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The 50 best albums of 2024: No 5 – Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
This freewheeling embrace of the singer’s roots was also a triumphant reclamation of a genre that had long shunned its Black origins
Ameriican Requiem touches directly on this exclusion, pointing out the failed (and narrow) promise of the American experiment (“them big ideas are buried here”) and the superficial good manners that uphold the racist status quo: “You change your name, but not the ways you play pretend.” But this gatekeeping only galvanised Beyoncé, and she created Cowboy Carter –the second album in her three-act Renaissance trilogy – to carve out a space in country music on her own terms. Beyoncé: Texas Hold ‘Em – videoBeyoncé also wasn’t afraid to tackle country’s iconic moments, notably recasting Dolly Parton’s Jolene as a steely eyed warning shot that jettisoned the vulnerability of the original song. The brief interlude Smoke Hour Willie Nelson took the form of a radio dial flipping through songs by Son House, Chuck Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – a subtle nod to the fact Black artists invented country and rock’n’roll.
Or read this on The Guardian
