Beyoncé Releases New Single "Break My Soul" Off Album 'Renaissance'

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Beyoncé is officially in album rollout mode, releasing her lead single “Break My Soul.”

European Premiere of Disney's "The Lion King"

Source: Gareth Cattermole / Getty

Just a few days after revealing that her seventh studio album was on the way, Beyoncé surprised fans by dropping the first single from her upcoming project, Renaissance. Turning the music industry’s Friday release schedule (which she created so many years ago) on its head, Bey dropped “Break My Soul” on Tuesday. The house track samples Robin S’s 1993 hit “Show Me Love” and Big Freedia’s “Explode.”

“Now, I just fell in love, and I just quit my job / I’m gonna find new drive, damn, they work me so damn hard,” The song repeats. “Work by nine, then off past five / And they work my nerves, that’s why I cannot sleep at night.”

As previously mentioned, “Break My Soul” comes less than a week after Columbia Records announced that the superstar’s seventh solo studio album will drop on July 29. Just like the Tuesday release, announcing her album more than a month in advance was also an unexpected move from Beyoncé, who popularized surprised album drops with her self-titled project in 2013.

Renaissance will be Bey’s first solo album in six years, serving as the follow-up to 2016’s Lemonade. In the years since, she has released a soundtrack album to The Lion King and Everything Is Love with her husband Jay-Z. Still, nothing’s the same as a Beyoncé solo album.

British Vogue shared photos of Bey on its July cover shortly after news of the new album broke, where British Vogue‘s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful talked about his preview of Renaissance.

“The creation has been a long process, she explains, with the pandemic giving her far longer to spend thinking and re-thinking every decision,” he wrote. “Just the way she likes it.”

Categories: Music