After the conversation comes the music. When news came that Beyoncé was releasing a country album it raised all kinds of debate over the genre’s African-American roots, and her co-opting of patriotic American imagery on the cover. And she seems to have guessed it would when she came up with the songs in the first place.
“There’s a lot of talking going on while I sing my song,” she sings on American Requiem, an epic that falls somewhere between country lament, psychedelic ballad and modern pop. “Can we stand for something?” she asks. So begins an album that, though overlong at 27 songs and stylistically all over the place, broadens Beyoncé’s reach, has a refreshing sense of fun and adventure, and generally makes all
