Wikipedia Genre: Country, pop, neotraditional country
Home: Golden, Texas (although I suspect she lives in Nashville now)
Poster Position: 1
Both Weekends. Sunday.
Her prior album was 2018's Golden Hour, a nod to her upbringing in Golden, Texas, and probably a reference to the time of day when every instagram influencer tries to get their picture taken outside. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I'm going to use a lot of my prior review of the album, which was my top album of 2018, and my second-favorite album of the entire 2010's decade.
Holy shit, man. The opening track of this album sounds so much like Beck's stuff from Morning Phase - down to the soft acoustic, the swelling sound, whatever organ-ish machine makes those noises, the banjo plucking, even the drums and bass that kick in at about 1:40. It's either Beck's "Country Down" or "Say Goodbye," I can't tell which, maybe both. No, it's definitely "Say Goodbye" more than "Country Down." But the line - "grandma cried when I pierced my nose" - is money stuff. 116.3 million streams.
If you have been reading my blog before, you know I have a large, irrational love for Musgraves. This album does nothing to dissuade me from that love, even though it does take her even further afield from her country roots. "Lonely Weekend" sounds like a soft rock John Mayer tune (and Mayer is a guilty pleasure for me, who also toured with Musgraves a few years ago). "High Horse" is a ridiculous disco dance party that needs a roller skating video so badly it hurts me to consider it. And not only is that tune fun (and very weird for a country star), the lyrics are very good kissoffs to a jackass on his high horse. Let's go with that one here - just over 97 million streams.
Amazing 9-to-5 video, but I still wish there had been sequin-draped roller skating.
Funny, I came here to talk more about "High Horse" and the other two early singles "Butterflies" (damn pretty, and her nearly top streamer from the album at 137 million) and "Space Cowboy," but "Slow Burn" has occupied my brainwaves all day. It is really good, but such heavy Beck flavors. I so want to know if that was intentional or just coincidental. I'd tweet at her about it but don't want to appear creepy. Anyway, here is "Space Cowboy," at 64.9 million streams.
Beautiful voice. And achingly sad lyrics about a relationship that is over. "Well sunsets fade, and love does too, Yeah, we had our day in the sun, When a horse wants to run, there ain't no sense in closing the gate, You can have your space, cowboy." Loving this album overall. "Oh, What A World" is a beauty. I'm a little offput by the use of digital vocal trickery, when her voice is so damn great on its own, but I can live with it. Good lyrics, sweet vocals, enjoyable tunes, this one gets my seal of approval.
The fun thing about this album since it was released is that my middle daughter also loves it, and so sometimes now she'll fire up a song, usually "Velvet Elvis" or "Rainbow," and the whole family gets to enjoy them together in the car. Love when a child figures out something good like that. Since writing most of those words a few years ago, "Rainbow" has become a favorite from the album as well. Usually makes me want to cry. So pretty and well-written.
Texas girl ("girl from Golden"), who first really came out in the public eye when she was on Nashville Star, which is apparently like American Idol but for country types. She didn't win, but that exposure led to a record deal. She has since spent a lot of time upending norms in Nashville, being very vocal for LGBTQ rights. She has won six Grammy awards, including album of the year for Golden Hour (which also won the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music best album awards). Her mother was an artist and encouraged her music, taking her to festivals to sing western swing as a child. When she graduated high school, she moved to Austin to give it a shot. Her hero is Alison Krauss, and her favorite artists is John Prine - that's a pretty solid duo. She also married Ruston Kelly, who was at ACL in 2018 (and is pretty damn good), so I think she was likely influenced by him a little bit now. (although more to come on that relationship later).
But before that album, she had released two other very good albums - actually I think her debut is the best of the three - but first let's go back to 2015's Pageant Material. Here is my review of that album back then:
I get that you might not be in to country music, and so you might just dismiss this album out of habit. Huge mistake. Like her last album and like the new wave of country stars who wink at the genre and then have some fun with it (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson), this is funny and a hell of a lot of fun. She can take that too far - see "Biscuits" with the chorus of "Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy" - but she hits the nail on the head way more often than she mashes her thumb. And even that song, I like it a lot and will continue to hum it in my head hours after I've finished it. The music is good, but you come for the wry observations about life in small town country-land, family relations, and making fun where there isn't any.
