The American superstar’s first full solo album since 2016’s Lemonade a ful- throttle 16-tracker filled with taut, sexy, hedonistic disco, soul, hip hop, Afrobeats, gqom, house, other club styles and even a surprisingly effective sampling of Right Said Fred. Her intervening projects since Lemonade were a mixed bag, the unremarkable collaboration with husband Jay-Z (as the Carters), and 2019’s The Gift, a more colourful soundtrack for Disney’s remake of The Lion King. But this time she’s back in full swing, with even a dash of New Jack Swing, with a release three years in the making that’s designed
Samples and collaborators on ‘Renaissance’ include key, and underrated black cultural figures such Barbara Ann Teer, founder of Harlem’s National Black Theatre, rapper Big Freedia and producer Honey Dijon. Church Girl w samples Cameron Paul’s Brown Beats, and for this album’s lead single Break My Soul. I’m That Girl is a super-sweary opener, Cozy is a bouncy pump-up confidence pride to blackness, Alien Superstar, with that Right Said Fred sample an ‘bad bitch’ attitude is a soaring, rich mix of pop, soul and sensual vocals, while Virgo’s Groove is a celebration of sex, but with and edgy streak line between orgasm and violence (“Kiss me when you bruise me /Taste me (taste me), the fleshy part/I scream so loud”), or on Thique (“he thought he was loving me good / I told him go harder”) and closing track Summer Renaissance unashamedly samples Donna Summer’s huge 70s Georgio Moroder hit I Feel Love. Overall this is an album packed with sassy, sexy energy and attitude, and, though not all 16 tracks are bangers or exactly tasteful (for example with Drake on the dubious and controversial Heated from which the word ‘spaz’ has since been removed), it will tick all the boxes for Bey fans. She’s triumphantly back. Out on Parkwood Entertainment / Columbia.
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