Beyonce celebrated for ‘impressive’ mastery bending ‘musical styles to her will’
By Ellie Iorizzo, PA Los Angeles Correspondent
Beyonce has been praised for her adaptability in straddling the country-pop genre with her new album Act II: Cowboy Carter.
The eighth studio album from the US pop star features duets with Miley Cyrus and Post Malone, covers of Dolly Parton’s Jolene and The Beatles classic Blackbird, while country singer’s Willie Nelson and Linda Martell also star.
BBC News music correspondent Mark Savage described the album as an “immaculate country-pop record that proves her adaptability and mastery, regardless of genre”.
Rock and pop critic Alexis Petridis, of the Guardian, said Cowboy Carter shows “Beyonce is impressively capable of doing whatever she wants”.
Awarding the album four out of five stars, he said the 27-track offering “might have worked better split into two separate albums” but also said it displayed “its author’s ability to bend musical styles to her will”.
Will Hodgkinson of the Times agreed Beyonce “would have been better off leaving the remaining seven songs for another album”, also awarding it four out of five stars.
He described it as a “slick and starry western epic” but “stylistically all over the place”, while also describing it as having a “refreshing sense of fun and adventure”.
