STACK #216 October 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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BEYONCÉ'S DISCO-LICKED 'RENAISSANCE ' GETS DELUXE VINYL TREATM ENT every

RENAISSANCE by Beyonc é is out in deluxe vinyl edition Oct 21 via Sony. It includes 2x 180gm vinyl LPs, a 36-page booklet, and a folded collectible 24" x 36" poster (one of three randomised images), in a hard slipcase.

’s neck and squeeze yoncé’s Renaissance . h album gets its viny l it's a sumptuous offe

d the guts to grab life y out of it – that’s Be r-songwriter's sevent all things Queen Bey,

Rebirth, euphoria, an bit of growling ecstas This month the singe release, and as with

ring.

Words Zoë Radas

A cross 16 invigorating tracks, Beyoncé‘s first album since 2016’s Lemonade is a cornucopia of ideas: dangerously droning synth bass which cracks into R’n’B ’90s realness, reggaeton drums which slip into lithe Afrobeat, bewitching harmonies aplenty, and the pop superstar’s

Cuff It ’s disco-funk (replete with squidges of electric guitar) sees horns dip and duck around a beautifully swerving melody. Church Girl is absolutely not churchy at all,

references to making a lover wait are about cocaine addicts’ weekend obsession, and the references to getting high, literal. Virgo’s Groove and Plastic Off the Sofa deliver gorgeously sensual disco-soul, while Move (featuring Grace Jones, if you please, alongside Nigerian vocalist Tems) knits so many neat ideas throughout its Afrobeat rhythms it’s impossible not to scud away on its groove. The album finishes with two of its strongest tracks. Pure/Honey is ballroom-breaking, destined to soundtrack spindips and duckwalks

though it revolves around the Clark Sisters’ God-praising Center of Thy Will – Bey prefers to skip the pews in favour of shaking her thang (and her “pretty, tig ol’ bitties”) at the club. In a similiarly cheeky ruse, America Has a Problem suggests the problem is in fact Beyoncé’s bad-ssery – though some have speculated her

Model, singer songwriter and actress Grace Jones, who appears on track Move. Image by Lawrence Watson.

persistently enthralling voice; Renaissance pays homage to the history of Black music while concurrently finding reinvention and escape. Cozy takes us through the beauty of each colour on the Pride flag (including an adorable reference to Beyoncé‘s own daughter, with “Blue like the soul I crowned”) in a mega percussive parade. On Alien Superstar , Bey messes with who is who

Jamaican American drag icon Moi Renee, in a still from a 1992 live performance of her banger Miss Honey; the track is sampled in RENAISSANCE 's penultimate cut PURE/HONEY

the world over; it even samples late NYC drag performer Moi Renee’s 1992 single Miss Honey . Final track Summer Renaissance reminds us how important disco-pop queen Donna Summer is to Bey’s music, sampling (and interpolating) the icon’s 1977 track I Feel Love while our girl

(“Eyes on you when you perform, eyes on I when I put on”), also including a remarkable

announces her own ballroom category entitled “BEY”.

sample of speech from the founder of the National Black Theatre, Barbra Ann Teer: “We dress a certain way. We walk a certain way. We talk a certain way. We paint a certain way. We make love a certain way… All of these things we do in a different, unique, specific way that is personally ours.”

Teeming with the power of community, rebirth, escape and a light-up dancefloor, Renaissance

encompasses all the things the singular word can mean... and you better stand back when you crack it open.

Beyoncé photographed by Genevieve Tate

10 OCTOBER 2022

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