I Thought The World Would Revolve Without Us

Beyoncé featuring Frank Ocean “Superpower”

Out of all the songs on Beyoncé’s excellent new album, “Superpower” doesn’t come up a lot – it doesn’t really have any super-quotable lines, it’s not an obvious hit, it’s not at all flashy. But it may be the best ballad she’s ever recorded, and also the most subtle: The song seems to move in a slow motion circle around her vocal performance, which is quite solemn and intense. It’s a love song, but it’s framed in political terms – she evokes Civil Rights-era language; she makes having a stable relationship seem like a challenge to the world. This is a song about true partnership. It wasn’t very long ago that Beyoncé sang about love in economic terms – “Upgrade U” makes her marriage sound like it’s based mainly on corporate synergy. But she’s matured a lot since then, and I think a lot of the songs on her last two records are the work of an artist who has become unafraid of expressing deep love and affection in her music – maybe she thought of it as a weakness when she was younger, a threat to her autonomy and identity. But now she sees it as a strength, and that’s exactly what she’s singing about in “Superpower.”

I wrote a lot more about Beyoncé’s new album here.

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