Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter

i think one of the reasons why "II hands II heaven" really hits for me is that there is not a lot of subtext to beyoncé's music these days, very little mystery. each of the last two albums has been accompanied by mission statements laying out their inspirations and contexts both personally and culturally; downstream of this, whatever subtext may exist is excavated by critics, academics, twitter posters etc. the reviews of these albums are stuffed w/ references to the work of other artists, as are the albums themselves of course. this isn't a criticism necessarily, i think her revealing more of her personal history in reference to renaissance only deepened my appreciation of the album, and her ability to connect cultural/historical/sociological dots thru her music is pretty much bar none in pop music currently. i think it's all less successful on this album but whatever

all to say that to me the gay subtext of "II hands" gives it a certain frisson that is not really present on much of either album. very little is happening offscreen on these records, so to speak, but here it's all gestures and nods to hidden layers of a relationship, something understood only between the two characters in the song. doreen st felix's review calls the song "wholesome" which... idk! i don't get that personally, yet i can see reading the lyrics and feeling a lot is being left unsaid before it gets to... unwholesomeness. but to me that's what makes it stand out. i think it's a pretty steamy song bcuz of what the tone & texture of their vocals and interplay between them is suggesting but the lyrics aren't quite spelling out.

I'm not seeing what the big deal is about the changed lyrics to Jolene, though I've seen plenty of people shitting themselves in anger them (granted it was on the hoffman forums)

I don't mind that she rewrote the words, but I do mind that she made them worse and not in an interesting way.

here's someone explaining Blackbird to the guy who wrote it: https://imgur.com/gallery/1Gp5xia

lmao

Sorry Macca but Ebony and Ivory is about a piano

Regardless of Jolene lyrics being switched for the worse, I think both the Blackbird and Jolene covers are super boring choices to cover and the execution doesn’t do anything interesting either. Blackbird is pretty much a karaoke version… with a fucking great singer, yes.

I think Blackbird's lovely. It is weird as the second track though, it needs to be tucked in the middle somewhere.

I don't care about the lyrics in Jolene but the singing feels boring and rigid - there's no swing in it. I'm not that familiar with 2010s and 20s Beyonce but does she usually sound so over-formal?

Sonically I prefer "Blackbird" to "Jolene" -- it's an all-time beautiful song; personally I love that she used the original master recording and sang it straight. It sounds lovely.

But agree it doesn't "fit" sonically as the second track, and that's because I interpret its position on the record as an egregiously obvious and literal statement of intent, not one that was decided because it made sense in the sequencing as a listening experience. Here's a song called "Blackbird" where the lyrics literally say "Blackbird singing in the dead of night" and we'll feature a bunch of under-appreciated black female country singers! The whole album plays to me as a jumbled mess that's connected by a few very literal skits and ideas.

so a concept album basically

« Ya Ya » is such a joyful storm. It’s like a distant cousin of « Get Me Bodied »