Beyoncé Releases "RENAISSANCE" The Most Anticipated Album Of The Year

The seventh studio album from Beyoncé is available worldwide, today, July 29, on all major streaming platforms. From her own label Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, RENAISSANCE arrives six years after the globally lauded LEMONADE was released in 2016 as a complete surprise.

RENAISSANCE has been the most anticipated album of the year as Beyoncé shifted gears and notified her fans of new music on June 15 through an update in her bio on her social handles, “act i RENAISSANCE July 29.” She continued the unconventional rollout with the release of the album’s first single, “Break My Soul,” which arrived at Midnight on the summer solstice. Instantly addicting with a pulsating beat, with lyrics that urge listeners to claim joy and to “release the wiggle.” The single, a worldwide hit, has been called the song of the summer and an anthem for this generation.

The magic of RENAISSANCE is also in Beyoncé’s soaring vocals, rich, soulful, at times vulnerable and laden with passion and purpose in what could only be described as “SANGING.” And it expands over memorable lyrics that are bold, heartened, urgent and categorically timely.

While the visuals are scheduled for a later date, the album comes with a robust menu of formats giving music fans and collectors plenty to choose. The music store on Beyoncé’s website offers album merch and multiple configurations of RENAISSANCE, listing a CD, digital album, a limited-edition vinyl, launch with a bit of her signature mystery, that is now sold out, and four box sets, Pose 1 to 4, which include a t-shirt and CD in a special box, also all sold out, before fans were given the descriptions of the content. The breakout single, “Break My Soul,” comes as a digital single and is also available in acapella and instrumental versions.

Album Art Beyoncé Releases "RENAISSANCE" The Most Anticipated Album Of The Year

With the album release also comes a deluxe vinyl. It includes two black vinyl LPs, a 36-page booklet, and a folded collectable (24”x 36”) poster. The full shopping experience is here.

Beyoncé recorded the album over the course of the pandemic, almost three years in the works, and states that the stillness of that time allowed her to tap into her most creative self.

With a squad of prolific collaborators, including The-Dream, Nile Rodgers, NOVA, NO ID, Raphael Saadiq, Mike Dean, Honey Dijon, Chris Penny, Luke Solomon, Skrillex, Beam, Big Freedia, Grace Jones and Tems, Beyoncé set out “to reinvent music again,” as described by The Times of London.

RENAISSANCE: A revival of or renewed interest in something. Let the renaissance begin.

RENAISSANCE TRACKLIST: