Review: Beyoncé escapes to dance world in ‘Renaissance’

“Renaissance,” Beyoncé (Columbia Records)

Beyoncé has been reborn again; this time it’s on a shimmering dance floor.

But in her seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” she has subverted the public’s perception of her hitmaking history. Six years since her Grammy award-winning“Lemonade,” people expect Beyoncé to consistently deliver. But she does not allow herself to be pigeonholed in her consistency, perfectionism and pop/R&B genre. She croons confidently in “Cozy,” that she is “comfortable in my skin. Cozy with who I am,” and it shows in this hour-long 16-track album.

Her voice glides with comfortability and ease in this cohesive dance-music album influenced by Black artists like disco queens Diana Ross and Donna Summer (“Summer Renaissance,”) sampling Summer’s “I Feel Love,” Afrobeats (“Move”) and most surprisingly twinges of Generation Z’s favorite fast-paced hyperpop (“All Up In Your Mind”).

Each song is an adventurous, experimental journey into Beyoncé’s pandemic psyche. In the album announcement posted on