REVIEW #1: 83/100

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As one of the biggest stars in the music industry for years, Beyonce’s frequent absences for the past couple have been unexpected and yielded varying results in terms of her output. Her most recent, Melancholia, wasn’t received well by fans and critics alike, leading her into yet another hiatus unannounced. Now, with her return under a new label and fuelled by an intense Gayle King interview where Beyonce expressed some discontent with her prior work, her latest release sets high expectations for itself.

 

Fitting to the name, the best way to describe Beyonce’s latest project is an energetic listen. From the moment it kicks off with the album’s lead single, Back Again, the album starts soaring and doesn’t let up. The lead single deserves a moment of it’s own, a perfect encapsulation of the ‘energy’ that is Beyonce with cut throat lines throughout the breeze into one another. It’s certainly far from the only time we see this style on the album, but Back Again is perhaps where it is perfected. The album’s title track is yet another highlight of this power anthem style banger, this time employing both Kevin Abstract and Frank Ocean to keep it fresh and it certainly pays off. These two tracks in particular nail the smart, witty lyricism and avoid lines that feel almost robotic and less connected to Beyonce herself, which only really emerges in a couple of tracks such as Diamond and Heard It Here First. The star’s effortless delivery shines, although at times it feels like the same vague ideas are being repeated rather than the variety found in other tracks.

 

While the album very much feels centred on Beyonce as a presence, there are some deeper moments within that tackle some of her relationships as many good albums do. Cuts such as Selfish and Tell Her (I’m Good) are examples of this that, while far from underwhelming, can feel at times that they lack an actual emotional connection in them. There’s beautiful songs here that are clouded ever so slightly by the overarching, larger than life ‘energy’ of Beyonce similar to that of the lead single that sort of contrasts with these more down to earth moments. Let Me Leave You is perhaps one of the album’s greatest offerings and shows that, when stripping away the ‘persona’ of Beyonce and getting less caught up in forcing this attitude, a stunning song can emerge as a result.

 

There’s almost one other ‘style’ of song found within this album, being the more dream-esque and reflective side of the album which is where it really shines. It’s difficult to describe as they all do feel different but, somehow, tracks such as Spring, Be Something and Blueprint have a similar energy that just radiate Beyonce at her most accessible and most relatable. There’s some real shining moments here when that mask of attitude is taken away and Beyonce is free to write authentically from the heart, and each of these songs are a prime example of that and easily some of the album’s highlights.

 

The phrase “Bey’s back” has become near synonymous with this album and, without a doubt, she is! Redeeming herself from Melancholia was always going to be an uphill battle but it’s one Beyonce took head on and refused to back away from. Sonically, the album’s stunning consistency pulls you through each track with such a driving force into whatever it is Beyonce has to say. Of course, there are some traditional, high energy anthems that see Beyonce embracing the power of her character and even some more subdued moments within. At times, the line between these can become a bit blurred which can drag down certain tracks but, when Beyonce commits to one, she succeeds. Not to say Beyonce needs to either embrace those larger than life moments or forget them altogether, because she is more than capable of highlighting both sides of her when she gets it right. What matters most with this release is her ability to regain her footing following the last few years and, for the first time in a while, the future looks bright for Beyonce.

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REVIEW #2: 88/100

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Beyonce has made a career out of polarization. She is an artist composed almost wholly of extremes: record breaking sales, unfaltering attention from audiences and the media, but also extreme controversy and backlash. Her career has gone up and down more times than anyone can count and each time she goes down, it looked more and more like it’d be impossible for her to get back up. 

 

That was never truer than after the release of MELANCHOLIA. 

 

The album arrived under an air of mystery and in its wake left the most extremely critical response that she had ever faced. Audiences all but rejected the direction she went in and critics were left dumbfounded and in search of explanation for what went wrong. At the center of it was a woman who was facing a great deal of outside influences that were intent on pulling her in a dozen different directions all while she was for the first time attempting to say something truly her own. It wasn’t the first time a Beyonce album had left the world divided, but it was the first time that the damage had run this deep. A critical and commercial failure, the album sent the megastar into hiding, and when she returned, she returned a woman reborn. 

