Beyoncé - Renaissance

I appreciate the need to try new things, but couldn’t get invested in recent projects. (Also I was one of three people on earth who wasn’t into most of Lemonade.)

Yeah my theory is that people are just thirsty for new beyonce, it’s been 6 years since they got Lemonade.

lol @ me talking myself into liking this

― Tim F, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 9

lol I can see this

Many xxxxposts:

Don’t know if you’re joking but it’s not that Tricky. This is Cristopher “tricky” stewart.

lol i was confused as well but moka's response was to someone commenting 'she should have worked with portishead instead'

First listen here. On the one hand it's a surprising and refreshing sound for her, on the other this beat is just too ubiquitous and mundane to be memorable. I think the song mostly works, her vocals are fine, but the chorus is nothing to cry home about. I would certainly not leave the dancefloor if it came on, but that's about it.

I guess it's a superstar temptation to try to prove that you can cover every genre, as if it mattered to your legacy.

Yeah sorry I was answering to peace,man about his Portishead comment, which I think was a joke.

I'd be more likely to shrug off her singing about her 9–5 if critic-stans weren't writing horseshit like this (pitchfork):

She opens, rather tenderly, “I just fell in love and I just quit my job/I’m gonna find new drive, damn they work me so damn hard.” Relatable: In the first verse alone, she encapsulates the Great Resignation, the Great Unionization, and quarantine insomnia. The determined chorus—“You won’t break my soul/And I’m tellin’ everybody”—is framed so that listeners can fill it with whatever we need in the moment. NOLA bounce icon Big Freedia is sampled for the intro and verse, which grounds the song in its Black queer tradition (and also provides the very good line, “Release the trade, release the stress”). She tough-loves us out of our pandemic hovels, physical and mental, rapping, “You said you outside but you ain’t that outside,” and responsibly seems to endorse continued masking; thank you, Beyoncé.

Right, the billionaire who co-hosted an Oscar party at a hotel where workers were striking in part due to the sexual harassment they experience from celebrity guests is invoking the "Great Unionization", please fuck off with this nonsense. Like I don't actually care that much about B's personal hypocrisy, but the instant mythologizing that happens with this artist borders on pathetic.

That said, map you're never to old to thrill to the prospect of quitting your job! There's nothing more alien to me than people I know continuing to work into their 70s who can easily afford to retire

That whole Pfork "review" is fairly embarrassing (to Pfork)

I think its nice that they took the time to thank Beyonce for her work. Too many reviewers forget basic manners like that.

“Thank you, Posty.”

Damn. I usually like reading Julianne.

Finally, a billionaire that understands our struggles.

So much for myth busting

All that for a song that’s 5/10 at most.

“Break My Soul” is Beyoncé as an SSRI, her attempt to assuage widespread depression and crushing stress, while acknowledging the predicament in which many of her non-zillionaire listeners find themselves. She opens, rather tenderly, “I just fell in love and I just quit my job/I’m gonna find new drive, damn they work me so damn hard.” Relatable: In the first verse alone, she encapsulates the Great Resignation, the Great Unionization, and quarantine insomnia. The determined chorus—“You won’t break my soul/And I’m tellin’ everybody”—is framed so that listeners can fill it with whatever we need in the moment. NOLA bounce icon Big Freedia is sampled for the intro and verse, which grounds the song in its Black queer tradition (and also provides the very good line, “Release the trade, release the stress”). She tough-loves us out of our pandemic hovels, physical and mental, rapping, “You said you outside but you ain’t that outside,” and responsibly seems to endorse continued masking; thank you, Beyoncé.

criticism that purports to speak for the music's entire audience like this is such irksome trash lol

the review is fine and the song does strike the zeitgeist more or less effectively, rich ilxors notwithstanding

i know that ilx loves rediscovering the cognitive dissonance of a rich person making art that voices a poor pov and all but just a reminder that this is pop music we're talking about.

Yep. Pop music has inhabited these contradictions forever, regardless of the reviews the music inspires.

well, yeah. all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts. thank you, Beyoncé!

i'll tell you what's going through a renaissance - the discourse!!!

Ryan Dombal is somewhere breathing a sigh of relief.

lol vg Murgatroid

I'm guessing those lines about "building my own foundation" are a preview for some big philanthropy program.

