Music Monday: Kacey Musgraves's "Deeper Well"
Musgraves's fifth album is a lush, folksy tale of introspection
Country, folk, and pop fans alike have all found much to love in Kacey Musgraves’s discography since her debut album Same Trailer, Different Park in 2013. While she started as a budding country-music darling, lyrics about rolling up joints and kissing boys and girls on her early single “Follow Your Arrow” earned her immediate blacklisting from country radio and she’s found a home and critical acclaim bouncing between and across genres. Now with the release of her fifth album, last week’s Deeper Well, we see Musgraves returning firmly in her Texas and folk roots.
Personally - I love myself some Kacey Musgraves. Same Trailer, Different Park came right at the tail-end of my younger country music phase, and showed what the genre could be outside of the confines of the early 2010’s “bro country” of Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan. Her shimmering (and Grammy-winning) Golden Hour in 2018 remains one of my absolute favorite albums, the perfect soundtrack for a wistful, sunny afternoon.
The first single we heard off Deeper Well was the title track, and it hits the same tones as the album overall. There’s a more stripped-back sound than 2021’s Star-Crossed, heady and earthy references like her Saturn returning, and sonically it’s just her echoed voice over acoustic guitar and minimalist production. She sounds lovely over this open, folk-heavy arrangement which dominates most of the album. More of a 2024 take on Simon and Garfunkel than modern country, this soundscape works gorgeously for her direct and honest songwriting. That said - it can get a bit similar. If you are looking for an album that runs beautifully together, this is a boon. If you are looking for more diversity of sound, this might be a challenge.
On the writing side, Kacey Musgraves has always been a fantastic observational songwriter. Same Trailer, Different Park sets her focus on life in a small town with vignettes like “Merry Go Round” and “Dandelion”. Golden Hour sees her writing about love in all its forms, motherly love (“Mother”), love for living (“Oh What A World”), love for a partner (“Butterflies”).
On Deeper Well, she turns that observational lens on herself. She’s in love again, but instead of singing about her partner she’s reflecting on how she’s changed in love (“Too Good to be True”, “Moving Out”). She’s wide-eyed marveling at the world, but she’s looking at her own sense of spirituality (“Heart of the Woods”, “The Architect”).
Some of Musgraves’s clunkier lyricism is on display here. “Anime Eyes” has a pretty melody comparing a peaceful romance to that from a calming anime - but the refrain of “anime eyes” doesn’t fit sonically with relaxed tone, and the lines “baby, I’m a love tsunami, washing over both our bodies // Sailor Moon’s got nothing on me” would better fit a fast-paced Megan Thee Stallion track than a folksy crooner. “Jade Green” sounds absolutely lush and gorgeous, but the central metaphor around the comfort from a jade bracelet gifted by her lover just doesn’t land for me.
To me the jewel of the album is “Giver / Taker”. It’s gorgeous and acutely self-aware. Musgraves’s vocal performance is as relaxed and as evocative as it has ever been as she brings out the layered pain, love, and yearning in the chorus:
“I would give you everything that you wanted //
But I would never ask for any of it back //
And if I could take only as much as I needed //
I would take everything you have.”
If you know and love Kacey Musgraves, this new album is absolutely worth your time. She has a beautiful way of songwriting and making music, and Deeper Well is no different. If Kacey Musgraves is new to you, I’d recommend also checking out Golden Hour, or Same Trailer, Different Park if country and folk are more your genres.
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