It does more than revere the dancefloor it bottles its joy, conviviality, and verve, all while transcending the condition of homage. But Renaissance eclipses Bey’s previous statements of hard-won self-love and romantic resilience. Over the years, Beyoncé’s music has served every function: It can lift a disheveled spirit, vault femme erotics, or treat the wounds of a devastating relationship. Each interpolation is potent and precise, yielding a DJ mix and history lesson all at once. There are tributes to ballroom DJs, producers, and drag queens Kevin Aviance and Kevin Jz Prodigy, as well as appearances from disco glitterati like Grace Jones and bounce music idol Big Freedia. Bey captures much of that here, citing her ancestors and contemporaries, sometimes leaving us longing for their actual presence. For many of us, the club is more than just a night out it’s a nexus of community, a financial ecosystem of survival, and most importantly, an obligatory pleasure practice. –Gio Santiagoīeyoncé owes the grandeur of her latest reinvention to her queer Black forebears, who fought hard for the refuge of this relief. Un Verano Sin Ti is a resplendent statement on the necessary endurance and conviviality of Caribbean life. “Puerto Rico está bien cabrón,” he repeats, almost like a call to action. The electronic bomba banger “El Apagón” addresses Puerto Rico’s colonial status, gentrification, and ongoing blackouts in an unrelenting yet restorative whirlwind. Whether he’s referencing his “baby gravy” on “Titi Me Preguntó,” or telling the story of a liberated Puerto Rican woman with Buscabulla on “Andrea,” UVST is a sprawling love letter that owns Boricua humor, swagger, and sharp social commentary.
Un Verano Sin Ti marshals reggaeton, dembow, dream-pop, EDM, and mambo, leveraging sex-fueled perreo one moment, only to muse over better futures the next. Bad Bunny’s appeal is as mythical as it is rare: The world’s biggest pop star-a musically inventive, charismatic critic who loves his island-releases the biggest pop album of the year, one that flawlessly effuses the sound and nostalgia of a beach day in the Caribbean.
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