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Few things are as deeply synonymous with American culture as the queen herself. No, I\u2019m not talking about that immortal British matriarch (she can keep her dirty paws out of our business as far as this patriot is concerned), but I am, of course, talking about someone from an even greater eschalon of royalty: that\u2019s right folks, it\u2019s time for this white boy\u2019s review of the new Beyonc\u00e9 record, \u201cRenaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, this album is a few weeks old. Not much can be said about it that hasn\u2019t already been said a million times, which begs the question: why am I even doing this at all? Am I so self-important, so arrogant, to insist my thoughts on this universally beloved, power-dance opus be put to publication, for the world to see? But, as a popular contributing editor to HannahandMattonMedia.com, is it not my due diligence as a journalist in the public eye to comment on all things pop culture, despite its relative untimeliness? The truth is, however, I am under quarantine due to being in a Covid-riddled apartment, and I\u2019m bored as shit. So let\u2019s hit it, Beyhive!<\/p>\n
With my other reviews on this site (if you have not yet familiarized yourself with my Kanye West or Black Country, New Road reviews, I highly recommend them. They\u2019re quite good.), I will not be ranking this album based on any sort of binary rating, but rather express my (oft uninformed) thoughts on the record in visceral, sometimes abstract description.<\/p>\n
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The Tracks<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 The album starts with a bang, with \u201cI\u2019M THAT GIRL.<\/em>\u201d The album immediately grabs your attention, as Bey chants \u201cthese motherfuckers ain\u2019t stopping me,\u201d in pulsating repetition, effectively acting as the rhythm section. She right away makes a statement that she is a force to be reckoned with. The drums drop about a minute in and the shoulder swaying starts. The groove becomes king to Beyonce\u2019s queen, as it will continue to do so throughout the record. There is an apparent afrobeat\/jamaican dancehall influence in this track; an influence that will permeate a number of songs (but not all, dear reader, not all) on this album. This track goes into \u201dCOZY\u201d, which samples a speech, entitled \u201cBITCH, I\u2019M BLACK\u201d\u00a0 by Ts Madison, a trans woman, setting up the groundwork that ingratiates this album with queer dance culture. This album pays its dues to queer dance culture, with many direct parallels and influences (as examined in this CNN article<\/a>), as many house and dance clubs in the 90s were considered hubs that allowed queer people (in this case, specifically queer black people) to express themselves in a safe environment and have fun. Her inclusion of so many features and samples on this record proves its not an appropriation, but a joyous celebration.<\/p>\n The booming kicks of \u201cALIEN SUPERSTAR\u201d are nearly abrasive, always groovy, and proof that Beyonc\u00e9 isn\u2019t just a pop-singer, but a fully fledged artist. I mean, this song is wild as hell. It\u2019s not often that someone with so much mainstream attention gets carte blanche to get so experimental. This song harkens back to the draggy house music in the 90s as Beyonc\u00e9 channels her innermost RuPaul. Work, bitch!\u00a0 \u201cCUFF IT,\u201d the next track, has a disco-like ethos to it, and is a bit more straightforward than the previous song, with that good ol\u2019 four-on-the-floor drum beat and a funky bassline that never dares to deviate until about halfway through when it sores upwards. Sitting here, writing this review, it\u2019s impossible not to sway back and forth in my office chair, or dance in a mental Soul Train line. There is a reason this album has become my go-to at the gym as of late.<\/p>\n \u201cENERGY\u201d is one of my favorite songs on the album. The bassline from \u201cCUFF IT\u201d continues through the beginning of the song (it\u2019s effectively an outro), cementing this album as being a cohesive body of work as opposed to a collection of singles. Another weird-as-hell song; Beam, a Jamaican-born American Rapper, has an unbelievable swagger with his talk-sing chorus. Seriously, it\u2019s like a hot knife through hot butter. This track boasts a less than 2-minute run time, and it\u2019s just a flash-in-the-pan burst of, well, energy. This track bleeds into the breakout single of the album, \u201cBREAK MY SOUL.