Reviews by mars
Beyoncé is Back.
The 28-time Grammy winner announces her return to music with a quiet, yet impactful splash.
It’s very early Thursday morning on the East Coast, all is quiet on Twitter timelines across the globe. Slowly, but surely, one tweet reads “B7 IS COMING.” “QUEEN B is BACK,” screams another. By 7:00 AM, after weeks of whispers, Beyoncé is everywhere - unstoppably back atop her throne without saying one complete sentence. That is the power of Beyoncé. Renaissance, Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, will drop on July 29. It’s a long overdue (and much needed) return for the music superstar. Renaissance is “act one” of a to-be-determined number of pieces composing Bey’s next musical chapter. Fans began to suspect an impending announcement as the singer-songwriter wiped her social media profile photos clean last week. Yesterday, the twitter account for her nonprofit organization, BEYGOOD, tweeted out a collage celebrating Black Musicians. All photos in the collage are explainable outside of just one: an arm pointing to the cover on its left, which was Brandy’s “B7.”
Six years have passed since the cultural monolith that was Lemonade. That’s not to say Beyoncé hasn’t been busy since then. Her Formation World Tour grossed over $256 million. She headlined Coachella (now known as “Beychella”), redefining what it means to be a festival headliner. Her impact permanently added a runway to Coachella’s main stage following her Formation Tour stage design. Beyoncé released HOMECOMING, a documentary and live album of her Coachella set along with 2018’s Everything Is Love, a joint studio album with her husband Jay-Z. She starred as Nala in the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King while curating the soundtrack for the film. And that doesn’t even touch her activism and Ivy Park brand work or her Oscar-nominated performance of “Be Alive” from 2021’s King Richard.
With the announcement of Renaissance comes no further information about the album outside of an interview and cover spread with British Vogue. Editor-in-chief Edward Enninful details his experience hearing Beyoncé’s new music for the first time: Instantly, a wall of sound hits me. Soaring vocals and fierce beats combine and in a split second I’m transported back to the clubs of my youth. I want to get up and start throwing moves. It’s music I love to my core. Music that makes you rise, that turns your mind to cultures and subcultures, to our people past and present, music that will unite so many on the dance floor, music that touches your soul. As ever with Beyoncé, it is all about the intent. I sit back, after the wave, absorbing it all.
With just one quote, the rumor mill has already churned out countless concepts of what B7’s sound will be: retro-futurism à la Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, or even an homage to 1990s house music like Lady Gaga’s Chromatica. The theories will only continue to build until Renaissance drops late next month, but one thing is for sure: there is no one like Beyoncé, effortlessly keeping the world on seats’ edges each and every day until all is revealed.
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About MarsNY-based, 26-year-old, music-obsessed and loves to write about it. Archives
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