https://youtu.be/161Utu_H7G8?si=A0igeb_xNDfMw4bd

Remastered and on all streaming now. Historical

Tracklist

1. Concept Nothing

2. Live Television

3. Beneath

4. Sometimes Not Serious

5. The Renegade Never Dies

6. Off Air

7. Forget About Me

8. Dead Lovell (Ft. Fifty Grand)

9. James Cameron Took My Bitch (Interlude)

10. Light From The Car

11. Material Female

12. Trees Of The Valley

13. Questioning Your Theory

14. Deira City Centre

15. Dark Light

Concept Vague is Night Lovell’s debut studio album, released on December 21, 2014

It features production from fellow dark, SoundCloud-based producers like Blank Body, Kid Indigo, Oshi and Fifty Grand, while also being self produced as well.

This album marked a landmark moment for SoundCloud and underground rap as a whole and it's still sounds fresh today despite it being released a decade ago. Unpopular opinion, this is still the best album to come out from this underground rap era in my opinion by far.

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/concept-vague/1552495867

https://open.spotify.com/album/3PSl01lYLfvYRxj04IaDxu

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k5F1UYxrMeX94b2VWtvLujbo_i1t4LoOQ

Okay, y'all got mad about how much we were debating the 'deluxe vs standalone album' decision, but by now we've all had a chance to listen to the music and we can actually discuss it

On December 21st 2009 Eminem released a re-release of his 6th studio album "Relapse" with a name "Relapse: Refill". The album features the same tracklist as the original Relapse release with a bonus CD with 7 new songs. However two of the seven new songs were released already. "Forever" on "More Than A Game" soundtrack and "Taking My Ball" on "DJ Hero Renegade Edition".

Relapse: Refill was released because Eminem was stalling the release of "Relapse 2" which was eventually shelved for a disappointment of many fans due to lukewarm reviews on the first Relapse CD. After the release of Relapse: Refill Eminem changed his artistic direction and began working on "Recovery".

The album is mostly produced by Dr. Dre and his production team (Mike Elizondo, Mark Batson, Dawaun Parker & Trevor Lawrence) except for "Beautiful" and "Elevator" which were produced by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto and "Forever" which was produced by "Boi-1da"

Tracklist:

Relapse:

01 Dr. West (Skit)

02 3 a.m.

03 My Mom

04 Insane

05 Bagpipes From Baghdad

06 Hello

07 Tonya (Skit)

08 Same Song & Dance

09 We Made You

10 Medicine Ball

11 Paul (Skit)

12 Stay Wide Awake

13 Old Time's Sake ft. Dr. Dre

14 Must Be The Ganja

15 Mr. Mathers (Skit)

16 Déjà Vu

17 Beautiful

18 Crack A Bottle ft. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent

19 Steve Berman (Skit)

20 Underground

Refill:

01 Forever - Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem

02 Hell Breaks Loose ft. Dr. Dre

03 Buffalo Bill

04 Elevator

05 Taking My Ball

06 Music Box

07 Drop The Bomb On 'Em

My personal favorite tracks Bagpipes From Baghdad, Hello, Same Song & Dance, Stay Wide Awake, Déjà Vu & Beautiful and of the new tracks Buffalo Bill & Taking My Ball

Questions?

1. What are your favorite tracks?
2. Should Eminem have released Relapse 2 instead of Recovery?
3. Do you feel Eminem gave up his own style after releasing this?
4. Where does this rank in Eminem's discography?

On December 21st 1999 DMX dropped his third studio album ...And Then There Was X. ...And There Was X debuted at #1 on Billboard 200 selling 689 000 copies in its first week and therefore becoming DMX's third number one debut in a row. The album has since sold over 5 million copies in The United States Of America and 100 000 copies in both United Kingdom and Canada respectively. ...And Then There Was X was executive produced by Dee & Waah Dean

The album produced three singles the most notable being the second single "Party Up" which peaked at #27 on Billboard Hot 100. Two other singles "What's My Name" and "What These Bitches Want" peaked at #67 and #49 on Billboard Hot 100.

To this day this is DMX's best selling album.

