Beyonce became a sensation: music sets records, the singer’s body was censored

The new album of the American pop diva has become a buzz

Beyonce’s new album has made too much noise for a release that we can’t even legally listen to. He seemed to take us back to a time when music was of great importance. And okay, if it was some kind of evil rock or heartbreaking indie. It’s about pop music Galima.

It might seem to many that the scandalously visual part of the album completely overshadowed the actual music. Of course, this is not the case, but the juicy details of the release fit perfectly into the overall picture of the world, which is just going off the rails.

We don’t have much reason to make noise here about the album, which is announced almost the main one this year. For some time now we have been out of the game for the international musical process and can look for meanings, melodies and rhythms in what the Klavas, Khabibs and other local super-duper-sexy koloboks release. But here’s the problem. The day before the international release, Beyonce’s album was shamelessly leaked to the net (by negligence or with intent now it doesn’t matter), so that you could enjoy and feel like part of a larger musical world.

And then this cover story happened. For everyone who is not afraid of a curvaceous female body, there is a half-naked pop diva on a sparkling horse. For Saudi Arabia, just a horse and no naked girls. Everything is even here for us: no horse, no girl, but as spectators of the gallery, we also watched, giggled, and maybe shed a tear.

Well, let’s talk about music, which on one streaming set an absolute record in the female category – 43 million plays per day. In the six years that have passed since the release of Lemonade, the singer apparently stifled all the reflection that can fall on a woman in her early 40s, forced to wallow in an industry where old people, if there is a place, is very certain. Beyonce decided to dance, and in the most frivolous way. If Lemonade was exemplary soul and r’n’b, filled with fem-manifestos, then Renaissance is not at all about the soul, but very much about the body. The fatness of the production is devoid of any shame, but this is unlikely to confuse you, because the crazy driving force of the new songs will help you shake off this very fat.

The American music industry seems to be based on perfectionism. Among the big stars, it is customary to tumble into the sound of millions and do it so that every dollar can be heard. For the recording, Renaissance assembled a dream production team, which included Skrillex, Tricky Stewart, Agee Cook and many others. The most amazing thing is that with such an abundance of chefs, the final soup does not leave the feeling that it was cooked by swan, crayfish and pike.

Here Beyonce sings, reads, growls a little and is clearly inspired by classic dance action movies from the last century. Samples are generously scattered throughout the album: the title track Break My Soul has fragments from Show Me Love by Robin S, Alien Superstar has I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred, Donna Summer’s classic I Feel Love and much more more.

The good news, perhaps, is that this album brings back to pop music what seemed to be a long-lost frivolity and sensuality. Now starlets sing as if they are muttering about their problems in a psychologist’s chair, it’s not customary for them to just turn their hips, it’s much more important to raise serious topics. Beyonce, as a veteran of the musical movement, apparently from the days of Destiny’s Child, which tore the charts at the turn of the century, has a feeling that music still has to entertain sometimes. And Renaissance entertains, supplying the audience with a club rhythm and songs with hints of light debauchery.

But don’t count on a superstar suddenly recording a rave album. The towering music lacks luxury by Beyonce’s standards, and has far less commercial potential. And the pop diva and her faithful rap mogul Jay Z have never been interested in projects whose profits are breathtaking.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28838 dated August 3, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Walk a horse