Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, "Cowboy Carter," is available worldwide now.
The long-awaited 27-track project arrived Friday. "I think people are going to be surprised because I don’t think this music is what everyone expects," she said. "But it’s the best music I’ve ever made."
The superstar already had a smash on her hands with "Texas Hold 'Em," which made Beyoncé the first woman and first Black woman to have topped both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists began in 1958, according to Billboard.
The lead track, released along with "16 Carriages" on Feb. 11, also spent four weeks at the top of the U.K. music charts.
Beyoncé said, "The joy of creating music is that there are no rules. The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones."
She added, "I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk. All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature."
MORE: Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' highlights challenges for Black artists in country industryThe release blends the genres of music the singer listened to growing up, including "Country, original Rhythm & Blues, Blues, Zydeco, and Black Folk," according to a press release.
She also drew inspiration from films like Quentin Tarantino's "Hateful Eight," The Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and more.
The singer worked with a lengthy list of collaborators for this project, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone and Jon Batiste. The album features covers of the Beatles' "Blackbird" and Parton's "Jolene."
Beyoncé also revealed the album was five years in the making, and follows "Renaissance."
"I was initially going to put 'Cowboy Carter' out first," she said, "but with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God’s timing."
Check out the full tracklist below:
