Kacey Musgraves was born in Golden, Texas. She didn’t release her debut album until she was almost 25. Before that, she performed as Hannah Montana at children’s birthday parties and appeared on the talent show Nashville Star.
In 2012 she signed with Mercury Nashville. Songs like ‘Merry Go ‘Round’ and ‘Follow Your Arrow’ established Musgraves as a lyrically provocative and musically conservative country artist. Her gentle voice sounds lovely with harmony vocals, and she’s great at coining memorable phrases.
She reinvented herself with Golden Hour, an acoustic folk sound with a psychedelic tinge. Musgraves has recently released her fifth album of original songs, 2024’s Deeper Well. It’s a good time to look back at her enjoyable catalogue.
Kacey Musgraves’s Albums Ranked
#5 Pageant Material
2015
Musgrave’s second album feels like a retread of her debut with less memorable songs. It was recorded at the venerated RCA Studio A in Nashville, with the musicians playing live. The strings on the opener ‘High Time’ make it feel surprisingly traditional.
The faster songs aren’t always inspiring, even if Musgraves’ ability to coin a cheesy phrase remains unparalleled – “mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy”. But her slower songs are often gorgeous, like ‘Late to the Party’.
#4 Deeper Well
2024
Musgrave’s fifth album reflects on the changes and priorities in her life after the age of 27. It’s set out at the start of the title track – “My Saturn has returned/When I turned twenty-seven”.
After the synthetic-sounding Star-Crossed, Deeper Well returns to the acoustic, laid-back sound of Golden Hour, without that album’s psychedelic tinge. It’s too polite at times, with the tastefully restrained drum programming. The wildest moment is the spoken outro of ‘Anime Eyes’, breaking out of the album’s mellow boundaries. Musgraves sounds lovely on mellow acoustic tunes like ‘Sway’ and ‘The Architect’.
#3 Star-Crossed
2021
2017’s Golden Hour was Musgrave’s joyous celebration of love. 2021’s Star-Crossed chronicles her divorce. The title is derived from Shakespeare, and the album is divided into three acts – marriage, divorce, and post-divorce emotional healing.
Occasionally Star-Crossed feels too synthetic – too far from her Musgrave’s country roots, without enough other musical personality to replace it. But Musgrave’s songwriting gift is still intact. She processes mixed feelings about her marriage on songs like ‘Breadwinner’ and ‘Good Wife’. Her post-breakup feelings are also confused – the trepidation of ‘Hookup Scene’ and the brighter outlook of ‘There Is A Light’ indicate a nuanced set of feelings.
#2 Same Trailer, Different Park
2013
Musgraves burst on the scene with a provocatively titled debut album. Her lyrics were provocative for country music. Her debut single ‘Merry Go Round’ features the line “We get bored, so we get married/Just like dust, we settle in this town.” On the followup single ‘Follow Your Arrow’ she sings “Kiss lots of boys/Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s something you’re into”.
Despite the provocative lyrics, Musgrave’s music is pretty and acoustic. Aided by expert Nashville songwriters like Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, Musgraves delivers lovely tunes like ‘Dandelion’ and ‘Back on the Map’. Same Trailer, Different Park was a great start to Musgrave’s career.
#1 Golden Hour
2018
On her third album, Musgraves started working with The Silver Seas’ Daniel Tashian. Tashian has writing credits on about half of these tracks and co-produces the record. Musgraves used LSD to help her write ‘Slow Burn’ and ‘Mother’. But the whole record has a blissful, psychedelic feel. Musgraves married in 2017, and the record often focuses on love, with songs like ‘Oh, What A World’ and ‘Butterflies’. Being in love only made Musgraves lean further into kitsch, with ‘Velvet Elvis’.
The Grammy Album of the Year award has had its share of misses, but Golden Hour was a deserved winner.
Did I underrate your favourite Kacey Musgraves album?
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I think I’m in agreement with this list. I wasn’t overly impressed with the new one, but your Top 3 are all killer albums. Kacey is an interesting artist and I hope she stays that way.
Cool – I didn’t know you were a fan. I think she gets away with mellow, samey arrangements because she’s interesting and slightly offbeat.
Yeah, my daughter was listening to her once and I enjoyed it so I’ve listened to all her album now I believe.
Not only have I heard the name Kacey Musgraves many times, but I’ve also managed to mention her on various occasions on my blog without actually covering one of her songs. I think Musgraves sounds lovely on those tracks in your playlist. Obviously, I also missed her new album.
The new album’s only a couple of weeks old, so I guess you could sneak it in sometime if you have a gap?
The more I hear her the more I like. I know a lot of these songs but albums I have no clue on. Her voice…she could have made it in the 60s and 70s in country music. She has a timeless sound to her. I really like her.
She chases more contemporary sounds on Star-Crossed, but a lot of the time she sounds like a 1950s country singer or a 1970s singer-songwriter.
That is what drew her to me…her sound and the songs fit perfectly.