Tracklist:

01 The Kennel (Skit)

02 One More Road To Cross

03 The Professional

04 Fame

05 A Lot To Learn (Skit)

06 Here We Go Again

07 Party Up

08 Make A Move

09 What These Bitches Want ft. Sisqo

10 What's My Name

11 More 2 A Song

12 Don't You Ever

13 The Shakedown (Skit)

14 D-X-L (Hard White) ft. The LOX & Drag-On

15 Comin' For Ya

16 Prayer III

17 Angel ft. Regina Bell

Bonus Track:

18 Good Girls, Bad Guys ft. Dyme

My personal favorite tracks: One More Road To Cross, Fame, Here We Go Again, Party Up & More 2 A Song

Questions?

1. What are your favorite songs?

2. Where does this rank in DMX's discography?

3. Do you still listen to this? How has this aged?

#Artist: Beyoncé

#Album: COWBOY CARTER

#Release Date: March 29, 2024

#Listen: Apple Music

YouTube

Spotify

#Background by /u/the-big-aa

COWBOY CARTER is the eighth studio album from Beyoncé, an artist who needs no introduction...

What may need to be introduced however is how we got to February 11, 2024 – when Queen Bey revealed at Super Bowl LVIII that she was releasing a Country album? To answer that, we need to discuss one vital song in her discography: “Daddy Lessons.”

The sixth track on Lemonade, the song finds her for the first time in her career dabbling in the unknown waters of Country music. With a rocking beat made for the saloon, it’s also a dirgelike ballad about her father, Matthew Knowles, and all the lessons he taught her. Cowriter Kevin Cossom lauded its inclusion on Lemonade in a 2016 interview with Billboard:

Lemonade is very worldly in comparison to the last project, which was way more urban. This project is worldly and the record "Daddy Lessons" just happened to work. Once a formula works, people want to use that formula again until it doesn't work anymore but what's awesome about Beyoncé is she doesn't have to play by the rules: she creates them.

Unfortunately, when she performed a live remix of the song at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards with The Chicks, she was met with social media backlash, calling her an unwelcome outsider, a Pop star trying to capitalize on the rising popularity of Country music, and…a cop hater? Even if she received praise from the likes of Chris Stapleton, Maren Morris, and Brad Paisley, “Daddy Lessons” was one of the few times in her career when criticism got the better of her.

So in the lead up to COWBOY CARTER, Beyoncé cited the 2016 CMAs as an inflection point that inspired her to start work on the album:

This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.

The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.

27 tracks spanning 78 minutes, COWBOY CARTER was released on March 29, 2024. Even as a lifelong Beyoncé fan since her Destiny’s Child days, I felt overwhelmed when I saw the sprawling track list for the first time. I was lukewarm on “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” yet adored “16 CARRIAGES” (more on those later) so I had every reason to believe it’d at least be another solid album in her discography. Suffice to say, I was woefully unprepared with anticipating how much this album would mean to me throughout the rest of the year. And considering the Grammy nominations with yet another Platinum plaque, I wasn’t the only one this album resonated with.

We have 27 tracks to parse through. Grab your hats, hold on to your bootstraps, and get ready for the hoedown of a lifetime.

#Review

AMERIICAN REQUIEM

Starting a country album off with a church elegy is certainly a choice…wait I forgot to mention! According to her, this a “Beyoncé album.” It just so happens that there’s predominantly Country music on it, but I digress!

In any case, Beyoncé has been historically known to love a good choir and harmony section. This is a track that gets the album’s thesis statement out of the way. And she is certainly having fun with it, directly addressing the CMA controversy and defending her roots in one fell swoop.

They used to say I spoke too country

Then the rejection came, said I wasn't country 'nough

Said I wouldn't saddle up, but

If that ain't country, tell me, what is?

Plant my bare feet on solid ground for years

And as she’s singing these heartfelt lyrics, the guitar riff repeating throughout evokes an underrated Prince cut from Sign o’ the Times: “The Cross” and Beyonce is wailing as if the spirits of Prince and James Brown haunted her during the recording sessions. Having worked close with Prince, this is one of the many points on COWBOY CARTER when Beyoncé not only wears her influences on her sleeve, but also succeeds in personalizing her interpretations with flying colors.

