Renaissance.
| Beyonce
Renaissance.
Renaissance (also titled as Act I: Renaissance) is the seventh studio album by American singer Beyoncé, released on July 29, 2022, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. It is her first solo studio release since Lemonade (2016) and serves as the first installment of a trilogy project. Beyoncé conceived the album as a reflection of her state of mind during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing and producing it with Nova Wav, The-Dream, Symbolyc One, A. G. Cook, Honey Dijon, Beam, Tricky Stewart, BloodPop, Skrillex, Hit-Boy, No I.D., P2J and various others. Beam, Grace Jones and Tems appear as guest vocalists. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Beyoncé’s seventh album is not just a pop star’s immaculate dance record, but a rich celebration of club music and its sweaty, emancipatory spirit.
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Resident Advisor
The album falls flat when it tries too hard to immerse itself in a culture that does not belong to Beyoncé. Underneath the glitz of the record's ever-turning disco ball lies decades of hidden kinship and struggle. In these moments, queer history is buried where it should have been uplifted.
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The Guardian
The odd lapse in judgment aside, the superstar’s seventh solo album is a kaleidoscopic barrage of disco, soul, house and dancehall that puts other post-pandemic party albums in the shade.
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Rolling Stone
Beyoncé Hits a Seductive Sweet Spot on ‘Renaissance’.
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Hot New HipHop
While it’s definitely exciting to know that more fearlessly creative music from one of the world’s most renowned superstars is on the way, there is still a lot to enjoy and soak up from RENAISSANCE.
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Oprah Daily
The 16-track project carries the weight of Black musical genealogies and geographies.
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Variety
Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ Is a Cathartic, Club-Inspired Masterpiece.
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USA Today
Most follow the blueprint, anchored by heavy percussion, disorienting beats and intriguing segues, with Beyoncé delving her deepest into hip-hop and salacious come-ons.
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EW
Beyoncé's seventh solo album is a master class in the evolution of dance music.
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NME
On ‘Renaissance’, she’s added another remarkable record to her repertoire, this time one to continue leading the charge to bring Black culture back to the forefront of house and dance scenes. ‘Renaissance’ does precisely what it says on the tin; the revival of Black classics, and she makes sure a lot of love goes into that.
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The Musical Hype
While it took far too long for the renaissance to commence, this dance/house-driven makeover is a bold, ultra-successful return for one of music’s brightest stars. No, RENAISSANCE isn’t without controversy – often covered on the songs it pertains to – but all told, it’s an incredibly compelling listen.
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Slant Magazine
Outfitting that disco classic with a gussied-up kick drum and her own humid trills, Beyoncé displaces us from both the past and the present and situates us in her unique ecosystem, where the beats seemingly go on forever as history and future collide.
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Beats Per Minute
Beyoncé is reminding herself and us of this throughout Renaissance; it’s an album expressing the joys of love – physical, verbal, musical, familial and all the other kinds. While she’s the one in the spotlight throughout the album, this isn’t a record about her – instead she’s honouring all those people who find themselves through the release provided by these communal spaces. And damn, it’s a hell of a good time.
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Page Six
One could argue that “Renaissance” does not feel like a career milestone in the way that “Beyoncé” and “Lemonade” did — after all, their surprise releases and visual components only heightened the magic — but it is a welcome and even refreshing progression for a superstar who consistently rewrites the rulebooks.
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Los Angeles Times
Beyoncé's ‘Renaissance’ is a landmark expression of Black joy (and you can dance to it).
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Atwood Magazine
THE QUEEN BEE BEYONCÉ STINGS AGAIN ON THE DAZZLING ‘RENAISSANCE’.
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We Plug Good Music
She has pushed herself creatively, and took a big risk with infusing house-elements, disco-funk, pop all rolled into one album with a title Renaissance. Only a cocky, confident, talented, bold, Virgo could pull that off, and in the fullness of time did.
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The Young Folks
Beyoncé celebrates disco on her most consistently exciting album.
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Loud and Quiet
Renaissance is also the most vocally adventurous Beyoncé album, and her vocal command grounds the record. Take the dizzying embellishments on the cooldown soul of ‘PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA’, where she syncs with the bassline while moving from chest to head voice. She’s aggressive and flirtatious on ‘MOVE’, matching Grace Jones’s power over a threatening afrobeat instrumental. Her studied backing harmonies provide a satisfying call and response over these maximal club tracks.
