When the world is at the point of smoldering and we’re too tired to do anything about it, you dance. And apparently, when the most iconic pop stars of our age have sat at the apex for so long, pushing into middle-age after decades in the business, you take a swerve into the sweaty thrum and blissful amnesia of the nightclub. With Beyoncé’s new house-heavy single, “Break My Soul,” the first track from her upcoming album act i: Renaissance, coming days after Drake’s own left turn into a similar dance sound on his surprise album Honestly, Nevermind, we are hearing, in real-time, one of the more interesting concerted evolutions not only for two of our biggest stars but also potentially for the state of pop music at large.
The new track from Beyoncé is a thumping anthem for joyous, if tested, self-determination that reconfigures Big Freedia’s bounce hit “Explode” and Robin S.’s “Show Me Love” (another sign of this wider shift in pop music: Charli XCX’s own recent flip of “Show Me Love” on “Used to Know Me” from her latest album Crash). And though this is only one song so far, it’s also an example of how to play with this sound with a bit more thoughtfulness and zeal — amid some shining moments and his first creative breakthrough in years, Drake’s new dance album often turns more into a lazy, ambient version of its genres.
