Even if you only dabble in Country and Americana, you’ve probably heard of Kacey. Because she wrote one of the best songs of all time, follow your arrow
But if you haven’t heard of her, now is the time to get familiar. Her past albums might have had more edge, but no record (Kacey’s or otherwise) has more love in it. Golden Hour is a change for Musgraves, eschewing some of the grit of the past for songs like Lonely Weekend that are slick, smooth, and go down easy–but unlike most “sweet” pop songs, the lyrics are still smart and the voice has enough texture that you know this is really her. This isn’t a machine. Musgraves can make her own music, thank you very much.
Butterflies. It’s such a simple song. Falling in love, “now I remember what it feels like to fly/you give me butterflies.” A simple lyric. “You pulled me out of my chrysalis, and I came out new, because of you…” Simple, beautiful, and really it takes a certain kind of singer to pull it off.
She even manages a perfect, short tribute to her mother!
The album doesn’t veer away from its core of relatively short, straightforward love songs, but there’s enough variety in the tempo changes and Mugraves’ excellent voice that it never feels old, overly slick, or dull. This is one of the best pop albums of the year, for sure.