BLACKBIIRD

As if pissing off Country fans wasn’t enough for her, Beyoncé had to come for Beatles fans too with this magnificent cover of “Blackbird.” Despite being one of the more calming moments of COWBOY CARTER, Critics aren’t fans of the added harmonies, claiming they deter away from the poignant lyrics of the song. What critics fail to mention is that Sir Paul McCartney wrote the damn song in response to Civil Rights Movement!

Plus, it’s not just Beyoncé doing the harmonies by herself: she’s joined by Tanner Adell, Brittany Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. Five Black women coming together to revitalize this classic Beatles song is a beautiful reminder of how far USA has come as a country since the 1960s. McCartney seems to wholeheartedly agree.

16 CARRIAGES

Throughout the year I’ve been describing COWBOY CARTER as an odyssey; “16 CARRIAGES” is one of the main reasons why. The way the steel guitars twang and the percussion patter, it sounds like Beyoncé was developing lyrics for this on the Oregon Trail and not from a comfy tour bus. With her angelic voice, she chronicles the trials and tribulations of her career up to this point. Even at the literal top of the world – she not only reflects on how much she had to work, but also who she puts in the work for: her family. And she will keep working until the wheels fall off.

I wouldn’t be a Beyoncé fan if it weren’t for Mom and my sister playing The Writing’s on the Wall on repeat (and both teasing me for having a crush on Destiny’s Child). I’m well aware of Beyonce’s journey. She’s not the upstart who watched her father drive out members of the group. She’s not even the woman who revealed her first pregnancy to world at the 2011 Video Music Awards anymore. She’s one of the most enduring Pop stars of our time using Country music as an outlet to chronicle her career up to this point. Year after year, it gets increasingly harder to relate to a celebrity of her status. “16 CARRIAGES” doesn’t try to shorten the gap between her and her listeners. It just reminds us why we keep rooting for her to keep going.

PROTECTOR

About a week after COWBOY CARTER was released, I traveled to Texas for a wedding during the Solar eclipse. While I didn’t get to see Houston, the fact that I was in Texas by myself had me quite verklempt. I was wishing that Mom was there to see me travel the country and get up to wacky adventures (fuck cancer).

“PROTECTOR,” is one of my favorite songs on COWBOY CARTER since it’s straight up a celebration of a mother’s love for her child. Rumi Carter cutely asks her mother to sing the lullaby, the guitars serenade with their strums, and Beyoncé beautifully grants her daughter’s wish. With allusions to Shel Silverstein and her pregnancy announcement from February 2017, this is Beyoncé at her most soothing. While she has a lot to be proud of in this life, she finds so much joy in being a mother:

“I feel proud of who I am because you need me.”

And yet she still asserts during the hook that while her children are growing every day and will eventually shine on their own, she will light the way for them if they ever get lost. Powerful imagery.

MY ROSE

On certain CD players, this song is labeled as “MR. SIR.” Considering her son is named Sir and the lyrics are an affirmation towards self-love, this is a perfect companion piece to “PROTECTOR” and another ode to her children. It is another moment that makes me wish Mom was still around to tell me these words whenever I’m feeling down on myself…

SMOKE HOUR ★ WILLIE NELSON

The radio dial jets past the likes of Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Chuck Berry, and Roy Hamilton to stop at Willie Nelson introducing the next song. This interlude is a brief yet honoring reminder of how Black musicians pioneered Country music through Blues, Gospel, Jazz and Rock ‘N Roll. Willie is a legend that benefitted from these styles and his inclusion as a DJ for “KNTRY Radio Texas” calls back to his days of juggling his music career during the 1950s.

TEXAS HOLD ‘EM

Along with “16 CARRIAGES,” this was the first offering from COWBOY CARTER. In a way, it’s an extension of what Beyoncé accomplished on “Daddy Lessons.” It’s nowhere near as personal as either of those songs, but it is the one that went #1 on the Pop charts, and the Country charts! It’s for wedding line dances and saloon hoedowns alike. Hit-Boy is on the synths, Raphael Saadiq is on the drums, and Rhiannon Giddens is on the banjo (as great as she is, it’s thankfully the only instance of Banjo playing on the album).

