Wesley, what would it be like if Renaissance was a prescribed medication that had its own

commercial? You know how SNL always does those parodies of health commercials?

Side effects may include spulantos. And it can fact, a heightened sense of liberation.

Ten sick days in a row. A replenished and rejuvenated sense of

a liveness, a delight in humanity. The sense that you are constantly

rollerskated your life. A desire to participate in a norgy. You may also experience a sore throat

from shouting the lyrics at the top of your lungs if you have managed to learn them yet.

Glowing urine. Sorry what? Just neon urine. That's what I'm gonna say.

Okay. I'm Wesley Morris and I'm Jay Wertham. We're two culture writers at the New York

times. And this is still processing. Beyonce does all of her talking through her music.

And you get a sense of where she's at in her life based on how the music sounds. For a

long time to me it felt like she wanted to just celebrate Black life and just everyday

Black life, continuing the way like a painter or photographer might. And we could all just

revel in this glamour and beauty through a very luxurious Beyonce lens. We've been on a

journey of what seemed to be self-reclamation with a self-titled album. And then we work

through her marital problems on lemonade. And we go through homecoming. I mean to take

something as everyday as a marching band and do that for hours on a stage. Then we get

Renaissance.

Which is honestly just a slippery bubble bath soapy playtime.

Well, it just landed in a big ol' pile of Grammy nominations. So there's that.

Well, now I'm also starting to recognize that Renaissance is an arrival of Beyonce back

to herself. She doesn't really care what would anybody else think about her.

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