“This is not a country album,” warned the musician, paraphrasing René Magritte, perhaps without meaning to. “This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album,” she added in her Instagram missive. The album of a Beyoncé who now sets no musical limits, putting on this opulent (excessive?) concept album country, yes, but also soft rock, blues, hip-hop, R&B and house , which defined Renaissance (2022), first chapter of this trilogy which we would describe as equestrian – a reference to the mounts we see her riding on the covers. Epic, too? So far, certainly.
It is therefore not a country album, but the album of Beyoncé’s representation of this musical culture which contributes to defining the American identity and at the heart of which the musician intends to recall, reaffirm, the contribution of the artists African-Americans — an approach similar to that undertaken on Renaissancewhich highlighted the work of black people who have shaped electronic music.
The album opens with the powerful American Requiemalmost a musical number (the whole album, in fact, can be listened to as a long 80-minute musical theater) which returns to the harsh, and frankly racist, reception that many had reserved for her when she performed her song (country) Daddy Lessons (of Lemonade2016) at the televised Country Music Awards gala, sparking a social debate on the identity of the musical genre.
It’s all there, in this first song, the motivation of the artist born in Houston, Texas, undeniably country country. Immediately afterwards, she invites around her acoustic guitar the voices of four young black country musicians – Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer – who harmonize magnificently on this cover of Blackbirdby the Beatles, which Paul McCartney composed in 1968 to honor the Little Rock Nine, students prevented from attending a high school from Arkansas because of their skin color.
After these two punches, Beyoncé’s musical caravan goes off the rails. We go from neo-country-R&B 16 Carriages to the torch song folk Protectorthen comes Willie Nelson, host of the show Smoke Hour on the fictional radio station KNTRY. Of the album’s 27 songs, 6 or 7 count as interludes; Dolly Parton leaves a voicemail message for Bey that serves to introduce her rereading of the classic Jolene, of which Beyoncé modified the text. Further on, it is the black country icon Linda Martell (82 years old today) who presents the improbable Ya Ya, text and original melody citing Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, sung to a sample of These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.
And by thus patching together the history of pop and country over the last 80 years or so, from the Beatles to the Beach Boys, from Fleetwood Mac to Underworld (quoted and/or sampled), from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Chuck Berry, Beyoncé places alongside side by side the stories, black and white, of these musical genres, to form this musical fresco even more ambitious than was Lemonade, but also more scattered. Thus, the trap rhythm (but soft) of spaghettiwith which the young country star Shaboozey collaborates, stands out in this gumbo of generally introspective, acoustic songs bathed in warm gospel vocal arrangements.
Beyoncé had promised surprises on this album. Promise kept: what are we doing in this eulogy to the black artisans of country music Miley Cyrus and Post Malone? Surprise: beautiful things. This duet with Cyrus (pop star, certainly, but heir to an authentic country singer and for whom Dolly Parton is godmother, and a spiritual mother) entitled II Most Wanted is frankly successful, the singers responding to each other without trying to supplant the other. Even Post Malone seems like a really good singer on Levi’s Jeans. It’s the world turned upside down – we also say to ourselves when discovering Bodyguarda famous soft rock song at the start of the album.
Beyoncé’s art knows no musical limits, we said earlier, with her beautiful moments and those, more disjointed, which do not really spoil our appreciation of this eighth solo album ending in her musical comfort zone, with a series of more danceable songs (Riverdance And II Hands II Heaven, house rhythms), rap and R&B. The question now: what musical genre will Beyoncé explore for the final chapter of this trilogy?