Kacey Musgraves - Star Crossed (September 10, 2021) Album • Page 19

What doesn’t kill me is the jam, surprised y’all aren’t really mentioning that one

 

…….

 

Someone in Hoboken, NJ is BLASTING "Simple Times" down our main street hahaha

 

Didn’t really plan to buy this on vinyl, but I was so stoned at Walmart and couldn’t resist. So glad I did, the red variant is beautiful.

 

Only by comparison with the rest of her career is this a little disappointing. By any other metric, it's a very good record.

Each of her albums has 2-3 songs I consider among the best I've ever heard. This has zero.

Part of the problem for me is she always had a little tendency for obvious statements or square rhymes, but she had so much genuine insight, razor-sharp wit, or deeply and specifically-observed detail that you never make much note of it, but on this one, those qualities are less observable so you notice the building blocks a little more.

Also, I don't begrudge her going pop, but she doesn't do it in very sonically interesting ways to me. Her last two records were two of the best SOUNDING records I've ever heard. Both from a production and an engineering standpoint. On this one the constantly distancing vocal production keeps away some of the intimacy that's been her calling card and the arrangements go beyond "uncluttered" to just "simple" more often than I'd like.

It's absolutely going to grow on me. It will make my year end list. She's a staggering talent. But in comparison to 3 of the best albums I've ever heard, it's a little bit of a backslide.

 

This is a HUGE step in another direction. Instrumentation, arrangement, lyrical style.

 

The vocal production is definitely something that’s been a little off putting for me. I love her voice so much, and think it’s so good at conveying this subtle undercurrent of (depending on the song) either winking sarcasm or deep pain. The way her voice is produced on this record kind of takes away some of that human vulnerability (which makes it that much more striking when it comes through, on something like “Hookup Scene”).

Sounds like we are on the same page with this one.

 

If This Was a Movie is the clear highlight for me imo, really cool chord progression/dreamy vibe

 

I enjoy this overall and wouldn’t say it’s boring but it’s definitely a little more...refined sonically than I would like to hear from what is billed as a “divorce album.” subject matter and lyric wise it lives up to that, sonically it does not. it’s not as dramatic as I would like or show enough teeth in that regard for me

 

This is definitely disappointing for me. It’s not bad by any means. Just not exactly what I wanted. As pointed out above, the building blocks or seams show a little bit more on this record. It feels a little clunkier.

 

Yeah it sort of feels like the little style-points production touches that made Golden Hour an all-time great when applied to full-bodied arrangements, intimate vocals, swaths of real instruments, etc. are what stayed...but by themselves they're just distancing.

 

That hair hahahaha

 

That’s drag.

 

"If This Was a Movie" is the one that strikes me most as "taking the Golden Hour sound one step too far." I've seen people criticize this album on Twitter for feeling fussed over and polished to the point of being lifeless, and while I don't agree, I can kind of hear it on that song. The lyrical concept is great, but I think there's probably a better song there than what's on the record.

 

Didn't know this was on tonight

 

Interesting choice of song to perform on such a big stage

 

As someone who hasn’t really listened to her before now, this is an enjoyable listen.

 

I've listened to this album a few times now and watched the movie, and honestly I think what is missing the most for me is her personality and the bits that make her music unique. The songs are pretty solid, the melodies are great, the hooks are there, production is great.... but I really am missing the lyrics here, they are very plain jane and Kacey is historically SO special and unique.

When her first album came out, it stood out to me because of the stories she was telling, her unique perspective on topics. She was very creative lyrically, a ton of wordplay, clever turns of phrase, and a great bit of humor. The second album continued this trend and while I initially felt it was missing a bit in Golden Hour, that album definitely grew on me and lyrically she very much keeps her personality.

For some reason though... this album feels very vanilla lyrically, which is even more of a bummer to me because I really was excited to hear her unique perspective on divorce. Like, divorce in the structure of her life and upbringing. What's divorce look like in Golden, is it common? Are people stuck in bad marriages because it's frowned on in her small town? I honestly don't know, but I think she could have done something there, there was a lot of ground to cover. Using her unique life experiences to tell her story is what I was hoping for, but mostly it kinda sounds like "generic divorce songs"

I honestly can't think of many lines or specific lyrics that stand out to me here, there's nothing on this whole album that is as clever as the very first line on Golden Hour, and that;s not even my favorite moment from that album. Unfortunately I feel like a lot of these songs could have been presented to me by other artists and I wouldn't have second guessed that Kacey wrote them. I couldn't say the same thing about her first three albums, those songs have very specific Kacey-ness to them.

Anyway, all this to say that I still do like the album, but what's preventing me from LOVING it is that special sauce that I am used to her bringing to music, I am not really feeling it more than a couple times

 

making my way through this rn. Great nighttime album so far which is opposite of Golden Hour. Will have to listen a few more times to really see where it stands.

 

yeah i’m with steve

 

Played Golden Hour the other day and there’s a certain magic there I can’t find on this one yet.

 

There are definitely a lot of moments here where I'm like, "Oh, there she is." "Camera Roll," for example, is so patently Kacey. But those moments are fewer and further between than they were on past albums. I don't necessarily need every line to be something super clever and unique; Golden Hour did a really good job of balancing her trademark wit with a lot of very earnest writing. But I could use a little bit more of what made her writing so special to begin with.

I also think a factor there might be the cowriters. I think working with country people like Natalie Hemby, Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally, Luke Laird, Hillary Lindsay, etc. in the past helped her really keep the focus on unique, interesting songwriting, and none of those people are on this album.

 

Listening to Pageant Material right now for the first time in awhile and remembering how many fucking perfect songs there are on this album.