If there’s one thing Beyoncé knows how to do better than anyone in the music industry right now (@Drake), it’s give the people what they want. And because the people are exhausted and the world just keeps getting more expensive to exist in, Her Highness decided Pride month was just the time to bestow us peasants with a queer anti-capitalist disco track. Better yet? Because she knows we’re all hanging by a proverbial thread, she released it three hours earlier than previously announced, to the unadulterated glee of the terminally online.
On “Break My Soul,” the first single from her forthcoming album Renaissance (due July 29), listeners meet a brand new Bey—one with the humble beginnings of someone who can properly lament on how terrible it feels to toil one’s life away, yet wealthy enough to encourage listeners to just quit their jobs, pursue their passions and basically, abandon any and all responsibility. Release ya anger/release ya mind/Release ya job, release the time, she instructs, sampling a melody from Robin S’s iconic dance hit, “Show Me Love,” and borrowing vocals from Big Freedia’s “Explode.” It manages to be both a dance smash and bonafide labor protest anthem. You won’t break my soul, she promises. I believe her!
It’s been a big week for The Beyhive. In addition to the album announcement, Beyoncé unveiled a new British Vogue cover story via Instagram on Friday. The head-dressed songstress sits astride a stallion—a clear nod to Bianca Jagger entering Studio 54 via hulking white quadruped—and stares down the lens, signaling the start of an era for which fans have been starved. In the accompanying story, editor-in-chief Edward Enninful praises her for being “easy” to work with and lovingly describes listening to a preview of what’s to come on Renaissance:
Instantly, a wall of sound hits me. Soaring vocals and fierce beats combine and in a split second I’m transported back to the clubs of my youth. I want to get up and start throwing moves. It’s music I love to my core. Music that makes you rise, that turns your mind to cultures and subcultures, to our people past and present, music that will unite so many on the dance floor, music that touches your soul. As ever with Beyoncé, it is all about the intent. I sit back, after the wave, absorbing it all.
Frankly, if “Break My Soul” is just a sampling of a full-on protest album, I’m not prepared. But as ever, thank you, Beyoncé! I would happily retire all labor output and join you at the center of the dance floor, if only I could afford to. For now though, I’ll wiggle along at the same rate my student loan debt accumulates interest.
- In more labor rights news, Sandra Bullock announced she’s taking a break from acting, saying,“I’m so not capable of making healthy, smart decisions.” We know girl, we’ve seen The Lost City. [The Daily Mail]
- Because Khloe Kardashian apparently hasn’t suffered enough, the reality star is now reportedly dating a private equity investor she met through her older sister, Kim. [Page Six]
- Ben Stiller met with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv, as part of his role as ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency. Kinda feels like his schedule should be too tight to accommodate an American actor and director but I get it, I too am a fan of Severance! [BBC]
- Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna settled their revenge porn lawsuit out of court to the delight of potential jurors. [E! News]
- Selena Gomez admits she’s “not an overly sexual person” during a roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter—the same roundtable wherein Amy Schumer said she’s now trying to deviate from playing “just like the worst white woman.” Hey, go with what you know... [The Hollywood Reporter]