Cowboy Carter |
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Released: March 29, 2024 Peak: 12 US, 14 CW, 11 UK, 11 CN, 12 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.1 UK, 1.31 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 78:21 |
Rating: 4.319 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:For Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé “strapped on her boots for a crash course in overlooked American history and her place in it.” AM This is “a direct claim to her own Southern roots.” AM “She’s lassoed country – and folk, gospel, Americana, and more” AM as she ventures “into Louisiana Cajun country, the rivers of Alabama, the streets of Memphis, the great Oklahoma plans, and within her memories of multiracial Texas rodeos to create yet another world in her image.” PFThe album partially owes its existence to the less-than-stellar response to Beyoncé’s performance at the 2016 appearance at the Country Music Association Awards. She performed her song “Daddy Lessons” from her Lemonade album with the Chicks and was “met with reactions that ranged from cool sneers to racist vitriol, both in the crowd and online.” PF She wrote that “because of that experience I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive.” PF This is her “crusade to reclaim genres no longer associated with the Black artistic tradition that invented them.” AM “It must be underlined that in the grand scheme of things, Beyoncé is still a megastar with a billion in the bank as she kicks through the swinging saloon doors. She may be bringing a small posse of lesser-known artists with her, but as she noted, this is more about ‘challenging’ herself, not an altruistic endeavor.” PF The album “plays like a classic country murder ballad, the wronged townsgal returning to her dusty outpost to pop off her vengenance.” PM She’s aided on the album by country legends Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Beyoncé delivers “a feisty cover of her classic Jolene, which finds Beyoncé dragging ol’ ‘Becky with the good hair" back into the crosshairs, making it her own with personal lyrics.” AM The cover was “requested and cosigned by Dolly herself,” PF who also guests on “the equally saucy Tyrant, a hip-hop-infused standout.” AM Nelson delivers interludes for “his fictional Smoke Hour show, introducing…the string-washed Just for Fun” AM and “the catchy hoedown Texas Hold ‘Em.” AM The former is “a gospel-inflected meditation on journeying through your troubles” PF that features Black country artist Willie Jones. The the latter was the lead single for the album and gave Beyoncé the distinction of being the first Black woman to top the country chart. That song also features Rhiannon Giddens on banjo and viola. She’s one of the many Black country artists who Queen Bey celebrates throughout the album. Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, and Tiera Kennedy guest on the cover of the Beatles’ Blackbiird. Linda Martell, “the first Black female artist to grace the stage at the Grand Ole Opry,” AM “ushers in album highlight Ya Ya, which samples ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’’ and interpolates ‘Good Vibrations’ on a Tina Turner-esque romp.” AM The “electrified live band is in funky mule mode while Bey kicks, shimmies, snaps, and twerks her way through a working person’s lifetime of bullshit.” PF In a voice-over opening on “the brutal Spaghettii,” AM Martell also offers up a message to the haters, saying, “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’ they? In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in pactice, well, some may feel confined.” PF That song, and “the Pharrell-produced throbber Sweet Honey Buckiin,” AM in which Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” “gets the Jersey club treatment,” PF both feature feature “Virginia country hip-hop musician Shaboozey,” PF who would make his own statement on the country and pop charts with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The song knocked “Texas Hold ‘Em” from the top of the country chart, making it the first time the chart had been topped by two consecutive Black artists. Beyoncé also enlists other well-known artists who’ve made their own genre-defying leaps into the country world with “fellow Texan Post Malone duetting on a playfully naughty Leviis Jeans” AM and Miley Cyrus on “the ride-or-die track II Most Wanted.” PF The song won the Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. On “the epic opener Ameriican Requiem, she presents her Southern bona fides to critics.” AM “On the sweeping 16 Carriages she mourns the loss of youth and innocence after spending a lifetime on the road.” AM My Rose “alternately recalls baroque vocal arrangements, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and ’60s psychedelia on a song about mother-love.” PF Desert Eagle “is an unlikely slap-bass strip-club anthem.” PF Beyoncé “ushers in another horse-gallop trap beat and raps about her shooters” PF on Daughter. On that song and Protector, “her high notes occasionally modulate down like a slide guitar, a breathy technique that’s distinctly country, but only sounds natural when a vocalist is in total control, as Beyoncé always is.” PF “The looseness of the acoustic instruments suits her, particularly when she lets herself be languid in the humidity of a song like Alliigator Tears.” PF She “returns to the dancefloor on Riiverdance to remind listeners (and haters) that this is still a Beyoncé album.” AM The song “interpolates finger-picked bluegrass guitar with a house piano and four-on-the-floor percussion.” PF “On the gospel album closer Amen, a companion to ‘Ameriican Requiem,’ she alludes to the fact that the United States was built by enslaved Black people…and circles back to the inciting incident of Cowboy Carter: that what she experienced at the CMAs is part of an America that, you may have heard, has a problem. Though lyrics like ‘Can we stand for something?’ might be vague, her message is quite clear. Beyoncé, too, is an American, so do-si-do on that.” PF “Cowboy Carter is such a grand statement of intent that it feels like it could be her ultimate say on identity and purpose. The fact that it’s coming from outside her usual wheelhouse makes it even more impressive. While it won’t be able to please everyone, that’s not the point: this is an intensely personal statement about reclamation, belonging, and legacy, celebrating the past with hopes of changing the future.” AG |
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First posted 2/5/2025. |
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