In retrospect, Beyoncé called her shot with releasing this as a teaser for the rest of the album. For me, it’s one of its weaker songs but I’m never beelining towards the jukebox when it’s playing at the bar.

BODYGUARD

You make me cry, you make me happy

Oh word, Beyoncé? Because this song makes me cry because it makes me happy!

One of the most seductive entries in her discography, this song is absolutely for the Coyote Ugly demographic, with healthy mix-ins of Bonnie & Clyde fair and first wedding dance vibes. It’s a driving beat propelling the song as she hits high notes singing about the love of her life. Even as people still try to reconcile that her love songs are about JAY-Z, at least they are entertaining, and Beyoncé knows how to sell them…while exclaiming that she will John Wayne that ass if anyone tries to come for him.

DOLLY P

Dolly Parton herself joins in on the fun, reminiscing about some girl with flaming locks of auburn hair she had to sing about in the 1970s. Her name escapes me for some reason…

JOLENE

Everyone who lamented about Beyoncé covering, and then changing the lyrics to “Jolene” failed to realize that Dolly Parton (as lovely and kindhearted as she is) will always be down to collect more royalty payments. It’s the most surprising moment on the album: Beyoncé trades the fawning aspect of the original for condescension and threats. She probably put more thought into the reboot than Dolly ever did when she famously wrote it on the same day as “I Will Always Love You.” While I can definitely understand why people were annoyed at how she decided to choose this angle, I’m a sucker for anytime Beyoncé gets clever with her wordplay:

But you don't want this smoke, so shoot your shot with someone else…

And on top of that is the how both ladies chose to show vulnerability. Dolly felt “threatened” so she chose to fawn over Jolene. Beyoncé felt threatened so she chose violence. Why is Beyoncé fighting? It’s more than just the threat of losing JAY-Z (again). It’s trying to keep her family intact, puffing her chest in the process. It’s an important through-line flowing through COWBOY CARTER: how much she’s willing to fight for her family. Call it toxic, pathetic, maternalistic, or even sunk cost. Beyoncé doesn’t care how she’s coming off: she’s still a creole banjee bitch from Louisian…

Not to mention, the memes went crazy when the album dropped.

DAUGHTER

While not as crazy about this song as others on the album, I absolutely recognize that this is something Beyoncé wishes she could’ve written for Lemonade (and I wish she would’ve written it in time so that “Love Drought” didn’t have to be on it).

In a left field album from Beyoncé, this is arguably the most left field moment on here as she tackles opera. Sampling the aria “Caro Mio Ben,” she is a woman scorned by her beloved and his concubine…so she chooses more violence. She evokes her father once more, threatening to act like her father if anyone crosses her (Daddy did say shoot after all). With hypnotizing guitar arpeggios and angelic vocalizing, no one else has ever made going scorched earth sound so beautiful.

SPAGHETTII

Linda Martell is a forgotten pioneer within Country music. She was the first commercially successful Black woman in Country and even played the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Unfortunately, racism from audiences in the 60s and managers blackballing her in the 70s compelled her to walk away from the music industry in 1974. After making sporadic appearances until officially retiring in 2011, this song is her first foray back into the limelight (and her first Grammy nomination to boot).

Beyoncé was not kidding when she said that she studied the rich musical archive. Having Linda introduce the song with a speech about how funny genre is as a concept since it can be confining in practice is a sweet way to platform her…before she starts spitting bars about having shooters ready to blast for her.

Beyoncé’s flow is a sharper, more scathing sendup of “Formation.” This is the most fired up she sounds as synths blare over acoustic guitars and boomsticks. Swizz Beatz raids Timbaland’s drumkit and makes his voice heard, though it’s Shaboozey who breaks out here with his first guest spot on the album. While ensuring everyone at the bar stays tipsy, he lives up to Linda’s words in blurring genre lines as he makes his plays in the Country scene.

