This album is a revelation. It's a total masterpiece. The run from "Texas Hold 'Em" to "Flamenco" is flawless, and, on it's own is the best album I've heard so far this year. Throw in "American Requiem," "16 Carriages," "Tyrant," and "Sweet * Honey * Buckiin" and this thing is a goddamn MONSTER.

What she's done with "Jolene" is brilliant. Going from her version of that song into "Daughter" just fucking wrecked me. Unreal.

This is an album that is immediately great and will only get better as it ages, I'm sure. This is one I think we're going to talk and come back to for a long time. This feels like one of those "canon" records.

couldn't agree more, nice to see a thread about it

edit: the way she goes into opera / choral here is spectactular

I thought this record deserved it's own thread.

We'll be talking about/dissecting it for a long time to come.

"Tyrant" is a hell of a song

"Ya Ya", "Riverdance", "Bodyguard"...also hells of a songs

Again, Jolene into Daughter is one of my all time favorite moments in music. Ms H is right, the operetta at the end of Daughter is special.

I love the narrative there. Daughter has a guitar melody that's similar to Daughter, and thematically they are sequels. It's really special.

YES!

Tyrant is 5 stars

Wait, is that Beyonce singing the opera part in Daughter? That's incredibly impressive if so.

Spinning this on my drive to the mountain tomorrow. Expectations fairly high. I shall report back.

yes, I believe so

Same.

If that's not her I'd love to know who it is, but I was under the impression it was her.

Daughter is impressive yes, but i still kinda fail to connect to Beyonce on any level. She is amazing but at the same time i get bored easily with her work, which i never really dive into to be honest.

I always thought she sucked, until Lemonade

Seems her self titled is very good, according to my girl who is a die hard fan. Lemonade is the only album i listened front to back more than once, i has the song i like the most so i could agree with that yes.

4 and Beyonce are very good albums, though a notch below Lemonade. There's a handful of songs on Renaissance that stuck with me but most of it felt comparatively inconsequential

I am listening to Cowboy Carter now. I'm only on track 6 (of 27!!!!) so there's a lot of album to go but I'm not really feeling it so far

Okay, "Bodyguard," now we're talking

We made it about halfway through today and while there were some songs we liked, overall it felt super unfocused and meandering. Still, I fully expect to hear it all summer long around Montana so maybe it’ll grow on me.

The first two songs were definitely the worst. The Blackbird cover does nothing but take up space.

I liked Bodyguard a lot too.

Track 1 almost made me turn it off, extremely annoying. And I agree with your comments elsewhere about "16 Carriages" being tedious, I think that's largely due to the fact that it's literally two chords over and over. Baroque arrangements and production flourishes can't hide a flat composition.

I'm on track 17 now (which I'm really enjoying) and I've found a lot to like about the album after that rough start. "Just For Fun" and "Most Wanted" (the Miley Cyrus duet) have been some of my favorites

Yeah I was surprised I liked the Miley Cyrus song too, that’s the first time that’s happened

It sounds exactly like her! And (with all respect to Beyonce's incredible singing talent) not like an opera singer