“Happy & Sad” is right

Review of Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour

Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour

Released March 30, 2018

Kacey Musgraves is a unique kind of country artist. I’ve written before about my affinity for artists that fall into the Texas side of country music, which is to say artists who don’t feel bound to the homogenous mainstream country sound that comes out of Nashville or more specifically Music Row. Musgraves follows that legacy created by Texas country artists Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and The Chicks. Being this kind of Texas country artist, I think only Kacey Musgraves could have made this album. She has that strong country songwriting that she’s known for, but this doesn’t really sound like a country album. Anyone who’s a country purist was never a likely Kacey fan, but with the trust she earned with her first two albums, I think she had the good will of a sect of listeners who are outside the immediate realm of stereotypical country listeners and that’s who this album is for. If anything, it’s not country enough for country, but also not pop enough for pop. But that also goes for Musgraves’ artistry as a whole. I think of her more as a pop/country cusp artist rather than a pop-country artist because she opened for Harry Styles in 2018 and she fits in more with his brand of “70s style folk storytelling and…great dance music” pop than she does with cowboy boots and Stetson hat Garth Brooks brand of country music.

This is unanimously considered her best album and for good reason. While I personally became a fan with 2021’s “star-crossed,” I can’t disagree that this is quintessential Kacey. Sometimes I worry if my opinion gets unduly influenced by the majority opinion on an album, especially one that’s been out for quite a while. But I know that I don’t try to be contrarian to popular opinion and when I agree with the consensus, I will agree, as I do here. Justice for star-crossed though, it wasn’t that bad, but I think people were just mad it wasn’t Golden Hour.

My favorites are “Slow Burn,” “Lonely Weekend,” “Space Cowboy,” “Happy & Sad,” “High Horse,” “Golden Hour,” and “Rainbow.”

Like fans have noticed that Taylor Swift’s lover is actually her most sad and anxious album despite the bright prink aesthetic, this album has an undercurrent of sad despite the soft color palette of the album’s cover. It does also impact my listening of this album knowing how the story ends. Written during her engagement and early marriage to husband Ruston Kelly, the follow-up album star-crossed tells the story of the end of that same marriage. Hearing the albums in reverse of how they were originally written and released, I am picking up on more of the sadness and anxiety in Golden Hour than I might have when it was released, especially if I didn’t know that star-crossed to follow. Particularly songs like “Mother” and “Space Cowboy” have that sadness.

Also having heard star-crossed before I heard this album, “Wonder Woman” sounds like the predecessor to “breadwinner.”

I was happy to see “Butterflies” and “Velvet Elvis” co-written by Natalie Hemby. Hemby is a veteran Nashville songwriter and also 1/4 of The Highwomen. Before I really got into country, I loved her song “Heart Condition” that I found through a clip on TikTok and I’ve been a fan ever since.

As much as I like Kacey Musgraves generally, there always seems to be one song on her albums that takes me out of the experience. On this album, that song is “Velvet Elvis.” (Although the more I listen to it, it’s growing on me)

“High Horse,” on the other hand, I adore. I’m obsessed with the disco country vibe and I’m actually sad that this wasn’t on the Barbie soundtrack. Just think about it, it would have been so perfect.

Musgraves is a unique artist in that she has a sound that’s her own and no one else sounds like her. The cadence of her writing as well as the sound of her voice lets you know it’s a Kacey song as soon as you hear it.

In my typical fashion, I was late to the Kacey party so I missed out on this album the first time around. But with star-crossed, Deeper Well, and now finally my introduction to Golden Hour, I feel firm in my belief that she is country music’s Maggie Rogers — I can’t quite put my finger on what she does so differently than other artists, but her sound and her writing are all her and there’s no one else really like her. I’m excited to go even further back and give a listen to her first two records, Same Trailer, Different Park and Pageant Material. And without getting ahead of myself, if they’re as good as I’ve heard, Kacey might just be a rare no-bad-albums artist.