The second act of this Beyonce trilogy is finally here, and it’s massive! This album is almost 80 minutes long and contains 27 tracks! Even though quite a few of those tracks are interludes, it can be intimidating to look at and see that many tracks. It’s not something you can digest on first listen. Even now, after listening to it 6-7 times in full, there are new things that stand out each time. Sometimes it’s the little ways that Beyonce uses her voice in ways she never has before, while other times it’s instrumental flourishes that help add flair to the songs. So while I nerd out about all the little details in this album, let’s go over what she has actually said about this album, because there have been some inaccurate things said.
Most people, myself included, think that this album is partly about recapturing the Black roots of country music, but Beyonce herself has never said that. In fact, she ended her statement about the album by saying, “This ain’t a country album. This is a Beyonce album.” What this album 100% is, is partly a response to her showing that she can do this sound after being heavily criticized during her 2016 CMA performance with The Chicks of her song “Daddy Lessons”. Even though the song itself pretty clearly feels like a country song, many of the CMA fans, and artists themselves, did not feel that way and made sure their feelings were heard. This album is Beyonce playing in that sonic space while toying with the idea of what a genre really is.
That theme of what even makes up a genre comes up both implicitly and explicitly throughout the entire project! It is mentioned most explicitly in the song “Spaghetti” with Linda Martell and Shaboozey. Linda Martell, who was the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry before racist taunts forced her to leave the industry, gives a spoken word introduction that says, “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.” It’s clear by this album that Beyonce feels confined by the idea of genres, and “Spaghetti” is the turnpoint in the album where she goes from fairly normal country-influenced music to more undefinable moments. The song “Spaghetti” itself contains a rap verse from Beyonce before it turns into a quiet rap-sung verse from Shaboozey.
This combination of country-influenced music continues throughout the rest of the album. Another big example is the song “Tyrant”. Sonically, the song sounds like something off of Renaissance, especially with the production from D.A. Got That Dope, but there's this fiddle playing throughout the whole thing that ties it clearly to this album from anything else she’s done. It’s almost a country-dance song if it weren’t for the 808 drums. The same can be said for the easily danceable “Riiverdance”, but there is clearly something country about it that lets you know where it’s from. Even when we get to the collabs, she ties in the country homages to more R&B songs, such as “Levii’s Jeans” with Post Malone and the soon to be hit with Miley Cyrus titled “II Most Wanted”, which is also one of the most Fleetwood Mac sounding track on here. This idea of genre-less music comes fully to fruition on the twentieth and my favorite track, “Ya Ya”.
“Ya Ya” might be the most fun song Beyonce has ever released! The song starts off with her doing a faux introduction of the album like she’s at a concert, including directly referencing the Chitlin Circuit that the song itself is sonically based on, before diving headfirst into a pretty clear Tina Turner homage. She has commanded the band in a way that Tina would do during a live performance, but it’s recreated perfectly in a studio recording and still sounds authentic. Beyonce is vocally in full force here! She does everything from playfully doing a deep voice to imitate a man’s voice during her call and response introduction, to one of the most powerful vocal performances I’ve ever heard her do towards the end of the song, and it even ends with her doing Prince and James Brown-esque screams. The song is also one of the most lyrically entertaining on here as well, and includes my favorite line on the whole album, “Whole lotta red in that white and blue”. All of this is in one song, and I haven’t even mentioned the Beach Boys and Nancy Sinatra interpolations. It’s a fun, thought provoking, and messy track in a way that not many songs anyone at Beyonce’s level of popularity have done.
As usual, the credits of Cowboy Carter are chalk full of both huge names and quality smaller names that helped create this project. Willie Nelson, Jay-Z, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Linda Martell, Nile Rogers, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, The-Dream, Pharrell, Raphael Saadiq, and more are all hugely influential and popular names that contributed here, but there are just as many interesting smaller names. Ryan Beatty has writing credits and background vocals on four different songs, which is also the same amount of tracks that have Gary Clark Jr. playing guitar. Alongside Pino Palladino, members of both Nickel Creek and The War on Drugs contribute to the instrumental of “II Most Wanted”. The incredible Raye also shows up in the writing credits on “Riiverdance”, whereas indie sensation Arlo Parks helped writing on “Ya Ya”. All of these people, and hundreds more, and credited as helping create Cowboy Carter what it is, and they were all needed.
Cowboy Carter isn’t an album that can be created by one person, but rather, it has to be made by someone who has an overall idea that needs to oversee other experts doing what they do best. Beyonce knows she’s not the best songwriting, so she doesn’t write the songs by herself. She’s not the best producer, so might as well get the best producers. It is also worth noting that she has the resources to get all these people. Most people, and even most artists, don’t have the money, influence, power, and more to get all these musicians and producers to work on one project. Also, most artists are unable to oversee and take in hundreds of opinions to create this one piece of work. It takes a special artist to have all these ideas and not make them sound like a mess, let alone also have an overarching theme and sonic palette. I wish that more people with the resources of a Beyonce would try to push themselves into new territories like she has. Especially today, it feels like most artists plateau once they get popular, but Cowboy Carter is yet another example of Beyonce pushing herself to create another maximalist opus!
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