Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, world-renowned pop sensation, released her country-inspired album on March 29th, 2024. Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s 8th studio album, is the follow-up album to her house-inspired album Renaissance which topped the charts upon being released, its accompanying tour, The Renaissance Tour, virtually selling out every venue it played, spanning multiple cities, states, countries, and continents.
With this in mind, her follow-up album, a country album, would need to top and double down on her 3-album musical narrative. Similar to how a play is often broken up, Beyoncé has been releasing her latest albums in a series of acts, Renaissance served as the first act and Cowboy Carter the second.
Facing criticism from the country music scene, Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter and while it may be a grower for some, the album could not be more perfect in my most humble opinion.
While intimidating at first, the 27 songs on the record may seem like a big feat for some to listen through but with a cohesive and full body work such as this one, the album is easily broken up into sections and extremely easily digestible. While I can appreciate certain bodies of work that seem to be a compilation of songs, they often seem to lack any real theme or cohesion, so for me, and perhaps many other listeners, this album stands apart as it’s one of those albums you have to listen to start-to-finish as many of the songs blend and bleed into each other. The whole album is honestly a uniquely divine listening experience.
While categorized as a country album, Cowboy Carter has a multitude of sounds, ranging from hip-hop and trap to psychedelic funk, opera, all the way to folk music. To me, what stood out the most was a fourth wall break where the album pokes fun at itself for intertwining with many different genres of music.
On Track 12, “SPAGHETTI,” at the beginning of the record, Linda Martell, the first commercially successful black female artist in country music, claims “Genres are a funny little concept aren’t they? Yes they are,” she says. “In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand, but in practice, well, some may feel confined.”
Just like Renaissance, Cowboy Carter samples various musically historic tracks, such as Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” the Beach Boys‘ “Good Vibrations,” Fleetwood Mac‘s classic “Landslide” as well as Patsy Cline’s classic “I Fall to Pieces,” which reached No. 12 on the Hot 100 back in 1961. Hell, Beyoncé even samples herself. On “AMEN,” the last track on the album, she samples “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” the first track on the record.
While the entire album is full of great songs and while it was impossible to choose a handful of songs to dissect, a few tracks that stuck out to me the most include “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” “BLACKBIIRD,” “SPAGHETTII,” “DESERT EAGLE,” and “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’.”
“AMERIICAN REQUIEM” – The beginning of the album, in my opinion, is such a good start as it kind of misleads the listener within the first 40 seconds. The song starts with a soulful, gospel-esque, breathy introduction, a biblical tone can be sensed. The song then transitions to a pop blend with drums, and what sounds like a psychedelic instrument, as well as a powerful guitar. Instruments aside, the song details are about changing and facing what is bothering you as Beyoncé is making herself known as an artist who takes up space within the music industry. Towards the end of the song, she explains how the public audience once told her she was too western and too country, but now, she isn’t seen as being country ‘nough to release country songs, referencing possible backlash she faced when first making the record. She then asks the listener “If that ain’t country, tell me, what is?” The song wraps up with the same soulful, gospel sound I got a taste of in the beginning. While no visuals for the song or album have come out, the song feels like the perfect musical sandwich, showing the intricacy of the album.
“BLACKBIIRD” – Following “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” “BLACKBIIRD,” a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” details the story of hope for blackbirds to fly out and make something of their lives, seeing as they have been said to have been waiting for their moment their entire lives. This is a metaphor for the lives of black women as Paul McCartney, the Beatle who wrote the song, wrote it as a way of saying “Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith; there is hope” surrounding the racial tension and oppression that was present towards black women in the 1960s, the year the song was released. The bonus to the song is that not only is Beyoncé, a black woman, singing the song, but the song is also sung by 4 other black artists – Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts – all black women hoping to make it out in the country music industry. This song is significant for women, especially black women, to tell their stories and struggles within the music industry. So when listening to “BLACKBIIRD,” I thought it was only fitting for 5 black women to sing it.
“SPAGHETTII” – Fast forward through some of the best songs off of the record, one of my favorites off the album, “SPAGHETTII.” Because the past songs felt relatively tame and cohesive, “SPAGHETTII” feels like a disruption to the rest of the album. The song starts with Linda Martell detailing how genres box artists in and confine their music, which ironically, doesn’t happen on this country album. Among the trap beats the song starts with, Beyoncé quite literally states “I ain’t in no gang but I got shooters and I bang, bang” which genuinely surprised me as I was prepared for a love song or a song about anything else but Beyoncé had something else in mind. The song itself serves as a declaration that Beyoncé is that girl, not only that but, she isn’t anything ordinary. She states how she came from virtually nothing and formed her cult following (me included) by herself, creating a distinct difference from other artists these days who come in search of “clout” or attention. The song could honestly also serve as a criticism to the public as they tend to criticize her and her work but to her, they are as bland and soft as spaghetti with no sauce. The song then shifts as audio of what seems to be frantic paparazzi surround her, singer-songwriter Shaboozey then taking over while Beyoncé’s vocals repeat and follow his lyrics.
“DESERT EAGLE” – While extremely short, “DESERT EAGLE” is probably my favorite off the album because I just can’t manage to listen to the album without this song. As previously mentioned, an element of psychedelic funk is heavily prevalent on Cowboy Carter, and “DESERT EAGLE” is the song that embodies this sound so profusely that it’s hard not to become obsessed with the tune as well as Beyoncé’s sultry singing. Similarly to another Beyoncé song, “Partition,” this song is rather sweet in a strange way as Beyoncé seems to be simply declaring her love to her lover, claiming she is all his. After listening to it over and over again, a sexual element can be detected by the various sexual innuendos. While not easily recognized at first, the song itself is extremely catchy and sultry. If I had to rate it, I wouldn’t be shy of rating it anything less than a 10/10.
“SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’” – As the second-to-last song on the album, Cowboy Carter, “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’” seems to be composed of 3 different sounds perfectly sandwiched into one. The song starts with Beyoncé singing over a typical country sound, joined by yet again, Shaboozey. The pair sing about making their way back home as well as recognizing some elements from home like Chevy’s, saddles, rodeos, and cornbread. The song is then taken over by Beyoncé as she sings in a high-pitched, sweet sound, the sound being reminiscent of an almost gospel-like song. As the base drops unexpectedly, Beyoncé’s sweet sound turns low-pitched as she sings about bucking, a move where a horse kicks both of its back legs into the air, typically performed in rodeos. The song, in its entirety, is perfectly blended together where by the end of the song, I felt like I simultaneously listened to 3 different songs and loving all 3. While Beyoncé is no stranger to mixing different sounds and combining them to form a cohesively unique song, “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’” seemed to be one of the perfect mashup songs I could have asked for.
In all, after constantly listening to this album and replaying it over and over again from the minute it came out, I would rate this album a 10/10, perhaps even an 11/10. Despite not being a fan of country music, Beyoncé has somehow managed to convert me from a hater of all things country to an avid fan. I firmly believe that whether you’re a Beyoncé fan, a country music fan, or neither, you can still enjoy this uniquely brilliant body of work.
