FEATURE:
Beyoncé at Forty
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Imagining an ‘Ultimate Queen’ Vinyl Series
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BECAUSE the modern icon…
that is Beyoncé turns forty on 4th September, I am doing a series of varied features. I will look deeply at one or two of her studio albums, how I discovered her music when she was part of Destiny’s Child, where she could head from here and what the future holds. We do know that new music is not too far away. I will explore this more in a feature where I look ahead. FADER were among the many who reported some good news:
“If anyone was going to spend the pandemic doing something productive, it would be Beyoncé. True to form, the singer-songwriter and entrepreneur has been keeping herself busy for the last 18 months, revealing in her new Harper's Bazaar cover story that she's been in the studio working on new music. No release date is revealed, only that "the music is coming."
With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!
Lemonade, Beyoncé's last solo album, was released in 2016. In 2019 she released Homecoming, a live album documenting her instant-classic performance at Coachella, as well as her soundtrack for The Lion King”.
Alongside her six solo studio albums is the soundtrack for The Lion King, in addition to her Coachella performance and her albums with Destiny’s Child. There is also her album with JAY-Z as part of The Carters, EVERYTHING IS LOVE. There is a lot of her work out there! I know that there are only a couple of her studio albums easily available on vinyl. You can get them on C.D., though the vinyl is not as readily available. After Beyoncé has turned forty, I guess she will enter a new phase both personally and musically. It would be a good idea to have all of her albums in a collection. Maybe it will be two boxsets: the solo studio albums and the other albums. I know you can get her HΘMΣCΘMING: THE LIVE ALBUM on vinyl, so maybe that does not need to be included. As, to the best of my knowledge, there have not been a greatest hits collection. Perhaps that is something that is being planned. There are a few live albums of hers available. Having a live boxset, a solo studio albums set and then an assortment of Destiny’s Child, The Carters and a greatest hits compilation. With each set, one could have booklets or words about what they represent – how great she is as a studio musician, a collaborator and a live act. Perhaps an ‘Ultimate Queen’ series, it would not merely be a chance to cash-in ahead of new music. Having the albums readily available on vinyl would offer fans a chance to own something they can keep for years.
It would bring new people to Beyoncé’s music. She is one of these artists whose albums and career has been so important. As great as it is to access her music on streaming services, there is nothing that can beat the feel and sound of vinyl! I am not a massive fan, though I have been following her since the 1990s and really respect her as an artist and person. She is a definite icon who has produced some sensational music. Preserving this or providing a vinyl set (or series of) would be awesome. So many other artists have reissued albums on vinyl and put out boxsets. It is strange that all of her work is not on new vinyl (you can probably get most of her stuff second-hand). On 4th September, the world will salute one of the modern times’ most influential artists. It is exciting to learn that new music is brewing. It seems like the perfect time to look back in the catalogue and release the studio and live albums on vinyl. I guess, with every studio album, there would have been demos and outtakes. As one of my favourite albums of hers, B'Day, is fifteen on 1st September, it got me wondering about an anniversary edition. This is just me thinking out loud – though there would be demand for Beyoncé vinyl! It only leaves me, ahead of 4th September, to wish her…
A very happy birthday.