COWBOY CARTER - Beyonce: Review

Review by Lav:

COWBOY CARTER is the HIGHLY-anticipated follow-up to Beyonce's 2022 album Renaissance, an album that I was a pretty big fan of like everybody else. What's so interesting about COWBOY CARTER is that it was billed through its marketing and promotion as an embrace of country music. And make no mistake, Beyonce does spend part of this record embracing a measure of country that is FAR more authentic than most of her contemporaries are capable of. But that sells the ambition of this album short. Bey genre hops a LOT throughout the nearly 90 minutes of this album and while its ambition can occasionally swallow it whole, for the most part this is pretty damn good. 

COWBOY CARTER starts out INCREDIBLY strong. You have to get a full third of the way through the album before it serves up anything I don't absolutely love. That includes the records two singles 16 Carriages and Texas Hold Em. Those songs were definitely picked deliberately to help market the album's country direction and I think they both still sound great. In particular Texas Hold Em, which hasn't waned on me at all despite the literal hundreds of times I've heard it in the past two months. 

Album opener AMERIICAN REQUIEM is an introduction that takes its time and plays with space slowly building up to an emotional peak. Thankfully that peak is absolutely there with a triumphant hook that sounds better every single time she sings it. Bodyguard similarly gets better and better as it goes along. Bey's swagger is absolutely dripping out of every moment of the song which is extremely impressive given its shift to acoustic instrumentation. The song is JUST as confident and catchy as you'd expect from Bey with a striking vocal performance that I've totally fallen in love with. 

Protector is a delightful deep cut and one of the many songs on the record that embraces a folkier side of vintage country music. Beyonce slots into the sound surprisingly well and her daughter Rumi appearing on the song highlights the maternal touch of Bey singing about being someone's protector and makes for a major highlight. Speaking of highlights, Beyonce tries her hand at a cover of The Beatles Blackbiird and I like it so much more than I thought I would. She recruits a variety of vocal talents to help her out and the results of a delightfully recontextualized vision of the song. 

The other big cover songs on the record I'm a bit less fond of. Beyonce serves up a cover of Jolene that's cosigned by Dolly herself and while the song is performed decently, I think it was a bad choice. Everyone has a version of Jolene and Beyonce's attempts to make it her own don't really succeed. Plus covering Jolene on your "country album" just feels like playing dress up. I'm slightly more positive on Ya Ya, a straight-up surf rock song later on the album that prominently features an interpolation of Good Vibrations. The track has its moments for sure but it also occasionally feels like a completely compositionless pastiche. 

While we're talking issues there is a bit of a sour note on the back end of the album with Tyrant and Sweet Honey Buckiin. The former is a song I want to like because it's objectively hilarious hearing the thumping trap beat come in after Dolly Parton's spoke word intro. Unfortunately, the sounds on the song are so obviously clashing. Sweet Honey Bucklin is probably the most awkward song on the record sporting another weird genre fusion featuring Shaboozey. In the middle of the song it gets more intimate and improves quite a bit but it also dives right back into the strangest motifs. 

There are other songs here that are pleasant enough even if I don't have much to say about them. Alliigator Tears and Riiverdance are decent even if they kind of slip into the background within the broader scope of the album. The one song I'm praying I never have to hear again is Levii's Jeans with Post Malone. Boy does it sound awkward hearing Bey and Post sing about hugging curves with gentle hornyness. I'm also pretty sure Posty's bridge on the song is the single worst moment on the entire album. 

Thankfully, the rest of the album is packed full of deep cuts I enjoy. Daughter is a big highlight and when Beyonce says she's colder than Titanic water she isn't kidding because that's actually how this song feels. It's one of the eeriest moments on an otherwise pretty lively record and she kills it. In particular, on the lyrical front,meta-commentary it feels like she's blending together vintage staples with contemporary flare perfectly. I also really like Spaghetti, a meta commentary on the album's approach to genre. It's short and kind of feels more like an interlude but it's also absolutely thumping and I think a fully realized version would be one of the best songs here. 

There are also some more collaborations on the record I surprisingly enjoyed. Just For Fun has a great instrumental that clicked with me even if Bey and Willie Jones don't exactly fit together perfectly. They still come together to deliver a good song. II Most Wanted works pretty well given that I haven't loved many of Miley Cyrus' indulgences into acoustic-flavored country music in the past. The hook on the song is really strong and like a lot of tracks here it gets better every time they repeat it.

II Hands II Heaven features heavenly harmonies and incredibly catchy refrains. I also love the dreamy subtle synthe that back it they stand out quite a bit from the rest of the album and fit the track perfectly. Amen is the last song on the record and the last song I want to talk about. It really makes for a wonderful conclusion to the record that says a lot for both the lyrical and sonic themes expressed throughout the record. 

COWBOY CARTER is a wildly ambitious record. Beyond just an indulgence in country music, the genre scope of the record reaches back decades and explores a variety of different sounds and styles. That's boosted even further by the use of various interludes and supporting tracks that make listening to the record a stronger overall experience. But with that experience, the album sometimes finds itself out of Beyonce's depth. 

For as many surprising swings that Beyonce hits out of the park on the record, there are clearly moments she's lest apt for. Those don't completely disrupt the tracklist thankfully, but they do make me reconsider the ambition of the record as it seeks to tell the story of as much musical history as possible in 90 minutes. Even if COWBOY CARTER doesn't stick the landing every single time, Beyonce's quest to broaden her influences as widely as possible left her with far more hits than misses and a concept that heightens its individual pieces, even if things occasionally come off so silly it's unbearable. 7.5/10

For more mainstream music check out my review of Ariana Grande's eternal sunshine