It’s finally here: Beyoncé’s Renaissance: Act I has arrived as another piece of art in the BeyHive Museum of Culture. Despite being a leader in the visual-album format, Beyoncé’s latest release will not have a visual component — yet. According to a press release, the singer “decided to lead without visuals, giving fans the opportunity to be limitless in their expansive listening journey.” The lead single off the album, “Break My Soul,” had limited visuals when it dropped too (there was a bare-bones lyric video that accompanied its release), foreshadowing the wait for more Yoncé. The album is also not a digital-only release — a deluxe CD and vinyl is available for purchase for physical media fans, if you can still snag a copy.
Renaissance celebrates physical movement and expression, and includes 16 songs for the first installment of what Bey calls a “three-act” experience (which likely means two more Beyoncé albums will be coming in the near future). “Break My Soul” led the charge of collaboration and callbacks for the new era, with the singer interpolating the synths from “Show Me Love” by Robin S. While the record is filled with plenty of more collabs and samples, including artists like The-Dream, Nile Rodgers, NOVA, No I.D., Raphael Saadiq, Mike Dean, Honey Dijon, Chris Penny, Luke Solomon, Skrillex, Beam, Big Freedia, Grace Jones, and Tems, it doesn’t let us forget that Beyoncé, herself, is “that girl.”
