Review Summary: All that I know is you caught me at the right time.
When fusing the genres of pop and country music, there are now two handbooks that these prospective genre-mixing artists should consult henceforth. The first is the "What Not to Do When Making a Country-Pop Album" Handbook, also known as Keith Urban's 2016 album
Ripcord.
Ripcord doesn't mix country and pop together so much as it creates a proverbial toss-salad of the two, mixing elements of both genres (good or bad) together in a haphazard way and setting it over B-rate cliched country songwriting such as "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16". Urban might be one of the more effective artists out there when it comes to executing so-called "corporate" country, but it's also a fairly low bar to clear, and
Ripcord doesn't even do that at the end of the day.
The second of those two handbooks, however, is the "What to Absolutely Do 100% of the Time Without Fail When Making a Country-Pop Album" Handbook...also known as Kacey Musgraves's third studio effort
Golden Hour. Arguably country music's most acclaimed rising starlet, Musgraves gained a reputation for being a unique creative force in the machine that is Nashville. Even if her work up through 2015's
Pageant Material isn't groundbreaking by any means, it demonstrates her ability to paint pictures and tell stories that feel unusually authentic by the standards of contemporary country music. She is nothing if not honest, and while her natural singing voice is not at the technical caliber of a Carrie Underwood, the sincerity that it conveys contains such a mixture of innocence and intelligence to it that it packs an emotional punch comparable to even Underwoods' most dramatic moments.
Golden Hour is a further step down the career path that Musgraves herself has labelled "cosmic country", which on a superficial level could be interpreted as being the same thing as country-pop, but in reality is actually Kacey's way of distancing herself from the misfires that are the Keith Urbans of the world. To her, this change in mindset when it comes to production is not a stylistic detour, but an enhancement of aesthetic, giving her new textures and tonal colors to play with while still retaining the elements most essential to her music. The result is an album that is undeniably lush, but unmistakably Kacey Musgraves in sound. For most of the songs, the synth pads and electronic drums are merely an afterthought, sometimes interplaying or moving in unison with the guitars to add some sonic variance to the proceedings, but mostly hanging out in the background to give the songs warm ambience.
Of course, this is not to say Kacey doesn't have fun experimenting with some of these new sounds. "Oh, What a World" begins with a solo vocoder introduction, easily the most jarring moment on the entire album and the only time where I feel disrupted from the general sense of calm that pervades essentially every other second on here. Granted, Musgraves is no Bon Iver, but as the song progresses you begin to see why she chose this song in particular to have the most sonic experimentation. The lyrics concern being aware of your surroundings and the wonders of the world around you, and the production plays with this imagery by way of some nicely-distributed reverb and layered instrumentation. "High Horse" is the other noticeably poppier number, a full-on attempt at writing a "club banger", if you will. A decision like this could have resulted in Musgraves falling flat on her face, but once again she succeeds by making the track's vibe very mellow, with her tight three-part harmonies and the subtly pulsating bass-line driving the song in as non-abrasive a way as you can imagine.
The songwriting on
Golden Hour isn't necessarily a stark improvement over that on
Pageant Material, but it does present Kacey in a different light than before. Now married and settled down, her contentment with her lot in life resonates in the subject matter of these tracks, focusing more on introspection and love-related topics than her slightly sharp-tongued commentary of albums past. On a song like "Wonder Woman", for example, Musgraves confidently tells love interest du jour that she does not need him to be her superhero, but in the same breath of air, she admits her fear that he sees her as one and that she can't live up to his expectations of her. Perhaps the most revealing moments of Kacey's evolution as a songwriter are when she cuts open a vein, however. "Slow Burn" opens the album with the line
"born in a hurry, always late, haven't been early since '88", a reference to her current, more reserved lifestyle being her perennially making up for having been born prematurely. The emotional climax of the record is the song "Mother", a voice-and-piano number that only needs 78 seconds of matter-of-fact lyricism and innocent-sounding vocals to reduce anyone with a mother to tears.
What Kacey Musgraves does on
Golden Hour goes beyond simple artistic evolution. Musgraves has found a way to do what most detractors of country music figured would be nigh impossible: interweaving country and pop music without any of the most abrasive qualities of either genre being present. As a singularity in either of the two genres, it would be strong enough fare, but not necessarily a definitive work or anything of that sort. But as a whole,
Golden Hour is far more than the sum of its parts. It is, in fact, the birthing of a star. So if you are the type who enjoys seeing burgeoning stars flourish before your eyes, give this album a listen. Before you do so, however, do me a favor and call your mother. Tell her you love her before it's too late.
