{"id":25486,"date":"2024-03-29T20:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T01:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25486"},"modified":"2024-03-29T20:22:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T01:22:10","slug":"music-review-beyonces-epic-act-ll-cowboy-carter-defies-categorization-redefines-american-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25486","title":{"rendered":"Music Review: Beyonc\u00e9’s epic \u2018Act ll: Cowboy Carter\u2019 defies categorization, redefines American style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 \u201cNothin\u2019 really ends \/ For things to stay the same they have to change again,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> sings on \u201cAct ll: Cowboy Carter,\u201d the opening lines of the opening track, \u201cAmeriican Requiem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThem big ideas, yeah, are buried here \/ Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, it is a mission statement for the epic 78-minute, 27-track release<\/a> \u2014 or at the very least, functions like a film\u2019s title card to introduce yet another blockbuster album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the days leading up to \u201cCowboy Carter,\u201d the superstar said this \u201cain\u2019t a Country album\u201d but \u201ca \u2018Beyonc\u00e9\u2019 album\u201d \u2014 positioning herself in opposition to country music\u2019s rigid power structures<\/a> and emphasizing her ability to work with the style with her latest genre-defying opus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A capital-C country album it is not \u2014 and of course it isn\u2019t. Beyonc\u00e9 is an eclecticist, known for her elastic vocal performances: in a moment, choosing to belt close to godliness and, in another, moving with marked ease into a fractured run, inheriting histories through the vowels she stresses, the handclaps she introduces and the genres she utilizes. (That\u2019s evident in the instruments as well, which range from washboard, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, Vibraslap, bass ukulele and mandolin, to name a few.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the album, five years in the making, was inspired by the racist backlash she faced after performing at the 2016 CMAs with The Chicks, as many fans have theorized, she\u2019s eclipsed it and then some. Tell Beyonc\u00e9 she isn\u2019t welcomed in your space; she\u2019ll carve out a bigger one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s latest album, \u201cAct ll: Cowboy Carter,\u201d is here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmeriican Requiem\u201d bleeds into a reimagination of a Beatles<\/a> \u2019 classic, \u201cBlackbiird.\u201d It was originally written by Paul McCartney about desegregation in American schools with particular emphasis on the Little Rock Nine,<\/a> the first group of Black students to desegregate an Arkansas high school in 1957. In Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s rendition, harmonies are stacked. She\u2019s joined by Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy \u2014 some of the most exciting voices in contemporary country \u2014 who are also Black women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They aren\u2019t the only next generation highlighted on \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d: Willie Jones\u2019 rich Louisiana tone turns \u201cJust for Fun,\u201d into trail-riding gospel country. Shaboozey\u2019s country-rap marks a pivot in the album\u2019s trajectory on \u201cSpaghettii,\u201d setting the listener up for the singular listening experience of the Patsy Cline-channeling \u201cSweet Honey Buckiin\u2019,\u201d with its Jersey club beats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Country veterans<\/a>, too, appear: Willie Nelson is a rough-around-the-edges radio DJ on the fictional station KNTRY \u2014 the resulting effect is an alternative America where terrestrial country radio does not overwhelmingly prefer playing white performers<\/a>; snippets of Sister Rosetta Tharpe\u2019s \u201cDown by the River Side,\u201d Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cMaybellene\u201d and Roy Hamilton\u2019s 1957 \u201cDon\u2019t Let Go\u201d bled into Nelson\u2019s smoky voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201950s cuts are an inspired choice; Beyonc\u00e9 has chosen to reference the decade in which format-based radio emerged and, as a result, country music\u2019s racial lines were all but codified. The effects are still felt. One frequently referenced study,<\/a> conducted by University of Ottawa professor Jada Watson, examined over 11,000 songs played on country radio from 2002 to 2020 and found that artists of color made up only 3% of all airplay, two-thirds of which were men. In even her interludes, Beyonc\u00e9 has taken her listeners to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJolene\u201d is a reimagined take on the 1973 Dolly Parton<\/a> original; it\u2019s preceded by \u201cDolly P,\u201d a spoken-word interlude from Parton. \u201cRemember that hussy with the good hair you sang about?\u201d she says, referencing \u201cBecky with the good hair\u201d from \u201cSorry\u201d off 2016\u2019s \u201cLemonade.\u201d<\/a> \u201cReminded me of someone I knew back when, except she has flaming locks of auburn hair. Bless her heart! Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s version, of course, is very Beyonc\u00e9 \u2014 there\u2019s no shrinking and begging for this woman to step off; it\u2019s a warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s clearest predecessor on this album is Linda Martell<\/a>, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry. Martell\u2019s 1970 landmark record \u201cColor Me Country\u201d should be considered country canon; she offered Black women rare visibility in a genre stereotypically associated with whiteness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also appears twice on \u201cCowboy Carter,\u201d first providing clarity on the complicated origins of country in \u201cSpaghettii.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenres are a funny little concept, aren\u2019t they?\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cIn theory, they have a simple definition that\u2019s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shared histories and families are abundant on Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d: \u201cProtector\u201d begins with Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s daughter Rumi Carter asking for \u201cthe lullaby, please,\u201d leading into a tear-jerker of an acoustic ballad centering motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If listeners position \u201cAct ll: Cowboy Carter\u201d next to \u201cAct l: Renaissance,\u201d<\/a> they might view the record as a continued dialogue in the Beyonc\u00e9 mythos: \u201cLemonade\u201d established Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s dedication to Black empowerment. \u201cRenaissance\u201d reclaimed House music for its Black progenitors in a sprawling release that placed techno, Chicago and Detroit house, New Orleans bounce, Afrobeats, queer dance culture and beyond on the same dance floor \u2014 and highlighted the frequent invisibility of Black performance in music history books. \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d does something similar with country music \u2014 and, in true Beyonc\u00e9 fashion, extends well beyond it, as vessel, captain and crew on this journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBodyguard\u201d borders on soft rock; \u201cYa Ya\u201d interpolates Nancy Sinatra\u2019s \u201cThese Boots Were Made for Walkin\u2019\u201d and The Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d; \u201cRiiverdance\u201d and \u201cII Hands II Heaven\u201d bring back the electronica of \u201cRenaissance.\u201d \u201cll Most Wanted\u201d features the raspy-rich Miley Cyrus, and interpolates Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cLandslide.\u201d \u201cLevii\u2019s Jeans\u201d modernizes the timeless combination of R&B and country ballads, amplified by a surprising collaborator in a crooning Post Malone<\/a> \u2014 lest we forget he also hails from Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh Louisiana\u201d is helium-injected blues and funk; the classic guitars on \u201cDaughter\u201d lead into Beyonc\u00e9 singing the famous Italian aria \u201cCaro Mio Ben\u201d in the original language. If you\u2019ve been waiting for her opera moment, here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she\u2019s back to English in the refrain, she declares, \u201cIf you cross me, I\u2019m just like my father \/ I am colder than Titanic water,\u201d reminiscent of outlaw country\u2019s murder ballads and a successor to Bey\u2019s first ever country song, \u201cDaddy Lessons\u201d from \u201cLemonade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effortlessly \u2014 and momentously \u2014 \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d weaves canonized classics into the same breath as Beyonc\u00e9’s country music evolutions and Black music history preservations. If the Beatles and the Beach Boys are unimpeachable, so is Martell, so is Beyonc\u00e9, and Adell, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The magic here, of course, is Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s mastery of art and message. And at the center of everything is her larger-than-life performance \u2014 serious and jubilant, like when she plays her nails as percussion, an ode to Parton doing the same on \u201c9 to 5.\u201d (That\u2019s on \u201cRiiverdance,\u201d a club song that also references country\u2019s Celtic folk origins.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On \u201cCowboy Carter,\u201d historical course-correcting and evolution go down with honey. Lessons are learned on the dance floor, on the radio, at the imagined honky-tonk, in headphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a massive album that will require close examination for full enjoyment \u2014 but Beyonc\u00e9 fans have long learned<\/a> to be great students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 \u201cNothin\u2019 really ends \/ For things to stay the same they have to change again,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 sings on \u201cAct ll: Cowboy Carter,\u201d the opening lines of the opening track, \u201cAmeriican Requiem.\u201d \u201cThem big ideas, yeah, are buried here \/ Amen.\u201d In some ways, it is a mission statement for the epic 78-minute, 27-track release \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[27536,27534,27537,27533,27535,27538],"class_list":["post-25486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-cowboy-carter","tag-beyonce","tag-challenging-classification","tag-epic","tag-music-review","tag-redefining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25488,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25486\/revisions\/25488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}