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Albumism
Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ Is a Resplendent, Reverential Experience for the Mind, Body and Soul.
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Northern Transmissions
Listening to the album, it’s clear that Beyoncé had a vision and executed it to perfection, and this is only the first act of the project. At nearly every turn, RENAISSANCE surprises, excites, comforts, and commands the listener to get up and move. It’s the most fun hour of music you’ll get all year.
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Our Culture
This is Beyoncé playing with expectations of what she’s supposed to represent without undermining her power and influence, acknowledging that the fight for freedom can be expressed in more ways than one – indeed, it has to. Besides, there’s nothing apolitical about an album centering on and reveling in Black joy, desire, and self-love in the way that RENAISSANCE does. What’s most thrilling is how brightly, and meticulously, the story shines beyond herself.
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Sputnik Music
A mostly fun dance effort weighed down by its obligations to the artist behind the mic, Beyonce's Renaissance is more of a drunken proclamation than actual radical change.
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Gigwise
My main takeaway from RENAISSANCE is not only its existence to celebrate bad bitch energy but Beyoncé’s passion for decades of dance music that have shaped the way people feel, think and live life. One could argue that this isn't her fullest body of work given the sheer force of Lemonade but no one can argue the experience RENAISSANCE has given us.
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This is Hype
Renaissance as an album stays true to the title that it suggests as it brings about a version of Beyoncé that is enlightened on all fronts. Renaissance is an intertwining of everything that makes Beyoncé who she is as an artist as it showcases a top-notch production quality, incredible vocal ability, and above all a multifaceted time machine into the very essence of dance and disco.
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Popsugar
Beyoncé sounds refreshed, renewed, and recharged all throughout "Renaissance," and she wants us to feel the same. Unpredictable times put the superstar into a period of reflection. In turn, she labored a remarkable album that both pushes the envelope and delivers musical breakthroughs. "Renaissance" is a rhythmic atmosphere that salutes the past and peers into the future through Beyoncé's lexicon. And while this is only the beginning of her revival, fans are already making plans to reclaim outside once again with her new album in tow.
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The Post
‘RENAISSANCE’ is an almost perfect celebration of house music.
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The Washington Post
Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ was made to last forever.
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The Line of Best Fit
Renaissance sees Beyoncé reinvent the old and refresh the new.
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Spectrum Pulse
On surface spectacle it’s good for what it is - sits around the self-titled for me in terms of quality so it’s no surprise the fans adore it - but I dunno, I wanted to like this more.
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Music Matters Media
The fantastical musicality of the album’s best moments, alone, ensure that Renaissance is a roaring success, but its success in returning House music to its revolutionary roots is what really makes it such a landmark release. On “Break My Soul”, Beyoncé declares that she is “looking for something that lives inside me…a new salvation” and on Renaissance she finds it; liberating not just for herself but the marginalized communities that society has long tried and failed to contain.
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SMPLE Magazine
RENAISSANCE doesn’t quite hit you with the same sucker punch of Queen B at dinner, preparing cream corn in a hoodie, but it does sound vitally simple, generous with an urge to adore us.
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Treblezine
The excellence of this record, and it is excellent, is built from that, how Beyonce fuses that previous apex of the early first phase of her solo career with the critically acclaimed developmentalism of her second phase. The promise that there are two more discs to come elaborating on this central concept is beyond intriguing. Ultimately, high-minded essays about the intent of Beyonce’s work is to be expected from the cultural production machine; she’s just in the business of making great and joyful records.
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Beat
Beyoncé's seventh studio album is a tribute to dance music past and future, adding her signature touch to a magnificent set of moving and sweaty club pop.
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IMPCT JOURNAL
Beyoncé rejoices in her lively comeback with Renaissance. A beautiful package of vibrant House and Dance tunes, as well as a delightful remembrance of this exquisite culture, this album is sure to be the quintessential summer essential of 2022.
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Beyond the Stage
Beyoncé continues to impress with her beautiful vocals and unique style. We love her continuous transformations and are excited to see her plans for RENAISSANCE this year.
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Exclaim!
Beyoncé's 'RENAISSANCE' Is Revolutionary.
