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Her unabashed incorporation of profanity throughout “Renaissance” is a giant leap from “Lemonade” tracks like “Don’t Hurt Yourself” and “6 inch.” Her delivery, however, isn’t off-putting, forced or offensive but sounds exciting, organic and arousing. Never has Beyoncé sounded this comfortably explicit on an album. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney) Here, she attends the European Premiere of Disney’s “The Lion King” at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on July 14, 2019. She is comfortable with the fact that she is on top and reminding everyone within earshot.īeyoncé released her seventh studio album Friday. With “Renaissance,” Beyoncé indignantly flaunts her Blackness more pointedly, her Black womanhood. “The Lion King: The Gift” and its visual counterpart, “Black is King,” was a celebration of Black and African heritage and tradition. Because she’s used music videos as an equal component of her albums, it’s much more noticeable on “Renaissance,” which does not have accompanying visuals at this time.īeyoncé used “Lemonade” to reveal elements of Black struggle and perseverance within the narrative of her marital issues. Due to her innovation of the visual album, pioneered by artists like Janet Jackson, her songs have increasingly carried deft cinematic height, damning the confines of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus.
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Since her 2013 self-titled album, Beyoncé has thrown conventional song arranging out of the window.
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Musical and lyrical homages to Houston culture and Miami bass music sound like fresh embellishments rather than overindulgent pandering employed by other contemporary artists. Listening to tracks like “Alien Superstar,” “Move” and “Thique,” you can see the sweat dripping from ballroom dancers, the heaving reaction from onlookers, and faintly hear the oohs and ahs from the judging gallery. The album is a love letter to ballroom culture, a suite of a fierce night of competition, affirmation and gratification, ignited by a foundation of house and electro music fused with Afrobeat and funk/pop undertones.
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