Maybe she's designing the Beyoncéverse version of Avengers Tower.

wow... talk about The Discourse:

https://i.imgur.com/cQ96SeN.jpg

sorry smartasses, i'm gonna be real for a second, last time and then i'm out of this thread for a while i promise, as a person who has struggled with finances his whole life and is now 40, the idea of building my own foundation means working 1.5 jobs, paying off credit card debt and escaping the abusive cult my family belongs to. it's cool that you all find it trite and are over it but i'm willing to bet this resonates with a lot of people because it feels lived in. also to "this house sound is boring" - that house sound is forever, fuck off lol.

I’m younger than you and it’s trite af. Pop argument can miss me as well, it’s crass and embarrassing, people are pointing out the contradictions for those reasons, not because contradictions are inherently alien to pop.

Like Beyoncé herself has done commentary so much better - Formation is full of clever, knowing lyrics. It literally ends with “always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper” - fuck your racism, I’ll succeed despite you - but the video is all about taking pride in blackness and also her anger about anti-blackness, and Beyoncé being rich doesn’t mean she can escape that. This? This is just basic in all senses.

i probably wouldnt even be giving it a second thought if she hadnt literally crossed a high profile picket line for a billionaire party a few months prior to this. the song is fine and im sure i will enjoy hearing it in clubs and hotel lobbies for many years to come, but i cant help but feel that context affecting the way i hear those lyrics. if others can enjoy it without that lens, that's great, but its a valid lens to look at the work through. its obv naive to call bullshit on a popstar just for being rich, but its equally naive to think that their celebrity persona isnt in dialogue with the music as its received, particularly w/someone like beyonce.

Thanks, Map - it’s good to hear how the song is working for you. (I really do think the foundation line is an Easter egg.) It makes for an interesting compliment to “Nice for What,” which was also a celebration of just getting by and staying strong.

i did find bey musing about "all these people on the planet working 9 to 5 just to stay alive" viscerally thrilling back on the self-titled

I doubt this song will have enough legs to be heard in clubs / hotel lobbies for many years to come. Regardless of how obnoxious or on point you think the lyrics are, it’s lacking that wow factor and hooks of some of her most successful singles have. I know repetitiveness is a feature on house music but it works against her. She’s trying to do too much with her vocals for it to really work for me.

We’ll see I guess… most of the pop charts have been super bland this year so far, so it might as well be the anthem lacking in lustre that 2022 deserves.

Different approaches since Beyonce is clearly a better singer, but compare this to Drake’s “Massive”. That one allows the track to breathe and there’s many parts where he allows the beat to carry the song.

There’s virtually no part in the Beyonce song where the song doesn’t have vocals either sampled or by beyonce.

As a house track it’s terrible imho, and as a pop track it’s also super constrained and confused and frankly tasteless.

I was excited about the idea of Beyonce doing a house album but this single doesn’t make me think she truly has the gear in place to pull it off.

yeah it is an indictment that there's stuff on the drake album more compelling than this

she encapsulates the Great Resignation, the Great Unionization

https://www.etonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/970xh/public/images/2015-05/500_beyonce_feeling_myself_champagne_still.jpg

I'm trying to decide how indicative it is that my IG feed is basically 90% dancing footage from films and tv shows synced to the chorus of "Break My Soul".

Funny how homing in on the drop into the chorus makes this song seem more exciting than it actually is.

(well it's indicative of several things, probably)

The Long Tail of Show Me Love:

Earlier last week, Robin S. got a call from her son informing her that she was trending on social media as a result of the apparent “Show Me Love” reference in Beyoncé’s song, which replicates that M1 Organ 2 sound (in a different rhythm). She and StoneBridge both said they had no idea what was coming. StoneBridge discovered the connection while searching for his name on Twitter.

still think the inspiration here is at least as much the MK Nocturnal Dub remix of “Push The Feeling On” (not exactly an obscurity either, but obviously much less famous) as the StoneBridge “Show Me Love”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfb3ddsFe2S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

still think the inspiration here is at least as much the MK Nocturnal Dub remix of “Push The Feeling On” (not exactly an obscurity either, but obviously much less famous) as the StoneBridge “Show Me Love”

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Tuesday, June 28, 2022 6:39 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, very mk sound

(not mark knight, marc kinchen, it took me too long to figure out they were different people lol)

Gotta be an NFT of this:

act i RENAISSANCE 7.29 https://t.co/6sfw3sBWnz pic.twitter.com/FPPhEW1OTK

— BEYONCÉ (@Beyonce) June 30, 2022

lol

during the Great Unionisation everyone will have a crystal horse of pure light

We just need the Studio 54 moon and spoon laced with cocaine in the background and the aesthetic is complete.