AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right. Nobody making music today can get a conversation going quite like Beyonce can. For about two months, the latest conversation has been - what would a new Beyonce album, one that's apparently inspired by country music, sound like? Well, today we found out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BODYGUARD")
BEYONCE: (Singing) So sweet, I give you kisses in the backseat.
CHANG: The album is called "Cowboy Carter," and NPR Music's Sidney Madden is here to guide us through it. Hey, Sidney.
SIDNEY MADDEN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so before we get into the actual music, what were fans expecting from this album?
MADDEN: There were a lot of theories out there...
CHANG: (Laughter).
MADDEN: ...Before we even got to the album. A month before the album dropped itself, we got two singles - "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages." One was an upbeat banjo-type track, and the other one was a haunting country ballad.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "16 CARRIAGES")
BEYONCE: (Singing) Sixteen carriages driving away while I watch them ride with my dreams away to the summer sunset on a holy night. On a...
MADDEN: She shared a message on her Instagram saying this inspiration behind country was born out of an experience she had years ago where she didn't feel welcome, and so it's clear that she was taking an artistic leap and a new journey - that fans were in for a lot of surprises 'cause it's something entirely new from her.
CHANG: Totally. And everybody, including myself, has been, like, playing those two songs ad nauseam. But...
MADDEN: Yes.
CHANG: ...Beyond that, details about this forthcoming album were hard to pin down, right? So now that "Cowboy Carter" is out in the universe, what do you hear in it?
MADDEN: It is a lot to digest. It's 27 tracks, amazing interludes. There's a lot of Easter eggs going on. There are covers of country classics on there, like Dolly Parton's 1973 hit, "Jolene."
CHANG: Yes.
MADDEN: But Beyonce - she flips it, and she's adding her own sauce to it.
CHANG: Totally.
MADDEN: She's not asking, please. She's taking the offense. She is not worried about playing defense.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
BEYONCE: (Singing) I can easily understand why you're attracted to my man, but you don't want this smoke, so shoot your shot with someone else. You heard me. Jolene...
MADDEN: She said you don't want this smoke.
CHANG: It's like Becky with the good hair, country version (laughter).
MADDEN: There's a callback to Becky with the good hair when Dolly Parton herself leaves a voice note talking about - hey, I remember this hussy with auburn hair.
CHANG: (Laughter) I love that.
MADDEN: Yeah. But it's also so much more than just a categorical country record.
CHANG: Yes.
MADDEN: Bey said before, on Instagram, this is not a country album. It's a Beyonce album. And that statement definitely rings true. Across the track list, you've got elements of hip-hop, bluegrass, Chicano rock, zydeco, Jersey club, opera. There's so much there. One track that comes later in the album, it's called "Sweet Honey Buckiin'," and it's really three singles all in one. And it blends so many genres all at once.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN'")
BEYONCE: (Singing) And I miss all our secrets...
CHANG: I mean, the more I was listening to each track in the album, I was thinking, this is not a country album - not to me - and I get it. So if you hear it as a Beyonce album, do you feel like she's even making a statement about Black country music, or is that not the point?
MADDEN: I think she definitely is making a statement about the roots of Black country. We should say this is Act II in a presumed three-act trilogy of albums she's going to be putting out. And as clear as it was with Act I, it was her educational experience paying homage to the Black queer community that made house music. This is very much a continuation of the lesson plan to unearthing the Black roots of country music and breaking down the confines of genre in general.
One of my favorite collabs on the album so far is "Blackbiird," and it features newcomers in the country space, Black women artists - Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts. These are women who don't have the type of visibility and platform in country music because of how country music programmers push artists in the space who are mainly white and male.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACKBIIRD")
BEYONCE: (Singing) Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly.
CHANG: I mean, though, this is a Beatles song.
MADDEN: Yes, it's a Beatles song about the civil rights movement. And to hear this reimagining of it so many years later with all these new Black artists is...
CHANG: Yeah.
MADDEN: ...Just soaring. I mean, it's still early. It's been 24 hours. We got a lot more listening to do, but it does seem that the goal is to be a well of discovery and appreciation for bending and breaking down the definition of country music as the way a lot of listeners have been socially trained to think of it.
CHANG: I love that. That is NPR's Sidney Madden. Thank you so much, Sidney.
MADDEN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACKBIIRD")
BEYONCE: (Singing) Fly, fly. Blackbird, fly, fly, fly, fly, into the light of a dark, black night.
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