March 29, 20241 yr I’m loving this project a lot more than I did with Renaissance, which I appreciated for being excellent musically but didn’t personally go back to much. I am a country fan anyway so I expected to enjoy this, but is sonically so rich and really pushes the boundaries of country in a way that very few artists do, much less seasoned country artists who often play it safe. I do think it’s a bit bloated but I rarely listen to full albums repeatedly tbh, and there are a lot of great tracks from this project that would still make a great album for anyone else.
March 29, 20241 yr My thoughts are very similar to Liam's, this album was always going to be more up my street than RENAISSANCE (and actually the couple before that too, as much as I've got a good handful of songs I enjoy from each), so it's no real surprise that I really enjoyed my first play. It's VERY long and my attention span is weak so I'd struggle to name individual favourites from the second half but I generally enjoyed most tracks. BODYGUARD really does feel like a potential hit, would be shocked if that doesn't take off at some stage. TEXAS HOLD 'EM has properly clicked now, I think it arrives at just the right moment in the album to pick the pace up. I never got round to 16 CARRIAGES (think I assumed it'd be top 40 in its first full week so I'd hear it on Radio 1 and then it just missed out) but that's really lovely, as is BLACKBIIRD. The Jolene cover is cute!
March 29, 20241 yr I enjoyed the album on first listen but not sure if I'll be revisiting it as a whole. I was apprehensive as I'm not the biggest fan of country or TEXAS HOLD 'EM for that matter but thankfully there's much better material on the album. The standouts for me are BODYGUARD, AMERICAN REQUIEM, JOLENE, DAUGHTER and LEVII'S JEANS. 16 CARRIAGES also remains the superior single so far.
March 29, 20241 yr Struggling a little to get into this compared to how instant Renaissance was for me - but country just isn't my thing so I'm ok with that. Bodyguard is definitely my favourite and the cover songs are nice, but I don't see myself returning to this as much as Renaissance which is pretty much still on repeat.
March 29, 20241 yr It's not a Country Album, it's a Beyonce album. LOOK AT THAT HORSE! So many songs don't even touch the Country landscape but still tie back into the album or her discography in its entirety. There are songs you could easily pop onto RENAISSANCE, Lemonade or B'Day and they'd fit perfectly. The tracklisting needs some work, I would have preferred FLAMENCO and DESERT EAGLE to be flushed out as full tracks, and drop all the interludes. On my second listen, growing to appreciate SPAGHETTII, LEVII'S JEANS and YA YA more. AMEN back into AMERIICAN REQUIEM is why you need to have the album on a loop, it transitions PERFECTLY. But also transitions into "I'M THAT GIRL" seamlessly as well. This stands out as its own album, but also fits in so well being ACT II and with the rest of her discography. Yes, for me not as instant as RENAISSANCE but so much here to explore as it's not quite as in your face.
March 29, 20241 yr I’ve had YA YA stuck in ny head all day! So so good! Not enough people commenting/appreciating that for my liking!
March 29, 20241 yr I've rejigged it and it's taken some editing of transitions to make it work but I've decided it's a great album if you have it like this... 01 AMERIICAN REQUIEM 02 BLACKBIIRD (wasn't keen on this as track 2 initially but I read about why she covered it and had the features she did and now it makes much more sense and feels poignant) 03 DADDY LESSONS (yes I know this is cheating but let's be honest it fits so perfectly with the sound) 04 BODYGUARD 05 LEVII'S JEANS (much prefer this earlier on away from the other features tracks) 06 SMOKE HOUR ★ WILLIE NELSON 07 TEXAS HOLD 'EM 08 DOLLY P 09 JOLENE 10 DAUGHTER 11 PROTECTOR (this gets lost for me at the beginning of the proper album but I think it's much nicer following DAUGHTER) 12 SMOKE HOUR II 13 JUST FOR FUN 14 II MOST WANTED 15 SPAGHETTI 16 16 CARRIAGES (numbering a nice fluke but it genuinely works much better here after Spaghetti) - ALSO, this is so much better on the album than I gave it credit for before 17 THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW 18 YA YA ★ OH LOUISIANA 19 DESERT EAGLE (so annoying that this isn't longer as I love the vibe of it) 20 RIIVERDANCE 21 II HAND II HEAVEN 22 TYRANT 23 SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN' 24 AMEN Whilst this isn't quite up there with Renaissance for me as a whole, it runs it a lot closer than I expected it to. This one definitely has more songs that work as standalone tracks though so it feels like there could be a lot of potential singles and be quite a consistent seller.
March 29, 20241 yr After first listen, there's some really great songs but also a lot that didn't interest me. Maybe some are growers but these are the early standouts: Texas Hold 'Em Bodyguard Jolene Alligator Tears - possibly my favourite from first listen? II Most Wanted Levi's Jeans Ya Ya Riverdance Tyrant
March 30, 20241 yr Future & Metro Boomin tracks are still #1 and #2 on US Apple Music. Thought this would be a landslide #1 there.
March 30, 20241 yr The country scene is still very much racist there so I’m not surprised people are not listening to it as much as some mediocre rent-a-rappers
March 30, 20241 yr This is definitely her strongest album for me. I’ve never really rated *any* of her projects as whole bodies of work except for maybes self titled but this is definitely a strong body of work. I am partial to country in general though so it may be that playing into it but yeah I’m actually surprised by how good this is and I’m speaking as someone who’s never really *gotten* the vast majority of her work. Edited March 30, 20241 yr by Jordanlee
March 30, 20241 yr It's not really a country album tbh. The "vibe" and imagery lean towards country tradition but it's very genreless.
March 30, 20241 yr Author My CD hasn't even arrived yet, even though I pre-ordered it a few weeks in advance.
March 30, 20241 yr After 2 listens yeah I definitely wouldn’t class it as country, it obviously has bits of it there but there’s many different genres Overall it’s a good album, but way too long imo, Theres probably only 10-14 songs max that are standing out to me at the moment Faves so far - Ameriican Requiem Daughter Just For Fun II Most Wanted Tyrant And of course 16 Carriages Texas Hold ‘Em Both covers are great too although I think maybe too many lyric changes in Jolene
March 30, 20241 yr Future & Metro Boomin tracks are still #1 and #2 on US Apple Music. Thought this would be a landslide #1 there. The Future song at #1 just had the biggest US streaming week for any song since Drake's 'Way 2 Sexy' and Apple Music is the biggest platform for hip-hop, it would be a tall order for anything to displace it so soon let alone by a 'landslide'.
March 30, 20241 yr It's not really a country album tbh. The "vibe" and imagery lean towards country tradition but it's very genreless. Yeah, I feel like there will be lots of controversy later in the year when it doesn't get nominated for country awards because of that.
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