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10.0
136987
10.0 |
The Independent
It’s a reminder that country music has always been about “three chords and the truth”. Beyoncé’s truth shines here with the fierce strength of the Texan sun. Cowboy hats off to her
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10.0
137004
10.0 |
Rolling Stone
Some of Beyoncé’s best vocal work on record, produced flawlessly and at the forefront of each track. Her voice as an instrument is wielded superbly across the entire album but most strikingly at the top of it, as she glides across country and R&B inflections effortlessly
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10.0
137012
10.0 |
NME
Ms Carter unlocks yet another infinity stone with a heartfelt, expansive take on country music
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10.0
137097
10.0 |
The Observer
The Texan superstar’s eighth album is a thrilling 27-track journey through and beyond America’s roots music, and it feels like a genuine feast
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9.6
137104
9.6 |
Spectrum Culture
An astonishingly complex and energetic body of work, with COWBOY CARTER, Beyoncé outdoes herself yet again, delivering a smattering of Southern genres in much need of an intersectional revisiting
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9.0
137364
9.0 |
Clash
As both a treatise and a sonic testament, ‘COWBOY CARTER’ is its own triumph; unmoored in form, space and time, it’s the work of a preternatural talent painstakingly poring over every word, stratified vocal, sample and stylistic flourish
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9.0
137002
9.0 |
Slant Magazine
The album is a landmark provocation that dares the country music establishment to look itself in the eye.
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9.0
137023
9.0 |
Albumism
Rather than a traditional country effort, Cowboy Carter is an intricate pastiche of Americana, roots music, contemporary soul and country that rides well on the wild fusions it lassoes in
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8.4
137020
8.4 |
Beats Per Minute
She might have brought a whole genre into a new era simply by the power of the spotlight placed on her. It’s her show, and we all can’t help but watch, be mesmerized, and eagerly await Act iii
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8.4
136999
8.4 |
Pitchfork
The follow-up to Renaissance is a powerful and ambitious country album cast in the singular mold of Beyoncé. She asserts her rightful place in the genre as only a pop star of her incredible talent and influence can do
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8.2
137019
8.2 |
Northern Transmissions
In her dive into country, Beyoncé reinvents the genre for her own personal entertainment and as a final rebuke to anyone who says she isn’t “Country enough”
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8.0
137005
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
An album that delights with variety and invention
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8.0
137011
8.0 |
Exclaim
Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, it takes time to properly digest, a rich 27-course meal that dares one to really let it sit on the tongue
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8.0
136986
8.0 |
The FT
Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson join the singer’s posse for a record ranging from hoedown to psychedelic rock
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8.0
136949
8.0 |
The Guardian
Straying far beyond its original country concept, the musician’s eighth album straddles the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the blues – and Becky with the Good Hair via Dolly Parton’s Jolene
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8.0
136988
8.0 |
The Irish Times
When it breaks loose, it’s like rain after a thunderstorm
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8.0
136989
8.0 |
Evening Standard
This mix of innovation and tradition – which includes a stunning cover of The Beatles’ Blackbird – takes country music and Americana and creates something exciting and fresh
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8.0
136993
8.0 |
All Music
While it won’t be able to please everyone, that’s not the point: this is an intensely personal statement about reclamation, belonging, and legacy, celebrating the past with hopes of changing the future. One can only hope Act III finds Bey going full rock
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8.0
136998
8.0 |
musicOMH
Queen B is back, and countrified
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8.0
137355
8.0 |
No Ripcord
The Age of Pleasure could have been made by an artist other than Janelle Monáe, but there’s no way COWBOY CARTER could have been made by anyone other than Beyoncé. We’re lucky to have her
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7.0
136950
7.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
There’s no question that Cowboy Carter is a landmark record. Arguably, an inevitable one. But once the dust of its audacity settles, it misses the mark of a classic
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5.0
137055
5.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
owboy Carter could have been a slam dunk. Unfortunately, the record stands as a bloated mess that doesn’t fully know what it wants to be
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