During the Superbowl last night, Beyoncé announced that her new album – Act II – will be released on March 29. While this will be the second instalment of her Renaissance trilogy, we can expect a dramatically different sound to the house and disco-inspired pop of Act 1 – at least if the two new songs she released are anything to go by. With this record, it looks like Beyoncé has embraced country music, returning to a genre she first experimented with back on Lemonade’s “Daddy Lessons”.
After her outfit at the Grammy’s paid homage to the ‘Rich Texan’ character from The Simpsons (in other words, she wore a white hat), it would be no surprise if Act II is inspired by her home state. “Texas Hold ‘Em“ – one of the two new singles – is a jaunty, upbeat hoe-down with whistling, viola and banjos; the guest instrumentation comes from musician Rhiannon Giddens who, as Variety reports, has been a “leading educator in making the public aware that the banjo was a Black instrument before it became a white one”.
“16 Carriages”, meanwhile, is a more gentle, wistful and elegiac affair, which also makes exquisite use of traditional instrumentation – on this one, she has worked with Black roots musician Robert Randolph. Based on what we have seen so far, it looks like the record might showcase a distinctly Black vision of country: while it is largely white-dominated today, the genre - like almost every form of American popular music - is rooted in the blues, and there is a long history of cross-pollination between the two styles, both of which emerged in the Deep South.
As for how the rest of the album will sound, there’s not much to go on at this stage, but Beyoncé has released a list of co-writers and producers. These include the song-writer Raphael Saadiq, whose background lies more in soul and R&B – he has previously worked with Beyoncé, as well as Stevie Wonder, Erykah Bahdu, and Whitney Houston, among others. Canadian song-writer Dave Hamelin – who co-wrote Act 1’s “Alien Superstar” - will be returning. Whether we can expect a barn-storming anthem about how much she loves her truck or a tearfully respectful ode to the American military, only time will tell.
