Happy Bey Day to all who celebrate! Beyoncé released her country-leaning album COWBOY CARTER today, and she has revealed that every song on the album was inspired by a Western film.
According to an announcement, "Each song is its own version of a reimagined Western film," and Bey had movies playing on a screen while she was recording. Some of the films cited are Five Fingers for Marseilles, Urban Cowboy, Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, Space Cowboys, The Harder They Fall and Martin Scorsese's recent Killers of the Flower Moon.
Additionally, "Some aspects of the percussion were inspired by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, where it was more bluegrass." A limited vinyl pressing, which shows a microphone in the shape of a gun, evokes Thelma and Louise. The announcement states, "This body of work undulates from singing cowboy and Blaxploitation to spaghetti Westerns and fantasy with Beyoncé weaving between personal experiences, honouring Black history, to exaggerated character building."
Collaborators on the album include Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Post Malone, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Nile Rodgers, Gary Clark Jr., The-Dream, Pharrell, Raphael Saadiq, Ryan Tedder, Swizz Beatz, and Beyoncé's husband JAY-Z. Taylor Swift is rumoured to appear on "BODYGUARD," but she's not credited.
Beyoncé apparently worked on the album for five years and originally intended to release it before 2022's RENAISSANCE. The artist said, "But with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance."
COWBOY CARTER contains an epic 27 tracks and a runtime of 78 minutes. Hear it below.