ALLIIGATOR TEARS

Sequencing and topic wise, this could’ve been placed immediately after “DAUGHTER.” It’s another tale about being with someone who does nothing but bullshit, but here Beyoncé willingly falls for the alligator tears she sees. The instrumental wavers between D Major and D minor to represent her inner conflict, but it always resolves in major key to signify how settled she feels in the relationship she’s in.

I did read that this can represent her feelings about taking on Country music, while leaving R&B/Pop behind for a respite. That would be a valid read if this was a Country album, not a “Beyoncé” album.

SMOKE HOUR II

Willie chimes back in here from “KNTRY Radio Texas” to let listeners know that he wants to turn them on to some real good shit. This is the halfway point in the album and best believe he’s done a great job in doing so. Let’s see what the rest has in store.

JUST FOR FUN

This was my anthem when I was on the plane to Texas, specifically when Willie Jones sings about going down south just for fun. As I’m writing it during the first snowfall in New York City, playing it back has me reminiscing how much fun I had during my first trip down in the Lone Star State.

With allusions to Gospel, this is the most cinematic song on the album with singular piano notes starting Beyoncé off as she talks about how much she’s enjoying her journey through life. It’s interspersed with feelings of exhaustion and doubt, but her spirit never yields. I bet it also helps having a choir, drums by No I.D., and a full-on string section behind her.

II MOST WANTED

A duet with Miley Cyrus threw everyone for a loop, but Miley sings her ass off and further proves her mettle after an impressive 2023. With more mix-ins of Bonnie & Clyde, this is a song about settling into a relationship to the point of willingly braving the 405. The vocals here are enough to make even the most deadpan of couples tear up by the end of the song. Especially in the second verse: the bass coming in to add more body just sends butterflies on a direct route into my stomach. Beyoncé and Miley singing their hearts out at the end ranks up there with the more cathartic moments on the album.

LEVII’S JEANS

A duet with Post Malone through everyone for a loop, but Post sings his ass off to mostly positive results. This was definitely a play for a commercial placement that hasn’t come yet, but it’s another seductive moment on the album. Beyoncé is sounding like she’s gearing up to give a lap dance while Post comes in with 2017 levels of assuredness in his sound. The 808 playing throughout sounds like its swaying like gyrating hips and the climax of the song is more than enough to make couples rip their pants off.

There were a handful of think pieces about including Miley Cyrus and Post Malone on an album mostly celebrating Black culture from the 1950s to today. Even if I’m still not fully sure why Beyoncé decided to platform them, I can’t deny that they both made the very most of their opportunities.

FLAMENCO

On my first listen of the album, I was on my way home from work. I started “AMERIICAN REQUIEM” right when I clocked out and got to "FLAMENCO" when I came home. All that to say – considering what’s to come, this is a breather track that finds Beyoncé getting meditative while delivering an ear worm of a tune. She acknowledges the age-old adage – "you don’t know what you got until it’s gone" – as she resolves to further stand on business with her goals.

THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW

Linda chimes back in one final time to introduce a track stretching across a range of genres…so much so that it creates a unique listening experience. I’m sure it won’t be that big of a deal…

YA YA

Remember how I said that “FLAMENCO” was playing when I got home from work? What I also should mention is that I got home from work at 2:00am expecting the rest of the album to be a relaxing time before I went to sleep. “YA YA” with its Nancy Sinatra sample and Beyoncé addressing the audience woke me the fuck up, to the point I was dancing in my living room listening to it. Moral of the story: this song is a big fucking deal.

Arguably the best song on the album, Tina Turner unarguably possessed Beyoncé during the recording sessions. If I'm trying to name the genres covered here, it’s a powerful hodgepodge of Rock, Blues, Funk, Psychedelic, Country, and slivers of Hip-Hop (shoutout to the hi-hats). Adding in the interpolation of “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys for good measure, this is a perfect canvass for Beyoncé to sing about the trials and tribulations we all face. It also serves as the perfect canvass for her to remind us to keep the faith.

This was one of the songs that got me through some tough moments this year, including a ½ marathon in below freezing weather. And with the way I still listen to it, it may get me through a full marathon!

