Pitchfork rated Beyoncé’s Renaissance 9.0 and awarded it the publication’s Best New Music designation. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd wrote the review. The score is Pitchfork’s critical judgment—not an audience rating or a measure of consensus.
What did Pitchfork rate Renaissance?
Pitchfork’s review displays a score of 9.0 alongside its Best New Music branding. Shepherd identifies Renaissance as Beyoncé’s seventh solo album and frames it as a record built for the dance floor: it largely sets ballads aside in favor of energy and movement. Read Pitchfork’s review.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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The Beyoncé Experience Live | $4.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Beyoncé - I Am... World Tour | $8.73 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Live At Roseland: Elements Of 4 | $12.55 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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I Am...Yours An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas | $10.79 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Beyonce - Live at Wembley | $22.32 | Buy on Amazon |
Why did Pitchfork give the album a 9.0?
Shepherd’s interpretation centers on dance music as a route to release and possibility. She describes an album imagining the parties and places people longed for while confined during the pandemic. As she puts it, “Renaissance is a feat of imagination, daydreaming about partying in the pandemic, capturing the feeling of thinking about all the places you wish you could have gone when you were just stuck in the crib.”
The review also sees the album’s dance-floor focus as cultural, not merely stylistic. It connects the music to Black and queer club histories, including the contributions of Black women and queer people, Black Chicagoans, Detroiters and New Yorkers who shaped house and techno. Ballroom, vogue, and Black queer and trans references inform that account. Shepherd calls the album “a commanding prescription to be perceived again, without judgment.”
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Which dance styles and collaborators does Pitchfork discuss?
Pitchfork’s release-period companion article describes the album through styles including house, disco, ballroom and techno. It also names vocalists and contributors such as Grace Jones, Tems, Beam, Honey Dijon and A. G. Cook. These references help explain the range of sounds and cultural lineages in the album rather than reducing it to one genre. See Pitchfork’s album takeaways.
How does the review fit the album’s release-era context?
The Guardian’s contemporaneous review describes Renaissance as a 16-track record mixed like a DJ set, emphasizing its dance styles and transitions. It also reports release-era controversies and subsequent changes involving “Energy” and “Heated.” Track-specific details should therefore be tied to the version being discussed; the Guardian’s account does not establish that every release or current streaming version is identical. Read The Guardian’s review.
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What the 9.0 does—and does not—tell you
The 9.0 is one publication’s editorial score, attached to Shepherd’s review. It is not a listener poll, a statistical finding, or proof of a universal critical consensus. The available reviews support an account of Pitchfork’s evaluation and a contemporaneous independent perspective, but not a comprehensive comparison of critics’ ratings.
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