It has been three years since the release of Kacey Musgraves’ celestial GRAMMY-winning third studio record – Golden Hour. star-crossed, her fourth studio album, was therefore one of the most eagerly-anticipated records of this year, following a tumultuous year for the star – not just in the halt to her touring due to the pandemic, but also the news of her divorce from husband Ruston Kelly. star-crossed does not skirt away from this expectation but dives headfirst into that chaos – a record that demonstrates the enduring power of Kacey Musgraves as one to continue to push her own boundaries and societal expectations.
It has been three years since the release of Kacey Musgraves’ ground-breaking and career-making third studio record Golden Hour, since then she has experienced both phenomenal success – winning the GRAMMY for Album of the Year, touring with Harry Styles and experiencing global acclaim – and heartache – it was announced last year that Kacey Musgraves was divorcing her husband Ruston Kelly, amidst the outbreak of the global pandemic that put a halt to any touring plans. Her fourth studio album star-crossed was therefore heralded then as one of the most-anticipated records of the year. With a traditionally short lead-up, Kacey Musgraves has described the record and the adjoining 50-minute film as a ‘modern tragedy told in three acts.’ Sonically, the record continues where Golden Hour left off, infusing a host of different influences into Musgraves’ gloriously celestial vocal and sound. Lyrically, the record goes into darker territory than Golden Hour as ‘Golden Hour faded black‘ (‘What Doesn’t Kill Me’) and sonically Kacey continues fearlessly to experiment with her sound, melding in the influences of classical music, Sade and early 2000s R&B to the breezy country-rock of America and the Eagles, creating a lush and diverse sonic landscape.
In moulding the record together, Kacey embarked on a guided mushroom trip in Nashville, thinking ‘I would love to get to the root of my pain and see how I can transform it into something else. And the trip turned out to be a big bang explosion of a thousand ideas—the album concept, the album title, so many self-revelations and synchronicities that totally changed the course of everything.’ She continues, ‘The experience was about trying to transform my trauma into something else,” she continues. “It’s like the quote from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran says— ‘the deeper sorrow carves in your heart, the more joy you can contain.’ I was ripped wide open.’ This transformation of pain is evident throughout in a record that feels like a hopeful catharsis and a sense of something greater than joy – peace.
The record is crafted around a tragedy formed into three acts, telling Musgraves’ own story: the exposition, the climax and downfall, and the resolution. Creating the record this way, allows the album to take on a theatrical and fantastical guise, interweaving classical elements alongside the broad and diverse production that seamlessly fuses onto its predecessor. So, the record opens with the ethereal words ‘Let met set the scene,’ a moment of pause and reflection between Golden Hour and star-crossed, rather than a reflection of the record as a whole. In the way of classical tragedies, the track seeks to narrate the overview of the story as a whole. ‘Let me set the scene / Two lovers ripped right at the seams / They woke up from the perfect dream / And then the darkness came.’ Accompanied by a glorious backing chorus line evokes further the idea of a theatrical tragedy.
From ‘star-crossed,’ Musgraves moves into the meat of the record on ‘Good Wife,’ where she offers up an ardent, plaintive prayer. ‘God, help me be a good wife / Yeah, cause he needs me / Even when he’s not right / I know he still needs me.’ It is important to note that Musgraves turned once again to Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk – the writing/producing team behind Golden Hour – to create star-crossed. This allows Musgraves words to flow with an authenticity and raw appeal from the off and her sound to build on that created on her previous records. On ‘Good Wife’ the atmospheric, dreamy beats are brought back in and Musgraves shows from the off her lack of concern for genre rules and boundaries, a thick vocoder applied to her vocal, alongside juicy guitar melodies. The sentiments offered up on ‘Good Wife’ shows the depth of her love, but the creeping doubts that she was beginning to experience. So on following tracks, ‘Cherry Blossom’ and ‘If This Was a Movie,’ Musgraves reveals the core loving relationship, albeit one with undertones of doubt that signify storm clouds brewing. ‘Cherry Blossom’ will doubtless be a fan favourite track, sonically it is star-crossed‘s equivalent of ‘Butterflies,’ but lyrically it is its’ anthesis, where doubts creep in. ‘When we’re on fire / It’s something to see / No one can question the chemistry / But, even in nature timing is everything.’ On ‘Simpler Times,’ Musgraves yearns for the simplicity of being a teenager. ‘Wish that I could put this game on pause / Skip this round, take the headset off / Put my lip gloss on / Kick it at the mall like there’s nothing wrong.’ This ‘part’ of the record ends with ‘If This Was a Movie,’ Musgraves yearns again for a simpler scenario, namely a movie-set, ‘If this was a movie / Love would be enough / To save us from the darkness / That’s inside both of us / and we’d get away / and we’d be okay.’ On the track, Musgraves infuses dream-like, psychedelic aspects to create an ethereal atmosphere that again seeks to defy genre boundaries, bringing back a sense of nostalgia.
