Sincerely, Saskia

The day has arrived: it’s Cowboy Carter Day for all those who celebrate and to say I’ve been excited for this day is a gross understatement. 

When Renaissance first came out, it wasn’t an instant love affair for me. My admiration and appreciation grew overtime and was amplified by an amazing concert and even better concert film. 

The concept of Cowboy Carter, however, had me lassoed from the moment it was announced. Then, after finding out it was five year’s in the making, the reason she created it and the instantly iconic album cover that followed, I have spent the last few days physically trying to bury my excitement so I can focus on other things, you know, like my job. 

Well, the day has finally arrived and after failing to stay up until midnight to listen to the album for the first time (I would never betray mother by listening to a leak), I got up at 6 AM and began my Creole/Louisiana decent into a country Beyoncé we have only gotten snippets and glimpses of before. 

And the result?

My eyes were filled with tears one minute into Ameriican Requiem, and for those of you who don’t know, that’s the first song on the album. From seeing the names Tanner Adell and Brittney Spencer feature on Blackbiird to the operatic range of Daughter, the sexiness of Bodyguard, the punch in the face that was JOLENE, the gorgeousness of the Miley Cyrus collab, II Most Wanted, and the affectionate interludes from Willie Nelson and Dolly P, Beyoncé has broken my soul and she can have every piece of it.

Speaking of Adell and Spencer, having them collaborate on Blackbiird, originally by The Beatles, with those lyrics, was nothing but gorgeous genius. And whilst we’re on the topic of collabs, I absolutely adore Jolene by Dolly P, but Beyoncé really took her to one side and said, ‘Dolly, we don’t beg’. The only way I can describe her rendition of Jolene is when your friend writes out a message to send to her partner mid argument and the more savage friend snatches the phone and writes the message for them because it was too nice of a warning. If you thought Beyoncé had let ‘Becky with the good hair’ die with the rebirth of her marriage, you were wrong. 

At this point, she’s a genre all on her own: them old ideas really are buried here.

Beyoncé has taken to the country genre like a duck to water or a cowboy to a mechanic bull. Her sound is organic and natural. This is her background, and it doesn’t matter how many times you listen to Single Ladies, you can’t erase her roots – Cowboy Carter is a testament to that. But let us not forget, this is not just a country album, it’s a Beyoncé album, and she embodies that from the get-go. 

Ameriican Requiem is the perfect opening for what follows, which is a display of effortless talent with an even more effortless, yet poignant, message. Cowboy Carter is a love letter to her roots, a ‘fuck you’ to the exclusion she’s faced from the genre and a reminder that she can, in fact, do anything. And with that comes this feeling that you can, in fact, do anything. 

It’s hard to guess which songs are going to be doing the rounds and are to be unfortunately featured on every TikTok for the next six months because she hasn’t written this album to chart, that will happen naturally. She’s written this album to tell a story, to honour those forgotten and excluded – Linda Martell and Black Country artists in general – and to show the world that she cannot and will not be put in a box. 

Beyoncé set out to reclaim a genre Black people have been grossly excluded from, despite being at the core of its creation, and boy, did she succeed. At this point, she’s a genre all on her own: them old ideas really are buried here.

A lesser point, but still an important one, is that Cowboy Carter is a complete body of work, something so lacking from artists these days. The album is an hour and eighteen minutes long and it takes you on a journey. A journey through genres, a journey through emotions and a journey through Beyoncé’s evolution. 

My first wave of favourites, as we all know it changes the more you listen to the album, are as follows: Ameriican Requiem, Protector, Bodyguard, Jolene, Daughter, Spaghettii, II Most Wanted, Ya Ya, II Hands to Heaven and Tyrant.  

Act i may have had to grow on me but Act ii made an instant impression that will stay with me for a while, and I can only surmise that Act iii – the rock renaissance – will blow my fucking head off – and I welcome it with open arms. 

No notes, Bey. No notes.