A big, bold musical statement from the US megastar, delving deep into country & western territory and cross-pollinating with pop, soul, rock and R&B, with added Beatles, and guests including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Miley Cyrus on this whopping 27-track LP. Opener American Requiem is a stirring fusion of country, pop, soul and more, rich and indefinably so, something of a state-of-the-troubled-nation address (“Can we stand for something? Now is the time to face the wind”) Bey declaring herself to be “the grandbaby of a moonshine man [from] Gadsden, Alabama”, it has a definite power and presence, striking new sound. The musical hybridisation runs throughout - country, as well as bluegrass, does arguably have some roots in deep south blues and has a social edge of course. Ya Ya is a country acoustic stomp with psychedelic soul, using a sample shoe-in of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walking, and Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations. The rock-country-soul fusion 16 Carriages has a gorgeous vocal. The sweet, clean cover of Beatles’ Blackbird is poignant too – Paul McCartney wrote it in tribute to the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine Black students who faced discrimination after enrolling in the all-white Little Rock high school in 1957. Country royalty figureheads Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton do spoken skits, there’s a Dolly-blessed cover of Jolene, and DP also collaborates on Tyrant. The album varies in quality at times (Bodyguard for example), but is also rhinestone-studded ear-catching tracks, including, as well as the above, in particiularly sexy banjo-flecked Texas Hold ’Em (a former Song of the Day). There’s also the more familiar Bey territory of Riverdance and II Hands II Heaven, and the rich country vocals of Il Most Wanted duetting with Miley Cyrus. A clever, mainstream takeover of a genre with racial tension undercurrent during troubled, confusing times in American, something of whip-smart market grab, a riding high, skilfully landed lasso that should cause a few ripples in he Nashville establishment, but will also guide and entertain the herd. Out on Parkwood/ Columbia.
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