Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Review & How to Download the Album

This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album

— Beyoncé

Beyoncé released her new album Cowboy Carter on March 29, 2024. It’s been almost two years since her last album. Thus, the new album has caused a heated discussion on the internet. There is no doubt that Beyoncé is one of the most notable artists of the century and her album is highly anticipated. Whether you are a fan or not, you might want to listen to this album. If you know nothing about Beyoncé or this album, this post is your good helper. This post offers a complete Cowboy Carter Review, helping you to understand the context and indulge in the album better. Furthermore, this post will teach you how to download the Cowboy Carter album on Tidal with high quality. Now, you can step into the following content to have a better understanding of Cowboy Carter and get a more satisfying and enriched music experience.  

Part 1. Basic Information about Cowboy Carter

In 2022, Beyoncé revealed the three-act project. Her last album RENAISSANCE is the first part. Now, she is back with Act II: COWBOY CARTER. From the name, many people think it’s a country album. Actually, it’s way more than that. Based on country sound, Cowboy Carter blends diverse musical styles, including country, R&B tunes, and acoustic ballads, exploring the intersection of country music with other genres. What’s more, this album features collaborations with diverse notable artists and various Black country artists, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Post Malone, Rhiannon Giddens, Brittney Spencer, and so on.

Beyoncé’s upbringing experience in Houston and her familiarity with country music and the rodeo all inspire her. She delved into the historical roots of country music and made this album focusing on the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and Latino cowboys to American history and culture. Dive into this album, then you can find not only genre-fluid tracks but also fragmentary, minute-long songs.

Cowboy Carter is an ambitious project. It breaks the convention by fusing country with other genres and introducing elements of blues, rock, folk, flamenco, and more. Thus, people have never stopped talking about this album since its release. Currently, it’s the top single-week mark for any album in 2024. Its lead single Texas Hold’ Em was streamed on Spotify over 200 million times. Cowboy Carter also holds at NO.1 for a second week on the Billboard album chart.  

Part 2. Cowboy Carter Tracklist

Cowboy Carter contains 27 tracks and lasts one hour and 18 minutes. Among all 27 tracks, 12 songs are featured by diverse artists. Here’s the tracklist of this album, showing titles, singers, and duration.

Part 3. Cowboy Carter Reviews

To enhance your appreciation of the Cowboy Carter album, here is a complete review you might find insightful. This review provides background information, thematic exploration, and critical analysis that can enrich your listening experience. Consider reading through the following content while enjoying the album to gain a deeper understanding of its context and music intentions.

Cover art

The album cover of Cowboy Carter was shot by Blair Caldwell, a photographer who is from Texas. The cover is much like the cover for Beyoncé’s last album Renaissance. On Cowboy Carter’s album cover, you can see Beyoncé riding a white horse sidesaddle. She also holds an American flag, which reminds people of rodeo queens who are asked to carry the American flag in a rodeo grand entry. The biggest point on the cover is her cowboy hat and the sash that reads “Cowboy Carter”. From the cover, you can easily find the theme of this album. The professor at DePaul University and author of Black Country Music Francesca T Royster thinks that Beyoncé is putting herself into conversations about nationalism.

Background

The album name Cowboy Carter is inspired by the original Black cowboys of the American West. Beyoncé explained:

 “The word cowboy itself was used in a derogatory way to describe the former slaves as “boys,” who were the most skilled and had the hardest jobs of handling horses and cattle, alike.  In destroying the negative connotation, what remains is the strength and resiliency of these men who were the true definition of Western fortitude. “

The album is also inspired by her own experiences. Beyoncé grew up in Texas. The cowboy heritage and country music in this place played an important role in her upbringing. When she was a little girl, she listened to country music. And she performed at the Rodeo 4 times. At the 2016 Country Music Association Awards, Beyoncé met a racial backlash when she performed “Daddy Lessons,” a country song from her 2016 album “Lemonade” about gun-toting self-defense. She described it as “an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed.” in her Instagram. That may be one of the inspirations for the album Cowboy Carter.

Album Content

As we mentioned above, the Cowboy Carter album contains a variety of music genres. Whatever music you like, you can find the track that matches your listening taste. Beyoncé drew productions that feature hand-played instruments from country music, such as guitars, keyboards, drums, and more, to enrich your listening experience. The tracks are all country-based but with different themes. For example, 16 Carriages mainly talks about Beyoncé’s industrious career and artistic drive, while the title track Texas Hold’ Em is banjo-picking about enjoying a good time in Texas. The album also contains cover songs. The most famous one is the Beatles’ veiled civil-rights song, Blackbird. Beyoncé gathered young Black women who are striving for country careers to remake and reinterpret this song.

