Care to weigh in, objectively or subjectively?
I guess if Willie Nelson can make a reggae record, and Todd Rundgren can make a bossa nova record, and Eddie Vedder can make a ukulele record and Rod Stewart & Jools Holland can make a swing record, there should be no issue with Beyonce making a country record. After all, she has always done it her way. But will it be good? Listenable? Is this first single listenable?
Would I feel comfortable playing Willie Nelson's reggae record to a group of extremely talented Jamaican musicians in Kingston? How would Rundgren's bossa nova record sit with Jobim? Or Rod Stewart & Jools Holland's swing record compare to "Sinatra Swings?"
I am imagining the line of country music singers and songwriters queueing up at dawn in front of the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, waiting for their chance to shine and get that treasured spot on stage playing their set of hard living and hard loving country songs while a car pulls up and blasts Beyonce's new country record from the dashboard stereo.
Is that fair? Maybe not. But even with Rhiannon Giddens on banjo, "Texas Hold'Em" sounds pretty lame to me.
Lyric video below.
34 comments:
Actually I didn't think it was to bad. A bit too long, maybe. And why does this remind me of some kind of Fleetwood Mac outtake? But what I think maybe the most important thing here is the witnessing of a very big contemporary artist commiting commercial suicide
i give this song a hard thumbs down. i can't figure out what it is ... country-ish, pop-ish ... so much polish as to make it feel brittle and false. if Celine Dion did a hip hop record it couldn't be more vacuous. sing this song on a porch with raw accompaniment, record it on a Nagra field recorder and it might be passable. who produced this shiny turd?
It didn't grab me. The song has 5 songwriters and the recording utilized 4 producers. I am struggling to imagine what their individual contributions were.
Neutral to slightly thumbs up for me. Like Jobe, I think it goes on too long, but it's kind of catchy. And there's a little bit of space between some of those notes.
Bill
PS: Gee, Sal, what do you have against Sir Rod and Jools? :)
That wasn't anything I'd listen to again. Not sure what the impetus is behind it.
The problem I have with Rod & Jools is mostly with Jools. His third rate boogie woogie piano has always gotten under my skin. But also, look at the track list for the record. Do we really need to hear any of these songs again? You wanna make a swing/boogie woogie record, write ten new songs and make an original retro swing record. Enough with "Almost Like Being In Love" and "Ain't Misbehavin'."
It started better than I expected, the song isn't terrible, and she can sing, but ultimately it's such a phony fabrication, without any connection to real Country, that I didn't make it past the two minute mark.
Of course a lot of so-called Country music suffers from the same laughable inauthenticity, so it will probably be a huge hit. If it isn't already.
Her outfit was enough to keep me from hitting the little white triangle, though it's not that much worse than what you see elsewhere in country music... and pop in general.
Randy
Full disclosure: I wouldn't know Beyonce's output from anyone else's, as 1) I don't follow current pop and 2) when I've heard a snippet of her stuff, it sounded no different from any other snippet of current female pop to me. So I listened to this with no prejudice.
I don't like her voice/vocal technique, so that was a negative as soon as the singing started. And I didn't care for the song, which sounded like the vacuously-busy stuff that counts for pop these days, fed by novelty lyrics. So a big no on that.
Does it mean I'll never connect with recent pop, since a supposedly important artist, with all her resources, couldn't move me? Not necessarily; you posted something by her sister some time back (Sandcastle Disco) that I liked enough to download, and when I hear Weeknd's Save Your Tears, I really liked that.
Not this one, tho.
C in California
As I said in the post, I think it's pretty lame. But truth be told, I think it's worse than that. Even after what I just said above about Rod & Jools, I still think their swing record sounds more authentic. The cover of the record with Beyonce in her revealing outfit wearing a cowboy hat, pretty much nails what the record is going to sound like.
Now excuse me, I'm going to watch a few episodes of "E.R." and then go perform a few triple bypasses at my local hospital.
It didn't grab me, though that's been true for most of Beyonce's music, some great singles notwithstanding. Still, of course she can do it and it won't take space away from any "real" country acts. With a five year span where country music charts were dominated by bros rapping about their trucks and employing hip hop rhythms, it would be bizarre for Nashville to insist this isn't "authentic." Is it good? That's all that matters. Excuse me while I go back to listening to the awesome 2 CD compilation Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm and Blues volumes one and two. (Which of course is NOT available on my streamers!)
"Republicans buy sneakers, too."
-- Michael Jordan
Oh, I hear you on Jools, Sal. I understand why he left Squeeze, and good for him for finding his own thing. But I'm always turned off whenever I turn on one of his videos. I don't even like his hosting on "Later..."
