This Just In: Alright, she finally got her mantlepieces...

Yippee, Yahoo, jubilation and celebration in the land. Queen Bey finally did it. The question of when Beyoncé was finally going to win a Grammy for Album Of The Year (and not Record Of The Year which she had already won) had become a recurring phenomenon with a bunch of mor or less well done discussions including a bunch of subtext about race, racism, musical genres and a ton of other stuff attached. Not to mention that her miss in that category in 2010 being the spark that ignited the infamous Taylor Swift - Kanye West feud. So, now she finally got the one price she - or at least her fans - most craved. Good on her. 

The Grammies of course totally suck at being any kind of arbiter of taste, usually going with the safest choice, which - even if they embrace what the kids these days listen to, as evidenced by victories by Billie EIlish and Harry Styles - they usually go with what sells. Which made the 2001's Grammies one of the funniest when it seemed all but certain that Eminem would win for The Marshall Mathers Album with a historic first victory for a rap album, only to see two sarcastic middle-aged gentlemen walk on stage and celebrate the upset win of Steely Dan's Two Against Nature. But yeah, Beyoncé took chances last year with Cowboy Carter and it paid off and that's a nice happy end for her.  

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter also won Best Country Album, a historic first for a black woman in what feels at least partly like a political decision, considering the unease with which the country community reacted to Beyoncé's genre overtures and being shut out at the CMA Awards last year for that very album. The now Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter is still messy and  unwieldy as all hell, that's why I take this news item as a way to hawk my improved (via substraction) version of said record, Saddle Up. The original write-up is here, but a new link will be below. Saddle Up focuses on the country part of the genre-crashing original and is also a lot more digestible, running for half of the original's unreasonable 78 minute running time.

I'd venture most of you aren't huge Beyoncé fans and guess what, neither am I, but I still thought it was worth to take a shot at improving her country album. Now it's up to you (if you didn't back in April 2024) to give this a shot. Get your six guns and saddle up with Beyoncé.