<\/em>\u201d A pure house banger \u2014 oft compared favorably to Drake\u2019s latest house-inspired album \u201cHonestly, Nevermind” \u2014 it’s easy to see why it got all the booties shaking. A powerful chorus in the form of a repeated anthem, \u201cYou won\u2019t Break My Soul\u201d is an amazing chant. Amidst such joyous, thumping music, we are aggressively telling the powers that be that you can\u2019t stop us from having fun, from experiencing happiness, despite the structures you put in front of us to keep us SAD, man. We, as humans, will always find a way to party. It\u2019s the perfect post-Covid anthem. We are back outside, and we\u2019re going to go apeshit, and you can\u2019t do a thing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is followed by \u201cCHURCH GIRL\u201d that has a dope-ass 808 bassline and now I think I know how to twerk. From what I can gather, it\u2019s about a repressed \u201cchurch girl,\u201d so to speak, going out with her girlfriends and \u201cdropping it like a thotty.\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 really sells the importance of liberation through dance and sex as a form of claiming autonomy over your own body. Who would have thought that dropping it like a thotty was so revolutionary? My favorite line on the whole album is on this track, \u201cit must be the cash because it ain\u2019t your face.\u201d Man! What a shot at the human thumb himself, Jay Z. Damn, really got did dirty there, Hov! I would like to point out that she uses the phrase \u201cTig Ol Bitties\u201d here, a ridiculous phrase for anyone to use, let alone a 40 year old pop superstar. I believe the first use of this phrase (at least the first time I\u2019ve ever heard it) was from notable douchebag and former famous Youtuber Ray William Johnson, in a musical side project of his called \u201cYour Favorite Martian.\u201d Of course, this musical act was also well known for such 2010 \u201cclassics\u201d as \u201cThe Stereotype Song,\u201d and who can forget \u201cBitch Got a Penis.\u201d<\/p>\n She tones back the aggressive rhythm on the next track, \u201cPLASTIC OFF THE SOFA\u201d,<\/em> a still groove-tacular, equally sexy, albeit more straight-forward RnB song that calls back to a freshly post-Destiny\u2019s Child Beyonc\u00e9. I must say, this song is a skip at the gym, but when I\u2019m not going for most spectacular gains, this is another highlight of an album full of highlights. In a specific sense, it\u2019s about her and Jay Z, probably as atonement for that crushing blow she gave him in that last song. She\u2019s saying \u201ceven though it ain\u2019t your face, you still make me happy.\u201d However, it\u2019s general enough to be a great love song between any two people, not just two uber-rich celebrity socialites. They\u2019re just like us! This song, of course, leads into my favorite song on the album\u2026 it\u2019s \u201dVIRGO\u2019S GROOVE\u201d time, ladies and germs! This six minute long epic finds a groove and jams it in your face like when your friend\u2019s mean stepdad shoves a wet towel in your sunburned face when you were out camping (is this a universal experience?). The bassline is deep, crisp, funky, rich, car-shaking. \u201cI can be the one to take you there, on this magic ride,\u201d she sings, which is exactly what the song does to me. Wherever I am, be it grocery shopping, doing the dishes, at the gym, sitting idly staring at the wall \u2014 I am instantly transported to a hot nightclub, shirtless, covered in glowstick juice, surrounded by drunks and people on ecstasy as we join in a gelatinous mass of sweaty flesh, shaking and gyrating to the Virgo\u2019s Groove. Beyonc\u00e9 also calls me the love of her life on this song, which I think is only on my Spotify\u2019s version of the album. Yup. I think they skip that part on everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n The song ends abruptly as the opening drum-line of \u201cMOVE\u201d breaks. \u201cMove out the way, I\u2019m with the girls and we\u2019re gonna need space.\u201d Don\u2019t have to tell me twice. If it\u2019s after midnight I\u2019m probably headed home soon anyway. Dear reader, there is a PALPABLE Jamaican dancehall influence, and goes so far as to feature Jamaican multi-hyphenated model-actor-musical legend Grace Jones (who is 74 years old and parties harder than I do). A banger, most definitely. \u201cHEATED,\u201d then, is the next track, which is notable for having Beyonc\u00e9 deliver the most unhinged vocal performance you\u2019ve ever heard in her life. Starts out Bey-ish and pretty enough as she hits us with that trademark croon. But then, the clouds part like the red sea and we stare God in the face as the outro hits. All semblance of pop-superstardom composure is thrown out the window as Beyonc\u00e9 just loses her fucking mind. For someone whose public persona is so carefully curated to be this perfect, deity-like image, for her to go off in this way is nothing short of incredible. Here is a sample of the lyrics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTip, tip, tip on hardwood floors<\/p>\n Ten, ten, ten across the board (With a waist that wine like this)<\/p>\n Give me face, face, face, face, yah<\/p>\n Your face card never declines, my God (Ooh)<\/p>\n Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it<\/p>\n Mm, yummy, yummy, yum, make the bummy heated<\/p>\n Make a pretty girl talk that shitty<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whiskey ’til I’m tipsy, glitter on my kitty (Ooh)<\/p>\n