By the middle of the record, her relationship issues have moved front and centre, kicking off with ‘Justified.’ This track feels like a page turn on the record. ‘We lost touch with each other / Fall came and I had to move / Moving backwards, hurt comes after / Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line‘ as Musgraves starkly acknowledges the disintegration of her marriage. The hurt is clear in following track ‘Angel’ where she muses on how different their relationship would be if she was an angel. Still, she does not take the blame squarely on her own shoulders – on ‘Breadwinner,’ Musgraves sings about men who are attracted to the brightest women, wanting them on their arm, before the women start to outshine them and they start to feel insecure, at which point the woman is forced to shrink herself to fit the relationship. ‘He wants your shimmer / To make him feel bigger / Until he starts feeling insecure.’ The trajectory of the track allows Musgraves to take back the power of the track, showing her brightest self in the very delivery of the lyrics and story, ‘See he’s never gonna know what to do / With a woman like you.’ It is craftily delivered, showing the lyrical gymnastics of Musgraves’ mind and creativity.
Still, healing is not a linear process as Musgraves reveals on ‘Camera Roll’ and ‘Hook-Up Scene.’ On ‘Camera Roll’, Musgraves unpacks the toxicity of selective nostalgia, seeing the glamourised versions of pictures taken in the best and most joyful times and on the latter, she implores the listener to hold on and work on relationships, because the ‘single life’ may not be the fun and happy experience you might expect. The pain comes through yet more starkly on the deeply poignant and emotionally riveting ‘Easier Said,’ where Musgraves details the complexity of relationships. ‘I can wake up with a heart of gold, sometimes / I can be the one you need me to be / Never said that I was easy to hold, but I love you.’
On the final part of the record, Musgraves experiences a sense of catharsis and hope, beginning with ‘Keep Lookin’ Up’ that offers the biggest nod to her country roots, albeit infused with a psychedelic edge, on a track about perseverance. It’s an idea continued on ‘What Doesn’t Kill Me,’ where she appreciates her own resilience in a track that pushes her sonic boundaries forward, before moving on to the flute-infused, sparkling ‘There Is A Light.’ The record opens with ‘Gracias a la Vida’ – written in 1966 and appearing on the last album published by the Chilean songwriter and activist, Violetta Parra before she committed suicide the following year. It was a version of the song by Mercedes Sosa that visited Musgraves on the soundtrack to the psychedelic trip, experiencing a profound emotional reaction to the track, ‘It’s saying ‘thank you to life for giving me the gift of being alive. The beauty AND the pain – the materials that makeup the collective song of existence and what it means to be alive.’ I, too, am thankful for all that – and so, it became the bookend of the record.’
What Musgraves has accomplished is something rare for a ‘break-up record’ as she honours the love and the heart of the man she fell in love with, whilst still allowing herself the room and grace to experience the complexity of emotions experienced in the disappointment and hurt of a broken relationship. It’s a reflective record, where the songs click into place with ease, the writing possessing an easy fluidity that does not sound like it is trying to be commercial creating instead a dreamy and languid sonic landscape. It’s a seamless journey that takes you from the high of love through doubts and vulnerability to hurt and ultimately hope. Instead of aiming for a bunch of hugely commercial bangers or positioning squarely in a genre bracket, Musgraves has prioritised the story of the record making it a truly polished project that should be embraced in its entirety. Musgraves has paid attention to every detail on the record, creating a rich, intricately carved and layered sonic tapestry. Her very nakedness in her lyrics and bravery in telling her story are what make this story so compelling. As she herself says, this record was a move away from her obsession with turns of phrase, moving instead toward getting into the ‘heart and the emotion’ of a song and is a perfect follow-up to Golden Hour that feels like a deeply honest and introspective reflection on where Musgraves is at now.
Editor’s Picks
Cherry Blossom
Justified
What Doesn’t Kill Me
