The Daily Valet. - 7/29/22, Friday

✔️ She's Back

July 29, 2022

Friday, July 29th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

What are *you* listening to today?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

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Today’s Big Story

Beyoncé Is Back

She released her long-awaited seventh album overnight

Beyoncé dropped her new album overnight and yet again, taken over the cultural conversation. From the bop “Break My Soul” and her photo shoot for British Vogue to making physical copies available for pre-order on her website, the release of Renaissance has been a big deal.

Even an unexpected leak two days before the official release date sparked controversy, with members of her #BeyHive claiming it would be wrong to listen to a bootleg of the album instead of waiting for a presentation from Ms. Knowles-Carter herself.

But now it’s here: The 16-track LP is the first installment of a “three act project” and features contributions from Jay-Z, Drake, Skrillex, Grace Jones, 070 Shake, and more. (It’s even got a controversial Kelis sample on one song.) We could spend the whole newsletter dissecting the songs and the sound, so I’ll just point to Rolling Stone, who says “Renaissance isn’t just an old-school album; Beyoncé also adventures into deeper, stickier grooves. And while ‘America Has a Problem’ isn’t an explicitly political song, the album itself is something of a political statement.”

Interestingly, the New York Times points out that the rollout of this album has been downright traditional—especially for a superstar who has spent the last decade-plus upending all conventions about how to market music. While all that innovation helped Beyoncé skyrocket in artistic stature, they say it also siloed her material and potentially limited her commercial performance. (We all know of Lemonade, yet her last No. 1 single as a lead artist was 2008’s “Single Ladies”.)

Still, the paradox of Beyoncé has meant that even as she has slipped somewhat on the charts, her larger cultural prestige has remained supreme. But that might be why this album rollout has been different—more transparent, more conventional.

According to Billboard, her seventh solo studio album will no doubt be a blockbuster. But how well the album performs depends on whether Beyoncé can still rally fans to buy vinyl and CDs like an old-fashioned “album artist,” rather than stream a popular track or two. An analysis of the top albums since 2020 reveals the best-performing titles had a potent combination of strong physical and digital sales in their first weeks, in addition to exceptional streaming numbers. Of course, I'm not going to doubt Beyoncé.

↦ Dig Deeper: The launch episode of Vulture’s new culture podcast ‘Into It’ discusses how Beyoncé’s 2013 self-titled album changed the music game.

Instagram Pumps the Brakes

They’re pausing the updates until all the yelling stops

Instagram is temporarily halting some recent changes following a week of mounting criticism, the company said Thursday. A test version of the app that opened to full-screen photos and videos will be phased out over the next week.

“I'm glad we took a risk—if we're not failing every once in a while, we're not thinking big enough or bold enough,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told Platformer in an interview. “But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup.”

This comes a day after Mark Zuckerberg elicited outrage by saying that more than 30% of our Instagram feeds would consist of AI-recommended content from people we don't follow by next year. That too is being walked back, reports Gizmodo.

Earlier in the week, Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian were among some of the hugely-followed people posting memes asking the company to “Make Instagram Instagram again.” And on Twitter, nearly every day people are posting tweets criticizing the new Instagram that quickly go viral. Mosseri confirmed that users were so frustrated with the gram's new feed that they were engaging with the app less. The usage data “isn't great.” The people have spoken.

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Pickleball Is Everywhere

And the sport is gaining haters almost as fast as players

I don't know about you, but whenever I hang around people my parent's age, I hear about pickleball. I don't know why or how, but it always makes its way into the conversation. I'm always disappointed because (1) I have no interest in racket sports and (2) no real pickles are involved.

But they're onto something because pickleball is booming across the country. This spring, it was named the fastest-growing sport in America ... for the second year in a row. The mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping-pong has been called the “preferred sport of the one percent.”

Sounds fancy, right? That's why there are cool brands making equipment and there was even a recent J.Crew collaboration. According to NPR, the country has only about 10,000 places to play, but that continues to grow by several dozen every month. After all, Architectural Digest says it's one of the hottest amenities for new luxury real estate developments.

The only thing moving faster than this pickleball mania is the rush of pickleball haters, of which there are many. According to GQ, no one wants to be told to like something, after all. “To detractors like us, it's a senior citizen's idea of something youthful and hip ... once an improvised summertime driveway activity, pickleball has since transformed to a multi-million dollar revenue stream.” But it sounds a little like the people who bemoan when their favorite indie band sells out, right?

↦ Dig Deeper: Pickleball noise is fueling neighborhood drama from coast to coast.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Not Okay’ + a Sidecar Cocktail

If you didn't know any better, you might just scroll past Hulu's Not Okay, which starts streaming today. In this social media satire, a scheming and savvy young woman desperate to find her purpose executes a heinous hoax that backfires spectacularly. But it sounds like this one is worth a watch. It already boasts a 78% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Rolling Stone says Zoey Deutch “gives us an anti-heroine for our age of perpetual internet thirst.”

Deutch plays Danni Sanders, who becomes the most hated person on the internet after getting caught faking a trip to Paris. When a terrorist attack happens after she posts her picture, she tries to keep up the charade. Vox points out that this is not the first film to satirize the age of influencers, but it is easily the most unsettling. Danni gets her well-deserved comeuppance, but she doesn't sound as bad as her thirst trap influencer f—-boy coworker, played by Dylan O'Brien. Without giving away too much, the movie is organized into chapters and ends with one titled, “I don't get a redemption arc.”

↦ Your Pairing:The sidecar is an old school cocktail with Parisian roots but a questionable backstory (like our protagonist). What's for sure is that it's a potent and pleasing tipple that's open to interpretation. This one, from Basil Hayden, swaps the usual brandy to bourbon for a refreshing and citrus forward drink.

In Other News

↦ JetBlue Will Acquire Spirit, Creating the Fifth-Largest Airline in the U.S.

↦ The Flight Hack Is Dead

↦ 20 Brands Gaining Gen Z Attention Right Now

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

What we’re wearing

A metaverse neighborhood?

Sprite’s new bottles

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