It’s my birthday and I’m blogging about whatever I want … meaning Renaissance of course! This will cut off in your inbox so click the headline to open in app/browser.
Renaissance promises to introduce you to God. With sequins, in statement sleeves; with disco, and drums, funk and soul, with vocal runs and thrilling harmonies — Beyoncé pulls us onto the dance floor to grant you an audience.
There is nothing more divine, to me, than dancing with the people I love. The wildness, the energy — the way a dance party, at the right moment, just conjures itself. A dance moment has been hard to come by over the last thirty-odd months. Pop music has been tugged toward the quiet intimacy, the emotional murmurs of Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. Togetherness has been hard to come by, and when it’s here, escape is the mood. But Renaissance is about the here and now.
Beyoncé’s power has always been her precision. She’s an artist that does the work, and likes to show it. Even a braid is under her command. Renaissance’s songs run into one another, but they aren’t collisions. They are elaborate orchestrations, run-ons that make for an even richer text. “Cuff It” into “Energy” has the electricity of a really great night, the kind that you never want to end. And then right when you think it might — and I mean the very moment you start to mourn it — there’s another bar, another drink, another DJ, another song. “Heated” only pretends to slow down: it’s a song about not being able to be tamed, controlled, assuaged. “Summer Renaissance” is an unsatisfying closing statement because it propels us forward, into Beyoncé’s next two teased offerings, Renaissance acts II and III. The possibilities unfurl before you: the fun you can have, the people you’ll see. The energy regenerates.
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