Stylistically, it’s a tribute to Black dance music and to queer cultural touchstones, with inspirations drawn from early-nineties Chicago house music and the drag-ball culture of New York City. Where “Lemonade” showcased a broad musical palette and a narrow, intensely personal subject matter, “Renaissance,” which came out at the end of July, is the inverse: a work of sonic hyper-specificity with an egalitarian spirit. She’s chosen the dance floor as her new spiritual home for her seventh solo album.
Each iteration seemed to pump new fuel into the project.Īfter such a personal and cultural tour de force-not to mention six years of sociopolitical turmoil and a pandemic-Beyoncé, like so many, is now looking to lighten the mood. And yet the “Lemonade” era was so monumental that its long tail felt justified. She followed that performance with a documentary about her preparation for the show, along with an accompanying live album called “Homecoming.” That year, she and Jay-Z released “Everything Is Love,” a joint album that was more a “Lemonade” victory lap than a new musical chapter. In 2018, at Coachella, she blew it out into a baroque theatrical production honoring the legacy of Black collegiate marching bands. For years after its release, Beyoncé worked to expand the cultural footprint of “Lemonade,” first touring it in arenas around the world. The album was a feat of storytelling so ambitious that it made us reconsider what a modern pop star could accomplish. It’s been six years since Beyoncé released “Lemonade,” an album (and film) on which she laid bare her marital strife, and subsequent reconciliation, with Jay-Z. “I just quit my job,” she announces on “Break My Soul,” a clubby and joyous house track, on her new album, “Renaissance.” “I’m looking for new motivation.” And that’s what she’s trying to do these days-sort of.
The final frontier of innovation, the only thing left for her to achieve, is to walk away from it all. She has, throughout her solo career, rewritten the rules of album releases, of stage performance, of music videos, of Black representation, of cultural legacy, and of self-expression. The stakes could not be higher for Beyoncé-an artist who has challenged herself at every turn-to do more, to be more, to say more.
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