 

Her new album, aptly titled NEW ENERGY, has arrived in the wake of a self declared renaissance for the Houston made pop empress. The album finds her with more than just new energy; it finds her with new collaborators, a new sound, a new label, and a new purpose. It’s the album she perhaps has been trying to make all along but never had the freedom to do so, but this album goes beyond simple wish fulfillment. There were a great deal of things that this album had to get right and it was clear from the word go that she knew it. And, brilliantly, she does most of those things right and does them to such a successful degree that the album’s shortcomings can't outpace it’s strengths. 

 

Conceptually, the album is about a woman unchained. Free from the shackles of a collapsing marriage and free from the ever present chatter that surrounded her, it’s clear that Beyonce found her stride. These songs are powerful without having to oversell that power. The production is restrained but not suffocated, instead opting for something incredibly focused to play the perfect supporting role to her braggadocious and empowered lyricism. 

 

There is a razor sharp focus to the album’s intent and across these ten tracks, you’re left feeling that she truly said what she wanted to say and then some. Even her most successful records of the past didn’t have such a clear purpose, and it’s this focus on the end goal that keeps this album sprinting to the finish line. Toying with the themes of self empowerment, self love, confidence, and what it means to be a queen among commoners, she covers quite a bit of ground here. Between addressing her controversial past in bluntly honest terms and reestablishing her place among an ever growing A-list, Beyonce has never come across so fierce and confident on a record. 

 

To match this evolution of personality, she has once more evolved her sound. Choosing to head down a more R&B and hip hop avenue, she in many ways is embracing something she seemed quite content to ignore for a time. Gone are the trappings of radio pop and in its place is a vintage, low to the ground, purposefully unpolished soundscape that gives these big lyrical ambitions some sort of weight to keep them from going too far out like she has been known to do in the past. 

 

This focus does at times mix some of the individual tracks’ DNA a bit too much, though. There are clear distinctions between the sound of many songs, but particularly in the front portion there are a run of tracks that feel like they’re driving in the same line. It’s cohesive, but almost to a too uniform point. When the album reaches its midpoint, things do change and from there onward, each new track is offering something at least a little different and at most an exceptionally singular sound. 

 

Lyrically, though overall quite strong, there are some ideas that are returned to a bit too often. The angle of being empowered by her separation is ground ripe for the picking, but when she returns to this subject in a few different songs there isn’t often a great deal added to the conversation. There is no problem with employing the same concepts in different tracks, but there must be something new to sink your teeth into upon a return and there isn’t always here. That being said, what she is saying does not lose its bite in the process. Make no mistake, she’s taking names with this record and she seems to be entirely unafraid of name dropping as well. 

 

Those two gripes though are well and truly minimal and as mentioned before, they don’t stand in the way of this album hitting the right beats and the right notes. Not by a mile in fact. It’s problems are relatively isolated and superseded by everything that she does get so on point here, and truthfully when the album concludes, it’s those strokes of brilliance that you’ll be left remembering the most. 

 

Expectations for this album were high, just as they usually are for a Beyonce record. But for the first time in a long time, she rose to meet those expectations. But she didn’t stop there…she took them and twisted them, bent them to her will, turned those outside expectations into her own expectations. She has finally, at long last, delivered an album worthy of hype and capable of meeting that hype. Being backed into a corner seems to have caused this music queen to get creative and this album is the product of that renewed spark of creativity. 

 

This is the album Beyonce’s fans, and indeed audiences in general, have been wanting her to make. She delivered on the promise this project held and while it isn’t perfect, it stands as her best material to date. Beyonce has returned for her throne, and this time, she seems hellbent on keeping it. 

 

All hail the queen.

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SCORE #3: 98/100

While her break lasted less than a year, New Energy certainly felt like a comeback album. With dynamic production, standout vocals, and a confidence the likes of which Bey hasn't displayed in years, New Energy arrives as not only the strongest album of her career, but one of the strongest albums of 2021. The album title feels less like a bold statement and more like a promise, one that is kept thoroughly throughout the album's ten tracks. All in all, Bey delivers what will go down in history as one of music's greatest comebacks. 

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