Still, I've been mad at Rod Stewart for over 30 years for squandering his talent. My mom bought me his first standards album for Christmas or my birthday one year, so I gave it a spin and had to stop after a couple of songs. I just can't.
Bill
It's OK. I thought she might do some country soul, guess we'll have to wait for the album and see.
I don't see Luke Combs covering this one.
I think the point of this is that it's rodeo season in Houston - over 2 weeks of horses, bull riding, wagon races, carnival food and music (predominantly country, tho I've seen John Fogerty and Selena there) in the pro football stadium. I'd take Robin Zander's (deleted) country album over it, tho.
It's okay - but honestly, I couldn't listen without predjudice because I've been so OVER Beyonce for years. She's beautiful, she can sing, good for her.
I can just see myself having to listen to this with some lame country line dance at the next freaking wedding I have to go to! (Note to self: just send a card with money.)
Honestly I don't get it. But I have never been able to relate to Beyonce. Some great singles, but I've never understood where she is coming from as an artist, and in all honesty she's always seemed like a brilliant pop-bot to me. She's been a major star for 20+ years and I really don't know much about her through her music. That's fine, I guess. But this just feels like another calculated move.
ya know i don't think much of the song but i really think the video is groundbreaking and not only gonna set the trend for all videos over the next year or but it may just become the standard by which we judge all videos
BEATHTAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Report on the ground from Nashville: No one cares. Big city interloper trying to diversify into a new market with fake "authentic" country sound, which is an achievement since pop country radio is already lacking in any authenticity. I'm sure it will be news for a minute, then she'll be able to use this to bounce back to her pop roots with an "authentic" pop album.
I do hope Rhiannon Giddens makes some easy money off this. She is talented and there are not many places to sell out with banjo skills, so she gets a pass.
Bryan
It sure ain't Texas if she's heading for a basement.
Not the worst thing I've heard described as country music, but I'd rather listen to Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers.
Meh.
Not the worst thing I've ever heard, but I didn't make it all the way thru. Very mediocre.
It's no Single Ladies, that's for sure.
Also, this:
"a lot of so-called Country music suffers from the same laughable inauthenticity, so it will probably be a huge hit."
Good point, BBJ.
"It's no Single Ladies, that's for sure."
What is?
Somehow I don’t think Ray Charles did it this way.😎
I think this is pretty awful, but it sounds more country than 90% of what comes out of Nashville these days.
I'm not a Beyonce fan. I'm not really much of a country music fan either. So I really have no skin in the game here. But why should artists necessarily stay in their lanes? Hell, Elvis added some R&B to his country records and look what happened. Same with Ray Charles going countrypolitan.
If Willie Nelson wants to make an EDM record or LCD Soundsystem makes a polka record or whatever, that's their right, and who knows, it could be amazing. It probably won't be, but nobody's putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to listen.
Pete
Pete,
If we can't discuss artists and their repertoire, for better or worse, I might as well close up shop now.
It's not about staying in your lane, or the right to do something. It's about loving music and record making, and pointing out good and bad. That's a hell of a lot more fun, I think. And I think all of previous comments lean toward that way, too.
We sound like a bunch of grump, old, white, men! (Is that unfair?)
I like Texas Hold'Em. My daughter -- a big member of the BéHive -- reports she was in tears by the end of 16 Carriages.
"We sound like a bunch of grump, old, white, men! (Is that unfair?)"
Yes is it unfair, especially when no one calls us jovial, spirited music lovers when we rave about rock and roll, good reggae and rhythm and blues, punk and funk.
Every morning I look in the mirror and call myself exactly that! :-)
@JAYESSEMM
Haha. Now we're talking!
This is what I figure popular AI music sounds like in 2024.
Re Pete's comment: I agree folks should make the art they want, full stop. I don't think anybody said Beyonce should stick to whatever pop music she makes. I thinks the negative comments were generally along the line of "This is lame", rather than "She is lame for trying it". And it seems like more than a few of the comments thought it was OK (I'm not going back thru them to verify), or no worse than the dreck that passes for country nowadays.
Re Sal's comment following Pete's: I don't think Pete was saying we shouldn't have this conversation, just that he doesn't care if folks go outside their purported wheelhouse.
For the record, tho, Elvis bridging hillbilly and R & B, and Ray doing country, were tons more significant than Beyonce making a country record that sounds like what much modern country music probably already sounds like.
Maybe Beyonce's competitive nature makes her think that if Taylor Swift can go from country to pop, she (Beyonce) can do the reverse. Maybe she's right, tho I think country music's a lot less open to 'outsiders' than pop is.
C in California
you would think with her wealth she could afford a bra and pants? i hated the music and the video this is crap with a big C.
Post a Comment