Image via Vogue
Beyoncé returns with ‘Renaissance’, her highly anticipated seventh studio album that she released on Friday July 29th as scheduled via Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment. She denounced those who leaked the album two days early, and thanked her fans for being patient. “So, the album leaked, and you all actually waited until the proper release time so you all can enjoy it together,” she wrote. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t thank y’all enough for your love and protection.”
Six years after she made waves releasing her strong visual album "Lemonade," the pop superstar’s seventh solo studio album “Act 1” of ‘Renaissance’ was dropped with 16 tracks. It is a house-mixed dance record, ready to reign supreme and just in time for summer partying. In 2018, she dropped “Everything Is Love,” with her husband Jay-Z under the name the Carters; in April of 2019, she put out “Homecoming,” an album of her explosive 2018 headlining performance at Coachella; and that summer she followed with “The Lion King: The Gift,” a companion album to the Disney film that featured several new Beyoncé songs (a deluxe edition of that album featuring three additional tracks was released a year later).”
Last month Beyoncé surprise-dropped the lead single “Break My Soul” and gave us a glimpse of a new chapter in her career, with more dance floor material and a good dose of 90s-inspired Euro House, paying homage to pioneers of funk, soul, rap, house and disco.
The singing idol indicated that over the course of three years during the pandemic, she worked on a project and recorded "Renaissance", the first act of three. Earlier this month Beyoncé shared the cover art for the album, in which she posed regally atop the silhouette of a luminous horse. The picture was an homage to John Collier’s historic painting of noblewoman Lady Godiva, as well as of Bianca Jagger’s grand entrance on horseback at Studio 54 in 1977.
In a note accompanying her work, Beyoncé wrote on her website: “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".
Beyonce's collaborators on "Renaissance" include Nile Rodgers, Skrillex, Nigerian singer Tems, Grace Jones, Pharrell and, of course, her rap mogul husband Jay-Z. The “Renaissance” tracklist is as follows:
- I’m That Girl
- Cozy
- Alien Superstar
- Cuff It
- Energy
- Break My Soul
- Church Girl
- Plastic Off the Sofa
- Virgo’s Groove
- Move
- Heated
- Thique
- All Up in Your Mind
- America Has a Problem
- Pure/Honey
- Summer Renaissance
Queen B ended the note on her website saying: “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.”
