Solé Scott- Features Editor
BeyHive, please do not attack me, but I am not really feeling the new Beyoncé country album at all; sorry not sorry.
On Friday, March 29 Beyoncé released her eighth studio album, titled “Cowboy Carter.”
The highly anticipated album was five years in the making and stemmed from an incident at the Country Music Awards in 2016, when she performed with The Chicks, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks. Beyoncé was ridiculed by the country music world and was not welcomed.
The album is 1 hour and 19 minutes long with 27 tracks, which is a rarity in music today, as album lengths are frequently less than 40 minutes with 30 songs.
Songs that immediately caught my eye were “JOLENE,” “BLACKBIIRD” and “II MOST WANTED” featuring Miley Cyrus.
“II MOST WANTED” was an unexpected collaboration. It was one of three songs that I kind of liked. The raspiness of Miley and the grit of Beyoncé made this song pop. I could see this song reaching number one on the Billboard Charts and becoming the frontrunner for Song of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
“JOLENE” is a cover of Dolly Parton’s song which was released in 1973. Instead of keeping to the original and begging the other woman not to take her man, Beyoncé does the total opposite and instead warns Jolene not to mess with her.
“We’ve been deep in love for twenty years. I raised that man; I raised his kids. I know my man better than he knows himself,” is a line that stood out to me because she is talking about her husband Jay-Z and how their bond is too strong to be broken, which is beyond questionable.
Quick refresher: Becky with the good hair is a mysterious woman that had an affair with Jay-Z. Back in 2014, it was rumored that Jay-Z cheated on Beyoncé, which fueled more accusations after the infamous elevator video was released from the Met Gala of Solange attacking him as Beyoncé watched from a corner.
The rumors turned out to be true when Beyoncé released “Lemonade” in 2016 and addressed her husband’s infidelity.
As of Saturday, March 30, it was revealed that “Cowboy Carter” debuted with 76.1 million streams on its first day on Spotify, breaking Future and Metro Boomin’s “WE DON’T TRUST YOU” record from this year. “Cowboy Carter” is also her biggest debut on the platform, doubling the 43.2 million first-day streams of “Renaissance”.
I know that I will never revisit this album as a whole, but I may listen to a maximum of 3 songs in the future.
This album is not my cup of tea, and that is perfectly fine. I was not the target audience, yet I believe in this case you should only critique the work and not the person, as some critics have forgotten.
I would still encourage all to give a listen to determine your own opinion, whether you like Beyoncé or country music.
