AMERICAN REQUIEM
This album opens with amazing vocals, showing Beyoncé’s strong and bold voice. The chorus echoes with a nice tone, and the multiple tone changes and instrumental is an interesting start to the album. Her vocals are perfect for this tone of the song, however, the multiple tone changes throw me off, overall a decent start to this album.
A very New Orleans, Louisiana inspired instrumental, but a good start into the album overall.
BLACKBIRD
The original song “Blackbird” by the Beatles is now covered by Beyoncé and Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy. The beautiful chorus of voices do this song justice, a great accomplice to this album.
The instrumentals in this song are beautiful and simple. The runs from each artist make the guitar all the more elegant. However, Beyoncé’s vocals in particular are what I would say too strong to cover a soft Beatles song like this.
16 CARRIAGES
Beyoncé sings about her dreams of running away, showing her vulnerability in her life as she sings with so much emotion in her voice. She shows her struggle and strife through life in the lyrics, repetitive, but to emphasize these emotions.
Her vocals, so far, are the strongest and work the best with the intense beat in this song. It tells a gorgeous story of her childhood, differing from her usual style of “strong woman” — she shows her vulnerability as a child.
PROTECTOR
Her daughter Rumi opens this song with, “Mom, can I hear the lullaby, please?” A sweet little girl’s voice is followed by the instrumental of a guitar, and Beyoncé’s vocals shine through this song, talking about being her daughter’s protector even when she learns to shine on her own. A gorgeous song of a mother’s nurture and love.
MY ROSE
Opening with a chorus, this song is a small pause in the album. The 53-second snippet right after “PROTECTOR” almost feels as if this is the lullaby her daughter Rumi asks for in the beginning of the song. An abrupt, but not horrible change.
Her lighter falsetto reminds me of Destiny’s Child; in my opinion, Beyoncé’s peak. So I really enjoyed MY ROSE for that reason. It’s got an interesting flow and the overlapping vocals are incredibly pleasing.
SMOKE HOUR ⭐ WILLIE NELSON
Another break in the album is the sound of the shuffle of an old radio, as if this is Willie Nelson’s radio show. The sound of a lighter and puff of smoke as our radio hosts, telling us this next tune, to find our good place that our mind wants to wander off to.
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM
Released as a single before this album, I listened to this on Spotify shuffles and radios for days. To say it became annoying would be a false statement. Even as repetitive this song became, I would still find myself doing the dance I saw on TikTok. This song was overplayed in the span it was out, but it was absolutely catchy, and I hummed this song for days as if I was permanently engraved in my brain.
I hate how catchy this song is, it’s very repetitive and very country! I’m not a huge country fan, but this song has become a guilty pleasure of a song to jam out and dance to. The lead up with Willie Nelson adds a charm to this song as well.
BODYGUARD
A head bobbing song, with nice and smooth vocals and a lovely chorus, which Beyoncé always seems to do so perfectly every time. The riffs in her voice flow effortlessly into the instrumental, solid.
The drums and the light piano melody give this song almost a pop feel, but her vocals bring more of the country back. This one is for sure being added to all of my summer playlists. I can imagine listening to this while driving with all of the windows down, warm summer air blowing through my hair, laughing with friends.
DOLLY P
This small break opening with Dolly Parton, “Hey miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sing about?” before the opening to the next song, “JOLENE.”
JOLENE
A cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” Beyoncé’s rendition of this song is such a fun change in the album. Her added lyrics paint almost her own experience of “Jolene.” I love this cover.
Her vocals are strong and her take on this song is refreshing and fun, but it almost ruins the original point of the song being Dolly’s self-deprecating take on the fear that her man would cheat on her because of Jolene’s unbeatable beauty. Beyoncé’s take is a little more male-gaze focused, kind of misogynistic, she’s bashing on Jolene, kind of threatening to not mess with her man. I don’t think anyone wants Jay-Z, though. Sorry, Bey.
DAUGHTER
Opened with a beautiful guitar Beyoncé’s voice enters with a somber expression, almost as if this is mysterious. These vocals feel almost opera-ish to me. This song shows her strength and ability to do whatever it takes, even to those who cross her. This song is vulnerable and incredibly well-written, a solid change of pace.
