Beyoncé - Renaissance

I hear “Heated” as potential amapiano in my head

Except it's not in your head, the log drums are super clear, just well integrated in the 4/4 beat. Not particularly surprising from Beyoncé after Lion King.

yes, it’s because of that log drum, I’m aware

I'm still trying to figure out when it becomes pure dancehall
Top top top song

both remixes of 'break my soul' are excellent. honey dijon doing big ballroom crashes at 125 bpm and focusing on the rap, somehow making it sound a little better. terry hunter, young chicago guy doing a lush andres-reminiscent soulful take, sounds like real rhodes.

fun to mix 'alien superstar' into 'unique' by kim cooper.

terry hunter remix sounds a little busy on a big system but i love it anyway

the nita aviance is my favorite of the bunch. the way it builds to a beyonce choir is amazing

oh nice, i missed that one.

you gotta have "a whole lotta people in the house" for real if you're going to play it 😂

Honey Dijon remix rules

inevitable (after the bootleg mashups), but surprisingly good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9WNVoA_KG8

…and no, 2022 Madonna isn’t on it

I'm going to need Terre Thaemlitz' opinion on this as soon as possible

Longneck, that's also New Orleans bounce tempo

I wish not to hear "you won't break my soul" again.

xpost

Ahhhh, you're right! Thanks.

Queen Mother Madonna, Aaliyah
Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold
Bessie Smith, Nina Simone
Betty Davis, Solange Knowles
Badu, Lizzo, Kelly Rowl'
Lauryn Hill, Roberta Flack
Toni, Janet, Tierra Whack
Missy, Diana, Grace Jones
Aretha, Anita, Grace Jones
Helen Folasade Adu
Jilly from Philly, I love you boo
Don't just stand there get into it
Strike a pose there's nothing to it
Michelle, Chloe, Halle, Aaliyah, Alicia, Whitney, RiRi, Nicki

The Santigold shoutout is surprising.

I'm going to need Terre Thaemlitz' opinion on this as soon as possible

― boxedjoy, Saturday, August 6, 2022 1:24 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol, love and respect to tt but it pretty much writes itself.

i'm getting a little tired of "break my soul" but some kid facetiming his mom on her birthday when i played it last sunday and holding the phone up to me - all the smiles and stuff, that was pretty fucking awesome.

I have to agree with everyone who’s said that “Break My Soul” works a lot better in the context of the full record.

And I’m finding myself enjoying the back half of Renaissance a lot more on this listen.

I have to agree with everyone who’s said that “Break My Soul” works a lot better in the context of the full record.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, August 7, 2022 3:23 AM (seventeen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I feel like we say that a lot to mean "I changed my mind, but my pronouncements are never wrong" :)

You’re probably right!

By itself, the song just felt kinda slight.

i think in this case there is genuinely something about the transition into the song… it’s not just a sequencing of a tracklist but an actual blending of music… that really elevates it, tho there is also something about the sequencing too as i posted earlier that puts the song in its best light

This album rules.

“Break my soul” got annoying really fast

xp +1

#1 album and single this week.

vogue mash-up bangs

you should have known this album ruled early on when the freakin' foremost poets sample comes in c'mon

Mostly good stuff: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/01/1114499960/revolutionary-fun-beyonce-renaissance-review-roundtable

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, August 1, 2022 5:35 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks. The NYT Popcast roundtable was worth a listen, as well (unlike some prior episodes we've discussed). Always better when JC plays facilitator vs. agitator/smarmy contrarian.

Good review imo: https://ra.co/reviews/35009

(of course the writer has now had to make her twitter private)

idk I feel like im more bearish on the album than a lot of people here but I didn't think that was a very good review. what does “is it burying or uplifting queer history?” even mean?

I'm not crazy about "the album falls flat when it tries too hard to immerse itself in a culture that does not belong to Beyoncé." Who polices this and Bowie's Young Americans?

I’m still back on Beyoncé explicitly riffing on all of this stuff in the Get Me Bodied video

idgi. everyone should be making more disco records plz.

