I didn’t expect an opinion piece from the times to be worth reading. I can’t gratefully necessarily say I agree with every bit of it, but I respect the hell out of the writer’s opinion and way they expressed it.
Also, that album is fucking awesome. It isn’t really, truly country, but neither is hick-hop, blended genre stuff like Gangstagrass (which is a bloody amazing group that blends bluegrass with hip-hop with brilliance). Hell, a lot of what passes for country ends up being country tinged pop.
But the album, like the author’s piece gets to, is country enough. And it’s picking up the things that made country a culture force in the first place: good stories sung well.
Now, I’m not actually a Beyonce fan. I don’t hate her, but my take is that she’s usually over hyped. She does have some great tracks, but most of her discography rings hollow for me. But this album as a whole feels more “real”, and more focused on really saying something than just making a pretty song with a good beat.
More country artists could stand to take a lesson from this.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Well, damn.
I didn’t expect an opinion piece from the times to be worth reading. I can’t gratefully necessarily say I agree with every bit of it, but I respect the hell out of the writer’s opinion and way they expressed it.
Also, that album is fucking awesome. It isn’t really, truly country, but neither is hick-hop, blended genre stuff like Gangstagrass (which is a bloody amazing group that blends bluegrass with hip-hop with brilliance). Hell, a lot of what passes for country ends up being country tinged pop.
But the album, like the author’s piece gets to, is country enough. And it’s picking up the things that made country a culture force in the first place: good stories sung well.
Now, I’m not actually a Beyonce fan. I don’t hate her, but my take is that she’s usually over hyped. She does have some great tracks, but most of her discography rings hollow for me. But this album as a whole feels more “real”, and more focused on really saying something than just making a pretty song with a good beat.
More country artists could stand to take a lesson from this.