Review: Deeper Well by Kacey Musgraves released via Interscope and MCA Nashville
Deleting this entire review and starting over, whatever.
I’m caught very much off guard by the level of country influence on Kacey Musgraves newest album, especially since this is the first one, I’ve actually listened to in full. Opening track “Cardinal” is a sad girl tune with a melody lifted from bardcore. And, yes, there are of course country moments on the record like the riffs on “Giver/Taker,” various vocal melodies especially on “Dinner with Friends” and the general feel on “Jade Green.” I guess my surprise was I always figured when I finally dove into this artist it would be a country record through and through but there’s so much range and genre depth on Deeper Well.
Regardless of what genre the album is, I do know my favorite part of it are Kacey Musragves’ lyrics. The opening line of the record is absolutely killer, and the entire song attached is a great draw-in track. Here Kacey talks about looking to, and directly speaking with, birds around her for hope and inspiration. On the title track she talks about people who are givers and people who are “always trying to take” and how the distinction between the two is huge but also what she’s come to expect out of anyone she meets. Even with all the philosophies around how she lives her own life, however, what I enjoy most of all is the anecdotes from it. On “Moving Out” she tells a story about getting sick on Christmas and making the most of it in spite of feeling bad. It's moments like this, where she lets us into what she thinks about on a day to day, where I feel the most connected to Kacey Musgraves as a person as opposed to a musician of unapproachable success.
The sentiments of the love songs on Deeper Well are also very sweet and, not to make my little jokes, hit even though they are very hetero. “Heart of the Woods” is a shorter song comparing your love interest to the comfort and nostalgia of home. “Anime Eyes” has some, definitely questionable lyrics, but I do see the vision and feel Kacey accomplished her own goal here. Above all “Nothing to be Scared Of,” which closes the record, is a real tearjerker. On which she talks about the feeling of always returning home to one specific person and embracing surrendering to the feeling of having missed them while you were gone. Taking this for everything it is and accepting the gravitational pull of the one you love.
“Lonely Millionaire” is funny to me as Deeper Well feels like a project so in tune with an artist as well as their feelings and community, it’s weird to think of Kacey Musgraves in this context as a rich woman. Perhaps though, this song is the loudest her relatability rings, she doesn’t think of wealth as something to hoard and views it as a means to provide comfort to, yes herself, but also others. This especially when you consider the next track, “Heaven Is,” where she talks about the idea of heaven being a simple life with her partner.
A lot of the music here is very simple but it’s all in service of her voice and the message she wants to convey on each song, so it sort of has to be. Even within the simplicity presented there are songs with a bit more polish and risk like “Jade Green.” While this album maybe isn’t hitting me as hard as some others this year and maybe not even as hard as similar records coming out around it I’m glad I checked it out at all. I would still, for sure, count this among the better records of 2024 when weighing the year out and have gone back to it quite a bit already.
Comments
Post a Comment