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Hotpress
It's not a boast that she delivers in the same song , it’s just a statement of fact. “I’m one of one, I’m number one, I’m the only one. Don’t even waste your time trying to compete with me.” You’d wonder why anyone would even try. Put it another way, as she does in the opening ‘I’m That Girl’ – which is probably what it says on her passport. “Motherfuckers ain’t stopping me… It’s not the diamonds, it’s not the pearls, it’s not my man, it’s not my stance, it’s just that I’m that girl”. Even writing about her is pointless. It’s Beyoncé’s universe; the rest of us just happen to be taking up space in it.
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Ratings Game Music
This is empowerment music. Throughout RENAISSANCE, Beyoncé props up women (Particularly black women) in ways that I’ve never heard before. She embraces their bodies, personalities, decisions, beliefs, tempers, and statures. She comes across as the ultimate ally.
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Shifter Magazine
RENAISSANCE not only serves as a testimony of Beyoncé’s own versatility after over two decades in the industry, but it’s a work of art meant to inspire each of us to reach within the depths of ourselves and find something new.
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Stereoboard
Given that it has been situated as Act I of a trilogy, this is a record that might one day be viewed as a trifle, or a minor work, but it shouldn’t be. Beyoncé has set out a series of aims and knocked each of them off with commensurate style. Whatever comes next will have to match that—even when you’re having fun, being Beyoncé is a pressure game.
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Soul in Stereo
Renaissance is filled with good intentions and having an artist of Bey’s stature putting the spotlight back on the art of dance is a great first step. But we’re not quite there yet.
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musicOMH
With a consistently hedonistic vibe from start to finish, here is your invite to a party as opulent as it is debauched.
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The Bulletin
There’s a lot of hyperbole that surrounds Beyoncé, but when an artist puts out an album as intricately curated as Renaissance after already shifting pop culture and the music industry with their previous studio albums and side projects alike, is that hyperbole not deserved? This is a 40-year-old Black female pop star at the very top of her game — unapologetically sexual, vocally pristine, and more willing to reinvent the wheel than ever before. The album certainly isn’t perfect — the hourlong runtime is ever so slightly pushing it — but it’s leaps and bounds beyond what anyone else in the mainstream has offered this year. It’s a triumph, plain and simple. They don’t call her Queen Bey for nothing.
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The New Statesman
Referencing ballroom culture and Seventies disco, her new album will see you emerge from the club sweaty, bruised and ecstatic.
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PopMatters
Beyoncé’s Renaissance repackages traditional marketing and 1990s-inspired dance music, creating the ultimate combination of streaming sensibilities and feel-good anthems.
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Nylon
The star’s exhilarating seventh album is self-indulgent, self-confident and unapologetically obsessed with self-love.
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DIY Magazine
A masterclass in reinvention.
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Evening Standard
Geared towards lighting up the club (and TikTok), this is Queen Bey’s most upbeat collection yet.
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The Independent
In a catch-all spirit of musical modernism, trap, house, glitchtronica, disco, ragga, South African gqom and future funk are all lobbed into a heady mix, with songs blending into each other and shifting course mid-flow.
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Lancashire Times
Renaissance is a marked departure from the stylings of all her previous records, but Beyoncé is in fine voice and knows how to set pulses racing. This could well be the album of the summer.
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MarkMeets
Renaissance is one of Beyoncé’s best albums to date: it doesn’t walk in the footsteps of its predecessors but instead makes its own path, going to places we didn’t think Beyoncé would go.. The six years since her last effort have well and truly been worth the wait.
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The Upcoming
The album doesn’t require time, focus or multiple plays to make its impact: commencing with entrancing opener I’m That Girl, the record provides irresistible, uninterrupted dance rhythms and an energy that just cannot falter. Album closers Pure/Honey and Summer Renaissance, especially, are Beyoncé at her crowd-enchanting, genre-blending best, and, as with every project she’s released for years, Renaissance effortlessly redefines what pop music can be, with reverberations to be felt – no doubt, and no exaggeration – across time, across space, across the world.
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The Daily Beast
While not as unflinchingly personal as “Lemonade,” Bey’s seventh solo album is a confident, dance-friendly ode to the Ballroom scene of the ’80s.
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The Telegraph
The diva's exhilarating tribute to 1980s and 1990s club music – and Right Said Fred – will be filling dance floors for years to come
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