During the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, Beyoncé released two new singles: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” The songs were previewed during a Verizon Super Bowl commercial in which Beyoncé was featured and were released during the game. In addition, she announced her new studio album, act ii, which will be released on March 29.
The new studio album and singles come after the release of the smash hit album Renaissance in the summer of 2022 and the Renaissance tour of 2023 with its subsequent concert movie.
The two singles are also a major genre switch for Beyoncé and could be a hint about what the future album will look like. Where Renaissance and Lemonade were both very pop-focused and had loud sound effects, the two singles featured country-like lyrics with a guitar, especially “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which sounded like a cowboy bar.
Beyoncé made a mistake announcing the two songs together. “Texas Hold ‘Em” is by far a better song than “16 Carriages,” proven by the amount of Spotify streams each song has gotten (about 108 million streams and 19 million streams, respectively). “Texas Hold ‘Em” is fun and entertaining, showing off Beyoncé’s good voice, but “16 Carriages” ends up feeling repetitive, long and very, very mediocre—something Beyoncé usually would never settle for.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” starts with a banjo-like noise being strummed in a classic country song. Then Beyoncé comes in with stomping country noises that make me want to square dance in bedazzled cowboy boots. The song sounds like a rejuvenation of a song off her 2016 album, “Daddy Lessons,” when she ventured into country before. The lyrics refer to a dance with a lover in a bar, with a bunch of background singers’ sounds like “woo” and “yeah.” Overall, the song is what I would view as a Beyoncé country song and is very well produced and sung.
I wish I could say the same for “16 Carriages.” Beyoncé tries to be adventurous in the song by exploring the country genre but ultimately returns to a generic Beyoncé Renaissance song, except with worse lyrics and repetitive beats. It seems the creative energy that Beyoncé has built her musical clout on ran out on this song and was all used up on the other single.
“16 Carriages” features similar country effects to “Texas Hold ‘Em” but falls short of its standard. The single contains musical instruments like a church organ, a steel guitar and a string section. The song itself is about a working mother struggling to progress in a big world of despair. But its repetitive chorus and sounds all make the song fall flat. All I can say is let’s pray that the rest of the album is based on “Texas Hold ‘Em” and not this song.
In the end, Beyoncé’s transition to country brought new creativity and intrigue to an artist who has built her fame on such traits. In addition, she has made progress in the music industry as the first Black woman to be at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, something long overdue.
Writer’s Note: These are my predictions of the names of the songs on act ii, now that Beyoncé is country.
- Pink Lemonade at Church
- Love Like a Saddle
- John Deere and My Beer (ft. John Mayer)
- Daddy Lessons (Luke Combs cover)
- America Has (No) Problem
- Jay Z Take the Wheel
- Birmingham Blues