CLUB RENAISSANCE,” it also said.
Here’s the tracklist:
- 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. GRACE JONES, TEMS)
- HEATED
- THIQUE
- ALL UP IN YOUR MIND
- AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM
- PURE/HONEY
- SUMMER RENAISSANCE
The pop modern classic also offers Beyoncé’s soaring vocals with memorable lyrics described to be “bold, heartened, urgent and categorically timely.”
While the visuals are scheduled for a later date, the album comes with a robust menu of formats giving music fans and collectors plenty to choose from, according to Sony Music.
Beyoncé’s online music store likewise offers album merch and multiple configurations of Rennaisance, listing a CD, digital album, a limited-edition vinyl, a launch with a bit of her signature mystery, that is now sold out, and four box sets, Pose 1 to 4, which include a t-shirt and CD in a special box, also all sold out before fans were given the descriptions of the content.
With the album release also comes a deluxe vinyl. It includes two black vinyl LPs, a 36-page booklet, and a folded collectible (24”x 36”) poster. —Rosette Adel