Consumer Guide Album

Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter [Parkwood/Columbia, 2024]
Not a country album--without too much fuss we've gotten that straight. Just a confidently eclectic pop album with countryish flavorings and countryish provocations that claims and indeed establishes that our greatest female pop singer, who we know is also a pretty darn good songwriter, has a fair claim on that fiefdom. Her songwriting does peter out slightly for the last five or so of 25 (CD!) tracks, but for the most part the impressive variety of these songs only strengthens her not so audacious claim. She sings as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a descendant, an inheritor, and a sexpot. She enlists ever-obliging 90-year-old Willie Nelson, outclassed 28-year-old Post Malone, a sexy Miley Cyrus, a delighted Dolly Parton, and Paul McCartney's "Blackbird" in her quest and gives ample room to 81-year-old special guest Linda Martel, who became the first Black woman to (briefly) crack the Grand Old Opry half a century ago. Epochal? Maybe, maybe not. But a hell of a good record. A