It’s been six long years, but Beyonce has finally returned with Renaissance, her first solo album since 2016. Led by the ebullient single Break My Soul, Renaissance is Beyonce’s full-throated embrace of club music, a glittering ode to disco and house that celebrates the black trailblazers who pioneered those genres.
Featuring contributions from legendary diva Grace Jones, experimental British producer A.G. Cook and indie-R&B singer Syd, Renaissance is one of Beyonce’s most euphoric records, filled with ecstatic sex jams (Cuff It), cocky flex tracks (I’m That Girl) and even a six-minute disco jam (Virgo’s Groove). But is it up to the standard of her past six records? Here’s a ranking of all of her solo studio albums to see how it stacks up.
7. I Am… Sasha Fierce (2008)
I Am… Sasha Fierce is, perhaps, the most culturally impactful Beyonce album on this list, save 2013’s self-titled record. Halo has entered into the canon of wedding song staples, while Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) spawned, as one man once said, one of the best videos of all time. But beyond those hits, there’s little on I Am… Sasha Fierce that inspires return listens. Centring on Beyonce’s alter ego, the titular Sasha Fierce, feels like a misstep – in large part because it’s Beyonce, not anyone else, who’s captured our attention for decades on end.
6. Dangerously in Love (2003)
You come to Dangerously in Love for iconic, era-defining hits. Crazy in Love, arguably the best pop song of the 2000s, opens Beyonce’s debut album; further down the tracklist, you get Me, Myself & I, the sensual, Donna Summer-sampling Naughty Girl, and the Sean Paul collaboration Baby Boy. The version of Dangerously in Love that was released in Australia even included 03 Bonnie & Clyde, Jay-Z’s iconic 2002 Beyonce collab, and the underrated Austin Powers soundtrack cut Work It Out. It may not be her strongest album front-to-back, but Dangerously in Love’s highs are undeniable.
5. B’Day (2006)
B’Day is a celebration befitting its title. Punchy and banger-heavy, Beyonce’s second solo album finds a star luxuriating in the enormous success of her debut and sitting comfortably on her new perch as one of the most celebrated stars on the planet. This is the kind of album you can only make when you’re on top of the world – utilising a heady combination of funk, R&B and hip-hop, tracks like Upgrade U, Deja Vu and Green Light are some of Beyonce’s most surefire floor-fillers: muscular, ingratiating party songs that still go hard today.
4. Renaissance (2022)
Any great dancefloor diva knows that, sometimes, you have to let the beat take centre stage. Beyonce understands that unspoken rule: Renaissance is her dance record and, true to the history of disco and house, the beats are often the stars here. On songs like Alien Superstar and Virgo’s Groove, a sublime, feathery disco heater, it feels like she’s using her voice as an instrument first and foremost, adding texture and brightness as well as lyrics.
Of course, when it’s her time to shine, everything is set at supernova level – she pushes her voice into a brash, rhythmic flow on Heated, turns the would-be ballad All Up in Your Mind into a techno pounder, and slinks her way through the ballroom tribute Pure/Honey while boasting about her billion-dollar net worth. It’s the most outright fun Beyonce has sounded in years, finding her using her voice in playful new ways without sacrificing the perfectionist streak and regal posture that’s made her an icon.
3. Beyonce (2013)
Beyonce was the game-changer – not just for Beyonce, but for the entire music industry. Released without any prior warning or announcement in December 2013, Beyonce totally reshaped the way labels thought about album releases, causing an avalanche of surprise releases in its wake. Leave it to Beyonce to know, inherently, that mystique is the most powerful form of marketing there is.
Of course, the groundbreaking release method wouldn’t mean much if the music wasn’t good. But Beyonce is brilliant: from the woozy, glittering Drunk in Love to the retro ode to cunnilingus Blow to Flawless, the song that taught a generation of young girls the word “feminist”, it’s a knockout.
2. Lemonade (2016)
Beyonce’s second surprise-released “visual album” Lemonade explores the heartbreak the star felt after discovering that her longtime husband, rapper and entertainment mogul Jay-Z, had cheated on her. Arriving after two albums that found ripe inspiration in marital bliss, it was an emotional gut-punch of a record.
It’s also one of Beyonce’s most formally and musically interesting records, a humid, darkly-tinted survey of hip-hop, rock, and country that found the star flexing her skills as a rapper and showing off her immaculate curatorial power, bringing together collaborators as disparate as Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, The Weeknd, and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. The resulting album is devastating and endlessly explorable.
1. 4 (2011)
4 didn’t have the splashiest release or the biggest singles of Beyonce’s career. In fact, it’s her lowest-selling album to date, and has come to be seen as a transitional moment in an otherwise hugely impactful career.
But to discount 4 would be to deprive yourself of some of the most emotionally nuanced, aesthetically thrilling music of Beyonce’s discography. Foregrounding minimal soul and R&B arrangements while still finding time to incorporate underground electronic samples, pounding EDM, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Kanye West cameo, 4 is arguably Beyonce’s strongest and most varied album front-to-back – a record that combined the fearless spirit of her later work with the unabashed commercialism of her first three albums.
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