Beyoncé - ACT II Cowboy Carter (March 29, 2024) • Page 9

I like this take

 

What are the embarassing missteps? Rhetorical question, but the dramatics of it all...

 

I personally am not surprised by some of the corny things (e.g. the whistling on Texas Hold ‘Em) because big rappers and R&B singers always liked corny rock music, so that Bey likes and thus emulates some corny country only seems right

 

Re: the Rattle & Hum tweet, I do think rewriting "Jolene" and completely missing the point of the song is on pretty even keel with Bono's "This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles, well we're stealin' it back" on the "embarrassing" scale.

 

It feels like folks are giving some of the music a pass because of its intentionality, when that should be table stakes on a project like this. Having a *reason* for the song/skit to be on the track list is the bare minimum bar to clear; that doesn’t mean I agree that it’s worthwhile or that it couldn’t be sharpened for impact.

 

On my third listen now, and this thing just gets better. I’m trying to make a condensed version, but besides the interludes I think Jolene and Daughter are the only ones I’d cut.

Stand outs for me have been Riiverdance, Just for Fun, Tyrant and Levii Jeans.

 

Her husband is the corniest man on the planet and I say that as a fan a zombie with no conscience

 

I disagree, but I do know he likes corny bands lol

 

This is just kinda boring to me.

 

I’m so surprised to see how common the “she missed the point of ‘Jolene’ in her rewrite” take is, here and elsewhere. I 100% get why it’d be unpopular, but it feels silly to default to “she didn’t get it,” instead of “she made a specific choice with a familiar song for a specific contextual purpose.”

 

Ok. I’ll rephrase: I think the choice she makes saps the song of all its tension and urgency.

 

i guess this doesn't have much to do with quality but im getting sick of almost every album being too long to listen to in one sitting, i havent listened to this yet and who knows when i'll get around to it but every time i see that track list im like oof i cant do all that right now and listen to something else. yeah yeah there are albums that justify their length and maybe this is one of them but a lot of my favorite albums that stretch over an hour didnt come out at a time when every other album that dropped was that long and then some.

 

I just end up listening to most of these super long albums way less than I would if they were closer to that 40-minute sweet spot. If you must have that many songs as part of a release, I’d rather it be something like Midnights, where there’s the main album and then a second chapter released simultaneously. Or a deluxe released later! Your album does not need to be 80 minutes long.

 

theres just so many that stretch to an hour or longer these days like wayyyyy more than there were 10-20 years ago obviously its a result of streaming and playlist culture but yeah i dont like it

 

Another thing, and maybe this is just my personal preference, but I find long albums easier to digest if it's fewer songs but the average track length is a little longer. Like, that Gang of Youths album from a couple of years ago is maybe my album of the decade, and it's only 10 minutes shorter than this. But it's also 13 songs instead of 27. When there are that many songs, I think I mentally just start trying to cut the track listing down, versus a long album that's fewer songs, where my reaction will be more to delve into the songs to see what they're doing that justifies that length.

 

I went on a walk that felt REALLY long and put on this album and man there's still a lot of songs left lol

 

Without going too deep down the reddit rabbit holes, I think the vinyl situation is pretty interesting. In general, we know that vinyl takes a long time to print compared to digital release or a CD, which historically has led to a long wait for an album so vinyl can release at the same time, vinyl being released weeks or months after the album, or in some cases the vinyl and digital having differences.

The vinyl for this album is missing 5 tracks (Spaghettii, Flamenco, Linda Martell Show, Ya Ya and Oh Louisiana). This only adds up to about 10 minutes because two are interludes and Flamenco is pretty short... BUT I think do think this could show a few things.

First, it could show that the version of the album that existed when the vinyl needed to go to print was only 22 tracks. It could show that when the vinyl needed to go to print, she simply hadn't finished her full album so the last 5 tracks she made didn't make the cut.

Or, the more conspiracy-theory type answer is that Cowboy Carter wasn't the original name of the album, but Beyince was. Look at the vinyl key art, it says Act ii Beyince. The story behind that is pretty interesting, and could definitely lend itself to being an album title. I don't know if I fully buy the theory that the album was origianlly Beyince, but it's not out of the question.

 

Also notable she says “Cowboy Carter: Act II” on Ya Ya, which wasn’t on the Beyince vinyl and is rumored to be newer

 

just read a piece from Variety that said some songs were being recorded/finished last month, but this strangely included songs that ended up on the CD and vinyl. Beyoncé Fans Confused Over Five Missing Songs on 'Cowboy Carter' Vinyl

 

It’s definitely a bummer to have paid that much for a vinyl and not have all the songs on it

 

Wild that angel in realtime is only 10 minutes shorter. I didn't realize that. I've listened to that album a ton and it doesn't feel it's length. I haven't been able to go back to this one since the first listen yet because it feels so daunting and felt so long the first time. I did enjoy a lot of it, though.

 

Highlights for me are Ameriican Requiem, Texas Hold 'Em, Bodyguard, II Most Wanted, Levii's Jeans, Ya Ya, and Riiverdance. And one other somewhere in the middle that I can't remember the title of. Pretty much enjoy the whole thing though and it keeps me wanting to go back and dig in more.

 

Absolutely love the idea of Beyonce throwing down in the pit from Bodyguard's line lmao

 

I love that most of the “i”s in the song titles are written as “II,” but then for “II HANDS II HEAVEN” it’s supposed to be read as “2” instead of “i.” Reminds me of how some X-Men comics have titles where the “X” is to be read as “10,” lol.

I also really wanna believe that “YA YA” is somehow a riff on “i” sometimes being pronounced like a “y,” but that’s surely too galaxy brained by half.

 

she must have been messing around with this tracklist for months. when the first two singles were released, "Texas Hold Em" was listed as track 1 of 16 and "16 Carriages" listed as track 16 of 16.