I guess to me it’s like — I’m super open to the argument if someone told me they find the project frustrating bc ie it’s using ballroom tropes but wouldn’t actually work in that context, for them, or something like that — like i am interested in critiques of the project & its utility in certain spaces or lack thereof. But this piece reads to me more like someone making the point of vague problematic aura bc they think it’s a point someone is supposed to be making than bc they have a compelling reason to believe it

I promise I’m not trying to start a fight here, but I’m genuinely curious: has there been a negative published review of this record?

I don’t think of myself as a particularly punkrock R&B fan, but I haven’t felt as “out of touch” with popular sentiment in forever (though that’s true when it comes to Beyoncé in general). My problem, I suppose.

what non-Beyonce R&B do you listen to?

I think everybody is too scared of Beyonce’s army to give this record anything less than a B+

xp I listen exclusively to “Top That,” from the Teen Witch soundtrack. Am I doing it wrong?

i tend to find questions about whether archetypal pop divas paying obvious, specific and lovingly executed tribute to lgbtq people/art/community is 'appropriative'/exploitative approximately as insightful as those ppl on twitter years ago who were asking with complete sincerity whether drag performance is a problematic appropriation of effeminacy after the rachel dolezal fiasco

xp no but you sure are annoying about it

i can't remember the last time i read a good review in resident advisor, the one above certainly isn't

I think everybody is too scared of Beyonce’s army to give this record anything less than a B+

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

this is true tho, on fan spaces it is abundantly clear that the gravest sin that this reviewer committed was causing the album's metacritic score to drop to a paltry 92 (!!)

xp sorry to annoy!

idk I feel like im more bearish on the album than a lot of people here but I didn't think that was a very good review. what does “is it burying or uplifting queer history?” even mean?

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 00:29 (two hours ago) link

I'm not crazy about "the album falls flat when it tries too hard to immerse itself in a culture that does not belong to Beyoncé." Who polices this and Bowie's Young Americans?

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 00:31 (two hours ago) link

I guess to me it’s like — I’m super open to the argument if someone told me they find the project frustrating bc ie it’s using ballroom tropes but wouldn’t actually work in that context, for them, or something like that — like i am interested in critiques of the project & its utility in certain spaces or lack thereof. But this piece reads to me more like someone making the point of vague problematic aura bc they think it’s a point someone is supposed to be making than bc they have a compelling reason to believe it

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 00:41 (two hours ago) link

I talk about this quite a lot but I find it super-frustrating how the convergence of pop criticism, cultural studies, gossip and twitter snark results in this kind of short-circuit argument where the connection between the quality of the music and the issue which is purportedly problematic is posited but not unpacked, e.g.:

"But, as a wealthy cis woman, Beyoncé lacks an intimate understanding of the subcultures she is borrowing from, and this sudden, random interest in underground queer culture renders the execution awkward at best, and painfully pandering at worst. "

How would an "intimate understanding" of queer/ballroom subcultures (even assuming the writer is correct to conclude that Beyonce lacks it) have manifested as a different end product? The writer doesn't say, perhaps hasn't even turned their mind to the question, beyond a kind of vague "I'd know it when I saw/heard it" presumption (presumably because the artist in question is not a wealthy cis woman).

The result of this kind of approach tends to turn what could be a very thoughtful examination (of how an artist like Beyonce can successfully or otherwise engage with queer culture) into a quite shallow one.

it does at least accurately capture the stakes there - if it was a misstep by beyonce in that regard then it's only awkward and/or corny, but it doesn't really spend enough time justifying why they think it's a misstep, there's just one line they take minor issue with and the rest of the critique seems to just boil down to vibes

i feel pretty ambivalent about the album in that regard, it doesn't really feel like some real misstep nor success, in its relation to queer culture

To be clear, I'd be open to being persuaded that it is a real misstep - but I think that kind of allegation should require more reasoning in support rather than less.

I don't think it's a misstep, but it is interesting that she's specifically adopting the persona and cadences of some of these subcultural club styles. She could have just sampled it as window dressing, or done her normal style and had guest vocalists. I appreciate the commitment, but it's definitely a riskier move. I think it works but also feels like she's trying on costumes at times?