OH LOUISIANA

After a powerhouse of a song, Chuck Berry comes back from the dead real quick to calm us down to sing about Louisiana. For anyone wondering why Beyoncé, famously from Houston, calls herself a creole banjee bitch from Louisian? She gets it from Tina. With all the odes to Black history throughout the album, she had to make the point to sendup her dear mother too. Can’t say I blame her.

DESERT EAGLE

That bass line underneath the warped out guitar is almost as sexy as Beyoncé’s singing. I don’t think anyone has ever made the do-si-do sound so seductive.

RIIVERDANCE

In case Beyoncé needed to make it as explicit as possible, this is the part of the album where she wants everyone to dance. Whether it’s the Irish jig or the horizontal tango, she’s focused on making us all move as she talks about how falling in love makes her wanna dance. I do love how the guitar from The-Dream provides the song’s backbone as the piano comes in, then the drums, vocal harmonies, and more percussion.

It drones a bit but Beyoncé does more than enough to keep it interesting as she sings about how she was apparently smitten by JAY-Z’s smile and fade when they first met. Whatever can be said about their billionaire marriage, there’s no doubt that her love for him is priceless.

II HANDS II HEAVEN

…And this song makes me hope that I will have the love that Beyoncé sings about and that I witnessed down in Texas. When I wasn’t at the wedding, I stayed with a dear friend, her husband, and their three dogs, feeling overwhelmed by how well they treated and supported each other (and their little dogs too). When I had alone time walking in their neighborhood, that was when this song fully resonated with me.

Beyoncé calls upon God, booze, and the solar system to describe the love she feels. Even though it’s the longest song on the album, she sings her heart out to make six minutes sound like no time at all, in the name of describing how timeless her love is. The first two verses are sparse with Beyoncé sounding angelic and the percussion creeping underneath the surface. Then the midpoint breaks it down even more as the instruments works in half time.

The lyrics are at their most vivid as Beyoncé sings from her soul for the rest of the song. She offers some beautiful and heart blazing vows that make me lose my breath:

“I’ll never stop you and you’ll never stop me from being whatever we need to be.”

Hi hats come in to bring the song home (Mars according to her) as the notes get higher coming out of her mouth. The last 30 seconds are without a doubt the climax of the whole album. She hits a high note over the choir with so much power and grace, affirming that she will give her love the best years of his life.

Stunning. Legitimately one of the best songs in her discography.

TYRANT

After Beyoncé made us cry our eyes out, Dolly Parton comes back into the fold to help her light up a juke joint with a tale about a “hangman.” She even helps the choir bring back up the energy of the album by leading the harmony with her lovely voice and percussion from I’m assuming her nails.

But with the help from d.a. got that dope, his fatass 808s, and a powerful fiddle, Beyoncé takes on the persona of the hangman, a true-blue tyrant. I understand that this is a long album, but I’m still taken aback at how much and how well throughout Beyoncé leans into her sexuality. She is in full on femme fatale mode; no more do-si-do when she’s trying to make everyone dutty wine.

When she predictably starts to tour the album, this song will set stadiums on fire. While the last two songs are both solid in their own rights, this is the last “amazing” moment of the album. And what a moment it is.

SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN

Even if this is not a peak of the album, this is a sweet like honey comedown from the previous highs. Shaboozey pops back one final time to flow like a mix of Playboi Carti on “Almeda” and Post Malone on a good day, catching the harmony bug in the process.

But as he fades into the background, Pharrell comes in for the assist as Beyoncé sings the bridge with beautiful vocals. The 808s minimize power here to make room for the one-woman choir and the one-man backups. Then out of nowhere, she grows some gravel in her voice to get down and dirty.

Over some airhorns and the returning 808s, Beyoncé wants us to buck like a mechanical bull. To be real here; this is definitely Pharrell’s pen coming out of Beyonce’s voice, but that voice is powerful enough to at least make me dance. If we’re coming down from the album’s highpoints, she wants to make sure we’re shaking some ass. I always cheer when she hits us with “Is you is or you ain’t” like she’s Tom playing the upright bass. Alas, the party must end sometime…

AMEN

We (finally) end the album where we began: in church for a reprising requiem. Beyoncé is at her most pious and humble as she sings for mercy. Who’s hurting badly? The listeners, critics, the BeyHive, America? Herself even?

