Three hours before the announced release time of her new single, Beyonce surprisingly released “Break My Soul,” the lead single from her seventh solo studio album “Renaissance,” and it’s the Beyonce fans have been waiting for: a catchy dance track co-produced by the “Single Ladies” team of Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, with a plinking, insistent hook, a hot beat and periodic exhortations from Big Freedia.
“Free your anger, free your mind/Free your work, free time/Free your craft, free stress/Free love, forget the rest.”
Jay-Z, Adam Pigott (aka BlaqNmilD, who’s worked with Drake, Quavo, Megan Thee Stallion and more), Freddie Ross, aka Big Freedia, and the writers of Robin S’s 1993 hit “Show Me Love” , which is prominently sampled in the song.
For her part, Bey is on message with both her comeback and the song’s disco theme: the title is reversed saying “You won’t break my soul,” and a statement of intent follows:
“I’m going to let my hair down because I’ve lost my mind
Bey is back and I sleep great at night
The Queen is in the front and the Doms in the back
I don’t take a movie, but the whole clique has cracked up.
It’s filled with dancefloor-friendly lines like, “Motivation/ I’m looking for a new foundation/ I’m on that new vibe/ I’m building my own foundation” and a repeated exhortation from “Everyone.”
In a slight apparent to major streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, the song initially only appeared on Tidal – the streaming service co-owned by Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z – three hours before its release time. announced from midnight ET, and on Vevo/YouTube about an hour later. Beyonce has a story about it: Her 2016 album “Lemonade” was only available on Tidal for three years, a move that likely cost her millions in streaming royalties.
Beyonce announced early Thursday that the long-awaited album will arrive on July 29. Sources say Variety that the album will feature both dance and country tracks, the source says, with contributions from hit songwriter Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote his 2008 hit “Halo” as well as hits for Adele, Taylor Swift, the Jonas Bros. and his own group, OneRepublic. Raphael Saadiq is also said to be involved, who has created hits for Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Andra Day as well as his own excellent solo albums, and executive produced “A Seat at the Table”. the widely acclaimed 2016 album from Beyoncé’s sister, Solange.
It was unclear whether the country songs will appear on a separate album or as part of the first edition of “Renaissance.” Country isn’t new ground for the singer: “Daddy Lessons,” from 2016’s “Lemonade,” is heavy on twang and was even covered by the Chicks (then known as the Dixie Chicks).
Fans have already been searching for information suggesting the album will contain 16 tracks, and the fact that it’s a multi-part release makes it clear that it’s being billed as “Act 1.” Beyoncé’s website also offered pre-orders of four different box sets for the album, billed as “Pose” 1-4 and including a CD, t-shirt and box. However, since they all ship on the day of the album’s release, it seems likely that they are just different packages for “Act 1.”
The singer sounded the alarm that something was brewing earlier this month, when she deleted her social media accounts, which, as evidenced by the lack of profile pictures, have still not been fully repopulated .
Beyoncé has actually released four albums since her hit 2016 release “Lemonade,” though none of them are full Beyoncé solo albums: In 2018, she released “Everything Is Love,” a team with her husband Jay-Z as The Carters; in April 2019, she released “Homecoming,” an album of her electrifying 2018 headlining performance at Coachella, for which she was accompanied by a full marching band (which was also released as a Netflix special as part of a $60 million deal; and that summer she followed it up with “The Lion King: The Gift,” a companion album to the Disney movie that featured several new songs by her – with contributions by Kendrick Lamar, Donald Glover and others – plus songs featuring 070 Shake, Tierra Whack and African artists like Burna Boy, Mr. Eazi, Tiwa Savage and others; a deluxe edition of this album includes three additional titles was released a year later.