These instrumentals are almost “The Last of Us” score sounding, which is very enjoyable to me as a fan of this game/show adaptation. Her vocals go really well with this gentle violin and guitar. She’s very somber in this song which is a good contrast to JOLENE and TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.
SPAGHETTII
Opens very abruptly, Linda Martell states how genres are a “funny little concept,” which we can tie to the general overview of this album. This is an explanation of this new genre change which many speculated and had strong opinions about. This song doesn’t open like the rest, it’s super strangely upbeat. The opening goes crazy. Beyoncé raps this, explaining how no matter the genre change she is being true to herself, and she will continue making these changes and not becoming that “Plain Jane.”
This is incredibly RENAISSANCE-feeling. I love her rapping, and this beat is crazy. But as always, she makes it work. Literally, why is it called “SPAGHETTII,” can’t hate, this is my favorite song on the album, for sure. Shaboozey has some odd vocals, but it doesn’t ruin the beat.
ALLIIGATOR TEARS
The rhythm loses me with this one, I am not exactly a fan of this song in particular, but the vocals are nice.
The Texas twang comes back with this one, not my favorite, the guitar is a little funky, kind of sounds untuned.
SMOKE HOUR ll
We are met with Willie Nelson once again as he puffs his cigar. He gives us a small speech as we go into the next song.
JUST FOR FUN
This song is slow and somber. Featuring Willie Jones in this song, Beyoncé’s voice is the perfect amount of tone for this tempo, a decent song.
Sounds a little gospel with the country track and her ethereal vocals. Willie’s vocals clash with Beyoncé’s, though. The vibe of this song is a little odd.
II MOST WANTED
Featuring Miley Cyrus, both voices blend into each other seamlessly. This match truly works better than I expected, a solid song.
LEVII’S JEANS
Featuring Post Malone, this is yet again another example of two voices matching seamlessly. This song reminds me of newer country music recently, mixing rap and country, and I like it. This song is pretty catchy, and, yet again, solid.
Post’s singing voice is very beautiful, and Beyoncé really highlights it with her backup vocals, but the beat is not my favorite.
FLAMENCO
Nothing super special in this song. Good showcase of Beyoncé’s high vocal range, which is a nice display. It’s short and sweet.
THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW
Linda Martell opens for the next coming song, we are taken as if we are in the room with her, hearing the cheers in the track.
YA YA
This song is super upbeat and catchy, absolutely boot scooting. I couldn’t keep myself from tapping my foot to the rhythm as Beyoncé’s voice is loud and bold. A great song addition to this album.
This song samples “These Boots Are Made for Walking” by Nancy Cinatra, and references “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys. She adds a lot to this beat though, very upbeat. Definitely made for concert hype towards the end of the album, it’s iconically her.
OH LOUISIANA
Small break in the album.
The pitch changer is kind of hilarious, but cute.
DESERT EAGLE
Opening with an eagle call and funky rhythm. Solid.
Her voice doesn’t really match this rhythm. The rhythm is very enjoyable but it sounds more like a Tame Impala beat than Beyoncé. Like the fade of “Do-si-do” into “RIIVERDANCE,” though.
RIIVERDANCE
Smooth vocals and fun instrumental, decent.
II HANDS II HEAVEN
Slow and sweet, decent.
This rhythm sounds very 2016, her vocals are lovely.
TYRANTS
Featuring Dolly Parton, this song is a sweet country rhythm broken by a hard bass beat. A solid mix of rapping and smooth vocals, this song is a great break in the album and I enjoyed it.
SWEET ⭐HONEY⭐ BUCKIIN’
Catchy and nice rhythm, the different beats in the back work pretty well, overall a solid song.
AMEN
The end to a solid album, “AMEN” is a slow started, gorgeously sung song. Beyoncé’s vocals absolutely shine in this song, her tone is perfect and a great ending.
A reference back to AMERICAN REQUIEM. AMERICAN REQUIEM, I noticed referenced AMEN at the very beginning, it’s nice.
OVERALL:
This album is a solid 6/10, I love that Beyoncé has taken this new endeavor into country and absolutely killed it. This album was pretty good and definitely worth the listen, I would recommend it.
Beyoncé keeps her unique charm in this album, not losing her iconic flow and interesting beats. All of her features are properly distributed, and the breaks in between with Willie, Dolly and Linda were a fun touch. I would give it a listen for yourself, it’s worth the hour and 18 minutes.