The organ, synths, and the filtered brass section help increase the gravitas of her lyrics picturing a house made of blood and bone crumbing in front of her. Even as she’s singing goodbye, it’s also sounds like she’s singing a welcome. As the song ends with a reprisal of “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” that welcome serves as an invitation to restart the album from the top, but not without exclaiming that we’ll be the ones to purify our fathers’ sins. What does that even look like? Being kind to those who try out new genres after dominating their comfort zone of over 25 years? Listening to 80-minute albums in 2024? Forgiving a spouse for cheating and becoming an uber-power couple with them? Amidst these existentially rhetorical questions is a simple answer: this is a beautiful way to end COWBOY CARTER.

#Conclusion My favorite anime of all time is Cowboy Bebop; part of the reason why is because everyone who worked on the show set out to make it into a genre unto itself – more than just a Seinen Space Western. While I can’t say she even knows what Cowboy Bebop is, Beyoncé obviously went into COWBOY CARTER with the same mindset. It’s why she stressed that it was a “Beyoncé” album, not a Country album…despite also citing her CMAs performance as the moment that most inspired her to tackle this endeavor.

As Linda Martell said, stretching across a range of genres makes for a unique listening experience. And as Willie Nelson said, sometimes you don’t know what you like until someone you trust turns you on to some real good shit.

Throughout what may be the longest piece of writing I’ve created since college, I hope I explained why this is the album of the year. This truly feels like a celebration of the music that inspired Beyoncé and the industry that’s platformed her for almost 30 years. I never expected her to be this adventurous and stay as consistent while doing so. I’ll even go as far to say that is the strongest album in her discography (though my favorite will always be 4 for Mom related reasons). No matter where life takes me next, COWBOY CARTER is bound to soundtrack some more incredible moments in my life.

#Favorite Lyrics:

“I might cook clean, still won’t fold. Still workin’ on my life, you know. Only God knows. Only God knows. Only God knows” – "16 CARRIAGES"

“I feel proud of who I am because you need me. And I will lead you down that road if you lose your way. Born to be your protector. Even though I know someday you gonna shine on your own, I will be your projector” – "PROTECTOR"

“Sometimes I hold you closer just to know your real” – "BODYGUARD"

“Jolene, I know I’m a queen, Jolene! I’m still a creole banjee bitch from Louisian…” – "JOLENE"

“I’ll never stop you and you’ll never stop me from being whatever we need to be. And in these dark times, I’m so glad that this love is blinding” – "II HANDS II HEAVEN"

#Questions

1. Where does this rank among Beyoncé's discography?

2. Does she fail or succeed in making an album that transcends genre?

3. Favorite/least favorite tracks?

4. Best guest spot on the album?

5. Does the album inspire you to dive further into Country music...even if we are in a Hip-Hop subreddit?

If you made it this far, thank you so fucking much. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

See You Space Cowboy...

Welcome to the /r/hiphopheads daily discussion thread!

What's This Thread For?

• Objective questions with right/wrong answers ("Does anyone know what is happening with Detox?", "What is the sample in C.R.E.A.M.?", etc.)
• General hip-hop discussion.
• Meta posts, like mod feedback and ideas for the sub.

Thread Guidelines

• Do not create a separate self-post for these types of discussions outside of this thread - if you do, your post will be removed, as stated in the guidelines.
• Please be helpful and friendly.
• If a question has been asked many times before, provide a link to a thread that contains the answer.

Recurring Discussions

• Top Ten Tuesday
• Billboard Chart Discussion
• Last.fm Thread: What Have You Been Listening To This Week?
• Drop Watch
• Recommend If You Like Thread
• Listening Club

New to /r/hiphopheads or hip-hop in general?

Check out these lists if you don't know where to start.

• Essential Albums List
• HHH Favourites List

Please note that these lists are outdated and will be updated very soon.

Other Ways to Connect

• HipHopHeads RVRB Room (Spotify Premium required)