My favorite moment is the Willie-assisted cover of Nelson's 1965 beauty "Are You Sure." It isn't actually named on the album, it is a secret song after the final listed track, "Fine." You may not remember this, but I have a clear memory of the TV show Lost, when Hurley is looking around at the misfit toy survivors spread around him on the beach, and slips his headphones on to listen to this song. At the time, despite a pretty heavy past of Willie listening, I had never heard that track before, and so I remember being struck by (1) how perfect a song it was for that moment in the show; and (2) how great a song it was in general. This is a great version, with Willie's unmistakable guitar work under Kacey's knockout voice, and then Willie's old, weathered voice for a bit.
Man, Willie looks like hell. While I still think I liked her first album better ("Merry Go Round" was devastatingly perfect, and "Follow Your Arrow" great stuff), this one is a keeper for sure.
When 2013's Same Trailer Different Park came out, I wasn't doing ridiculously obsessive blogging at the time, so I never wrote about that album, but as I mentioned above, it might be the best of the three. The key reason for that is the lyrics. She wrote them herself, and they're devastating and empowering and smart and perfectly descriptive. "Merry Go Round" is amazing. 84.5 million streams.
When she came to ACL last time, I literally teared up like an old man as I sang along to the perfect line - "just like dust we settle in this town." And my wife made fun of me. Which is totally deserved. But the people she is describing in this track are so well fleshed out and described. Love it.
And the other hit from this album, "Follow Your Arrow," which has 106 million streams, is also a kick ass empowerment/do yo thing track.
Its a simple construct, but I love when she tells you to roll up a joint, and then says "or don't" or "I would," with a smile in her voice. Her voice is damn pretty, and she just sounds friendly. This song is also great because of how it blows up the normal country paradigm of 'MERICA and "party with my bros" and "ain't got time for no queers" and all of that which is normally firing out of Nashville all day. "In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Musgraves talked about criticism she faced for her rebellious lyrics. "I think throwing the rebel card out there is really cheap," she said. "The things I'm singing about are not controversial to me, I don't push buttons to push buttons. I talk about things that have made an impression on me that a lot of people everywhere are going through."" That is good.
Loads of other good songs on that first album, "Blowin' Smoke," "Keep It To Yourself," or "Back on the Map" come to mind. Great disc. She was nominated for a bunch of Country Music Awards and Grammy's that year, and took home the Grammy for Best Country Song ("Follow Your Arrow") and Best Country Album.
Something else I haven't mentioned, I don't know who the dudes in the band are (they don't get a mention on Wikipedia) but they rule as well. Great players, don't get in the way, just make straight-forward tunes that showcase the star. Also on this album, I love "Late to the Party" and "Dime Store Cowgirl."
This first album kept me company one summer while driving from Colorado back to Texas in August, while the rest of my family slept in the early morning and I popped in headphones to move on down the road. Right in between Helmet and A$AP Rocky, ol' Kacey kept me company. I hadn't really even noticed it before, but "Good Ol' Boys Club" has a nice dig in it that hadn't dawned on me before in many listens, but clicked while the music was about all that I had in my mind that morning. The song is about the music industry and how crappy it is that people who know people can get a leg up on real talent, and one of the lines says "“Another gear in a big machine, don’t sound like fun to me.” Big Machine is a record label in Nashville, home to massive stars like Taylor Swift and Reba and Tim McGraw, etc. So, I guess she didn't want to sign with their sorry ass label anyway. From reading the Internet about this, it sounds like some people thought she dissed TayTay with this line, but Kacey disavowed the diss with a wink.
I alluded to her new album a few times above, and how I did not love it. Star Crossed is her breakup album. On the one hand, I wanted to jump to her defense when the idiot Grammy people excluded this new album from the Country Album of the Year category because they deemed it to be outside of that genre, and instead put it in the Best Pop Vocal Album category. But then I actually listened to the album, and its pretty much a pop breakup album. I mean, it's not like a Britney pop album or something, but more like some confessional and gentle stuff from Stevie Nicks or Lana Del Rey or Olivia Newton John or something. Actually, I just heard a little of the Harry Styles thing when I just listened again, his pop-rock-70's groove thing that he did so well on his last album. It isn't bad by any means, but it's also just nothing like what I expected to hear (or wanted to hear, I suppose, especially when she uses autotune despite a great voice). Those other three albums were vital, even as they pushed the country genre outside of its boundaries through the years, but this one just feels like a bummer to be sad to. "there is a light" features some jazzy ass flute solos and a quick bongo beat, along with an almost rap near the end, which is entertaining for being weird. "justified" is the hit with 40.1 million streams (with "breadwinner" right behind at 31 million - which is even more pop-forward).
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