Achievement 

From a business perspective, Cowboy Carter is definitely a successful music album. This album broke streaming records on several platforms. According to Spotify records, it is the most-streamed album in a single day in 2024. Spotify posts on social media accounts and explain:” This is also the first time a country album holds the title this year”. On the US Top 50 chart Billboard, the lead single of this album, Texas Hold’Em is on the top spot. This achievement makes Beyoncé the first woman to have topped both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists began in 1958. More so, Cowboy Carter also stays at the top of the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 125,500 sales in the United States.

Reviews

The album was released to rave reviews, but there were also some critical voices. Here are some reviews about this album. What do you think of this album? Welcome to leave a comment.

Combining a range of beats, sounds, and genres into one singular and lengthy album is an ambitious task, one that Beyonce doesn’t quite accomplish, especially as the album goes on. It starts to feel like Beyonce lost track of the original conceit for the album and her statement feels less cohesive. That being said, it’s a testament to Beyoncé’s talent that this fact does not significantly take away from the album’s many good moments.

— Emelia Gauch

“Cowboy Carter” is her eighth album, and yet not one of the best. It’s hard to top some of her previous albums, like “Renaissance”, and her album “Beyonce”. As a casual listener of Beyonce, I am confident in saying that I give “Cowboy Carter” 6/10 vikings. Though it has a couple good songs, it doesn’t resonate as much as her other albums, especially her most recent, “Renaissance.” Hopefully “Renaissance Act III” will come with better hits.

— Lily Jarbeau

After my first listen all the way through Cowboy Carter, however, it’s safe to say that it’s a pretty mediocre album. I thought it was kind of boring to listen to after a while, and 27 tracks may have been a bit much for it. By the time I was finished with it, it had felt dragged-on and maybe some tracks from it could have been cut. While I did not enjoy the album, there is no denying that most of the songs were well-written and executed (not “Jolene”) – just not my personal taste or anything really unique.

–Annie Maalouf

Part 4. How to Download the Cowboy Carter Album on Tidal

Cowboy Carter is definitely the album you should not miss. But there are so many music streaming services that have access to this album, which platform should you choose? We recommend Tidal. Tidal is one of the most popular platforms and it is known for its high-fidelity music. If you want to listen to this album with higher quality, Tidal offers the MAQ quality for you.

Cowboy Carter on Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/album/353990783?u

To get an uninterrupted music experience, you can consider downloading all the tracks from Cowboy Carter for offline listening. If you are a Tidal subscriber, you can simply tap the more option > Download to get this album offline on your mobile phone. But if you don’t have a Tidal subscription, is it still possible to download this album for offline playback? Well, the answer is yes. Here we’d like to recommend the best alternative method for you. All you need is the powerful and functional tool – Tunelf Tidal Music Converter.

Tunelf Tidal Music Converter is a professional converter designed for all Tidal users. Whatever Tidal account you are using, this Tunelf program has the ability to help you remove the DRM protection of Tidal tracks, albums, playlists, and podcasts. Then, you can download them as local music files on your computer. Without the DRM protection, it’s a breeze for you to import and listen to the downloaded music on any player and device you like. Additionally, the Tunelf program supports converting music to diverse formats like MP3, FLAC, WAV, and more to solve the compatibility issue. It also maintains all the ID3 tags and the original sound quality to ensure your music enjoyment. Now, just try this helpful tool to download Cowboy Carter and enjoy it offline.

Key Features of Tunelf Tidal Music Converter

• Download any Tidal content, including songs, albums, playlists, and artists
• Support exporting Tidal music to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, and M4B
• Preserve a whole set of ID3 tag information in the downloaded Tidal songs
• Handle the conversion of Tidal music up to 5× faster speed and in batch

Free Download

Free Download

Part 5. Conclusion

After reading the Cowboy Carter Review, you now have a better understanding of this great album. I believe you can get a better immersive music experience. If you really love this album and want to save it on your device permanently, try the Tunelf Tidal Music Converter. It can help you download and convert any Tidal content to a local file and let you get full control over it.