Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Beyoncé signals the arrival of her new era with “BREAK MY SOUL.”
Beyoncé is not usually here to be relatable. She’s a world-class performer, the kind of artist who can redefine what it means to headline a festival or perform at the Super Bowl; she perfected the art of the surprise release, and is constantly open to exploring new stories, whether it be through a sprawling opus like Lemonade or a cinematic accompaniment like The Lion King: The Gift. She’s also quite a private person, one of the most famous and recognized artists of our time, rarely peeling back the curtain on her personal life in recent years.
It’s so refreshing, and almost funny, then, to see Beyoncé return with lyrics like, “I just fell in love, and I just quit my job.” It’s Beyoncé as one of the people, a staple of the music industry as a whole experiencing burnout and malaise, capturing the feelings of the era of the Great Resignation — even if it’s from afar.
Co-produced by The-Dream, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, and Beyoncé herself, the track also samples of Big Freedia and Robin S over the upbeat, house-adjacent, New Orleans-bounce infused beat. The song arrived earlier this week on June 20th alongside the official first day of summer, appropriately-timed not only as a song of the season but also as one made to coincide with new beginnings. On the summer solstice, the sun is at its very highest point of the year, offering the most daylight and the least darkness.
It’s a fitting metaphor for a relatively escapist track, one that signals warmth, and dancing, and togetherness above all else. Why lie: it’s been another tough week after another increasingly tough week, and Beyoncé is trying to make our souls feel just a bit less broken by it all.
— Mary Siroky
Contributing Editor