"COWBOY CARTER"

I’m really not a Beyonce fan, but I liked this album more than any of her others. She’s got an undeniable set of pipes, but I’ve never connected much with her lyrics or style. “Halo” is probably my favorite song of hers, and one of the only ones I listen to with any frequency. Recently though, she hasn’t really appealed to me at all. “Lemonade” nor “Renaissance” did nothing for me, unfortunately: literally not a single song. But “Cowboy Carter,” while I think it suffers from being too long and having too many transitional tracks, does have a few that I can’t get out of my head, and I wanted to give credit where it’s due.

Before I get into the specific songs I liked — a fairly brief list —I did want to talk about the record as a whole for a moment. To me, the album doesn’t really sound like country; while some songs do, the overall sound doesn’t lend itself to being classified as a country album. That said, I do like how she incorporated artists with country backgrounds, even if some of the songs felt a little off and their contributions at times seemed like they were just there to perform country music fan service (though I doubt many typical country music fans are listening to this album). Including icons like Dolly and Miley was a fun choice, but some fell a little flat for me: Beyonce’s cover of “Jolene” just felt a bit unnecessary.

I did really love the song with Post Malone (“LEVII’S JEANS”) and the one with Miley (“II MOST WANTED”). They’re still in my head, and I’ve played them many times since I first listened. Those were the highlights of the album for sure, but I did enjoy “YA YA” and “AMERICAN REQUIEM” as well. When it comes to the singles, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” was alright, but “16 CARRIAGES” really seemed like a swing and a miss, especially for a lead single.