Review Summary: A cleansing rain
For Kacey Musgraves, it was always going to be difficult to escape the shadow of her past. From the unprecedented fame that came with 2018’s career-defining
Golden Hour to her divorce with fellow country star Ruston Kelly, it’s easy to see how her future music would be pigeonholed into a dreaded “divorce album” or contrasted against
Golden Hour, inevitably to its own detriment. Unlike its overly ambitious and uneven predecessor
Star-Crossed,
Deeper Well manages to sidestep most of these pitfalls entirely. It’s a piece that retreats inward to the simplest pleasures in life, knowing that when it all eventually comes to an end, they’re actually the biggest things. It’s an album not only about getting older, but also about embracing your flaws and working hard to align your actions with a vision of how you want to be remembered.
Deeper Well is just what the title implies; Kacey is done with the frivolousness of youth and ready to pursue a greater purpose in life.
So I'm sayin' goodbye to the people
That I feel are real good at wastin' my time
No regrets, baby, I just think that maybe
You go your way and I'll go mine
It's been a real good time
…I found a deeper well
Musgraves’ soul searching is appropriately bare. Pastoral guitars are carefully plucked as her voice soars over stargazing melodies, all of which are brimming with simple but profound realizations. On the seminal title track, she bids adieu to anything she deems unworthy of her time moving forward while framing it all as a necessary part of life’s progression: “It's natural when things lose their shine / So other things can glow.” These sort of verses aren’t expressly poetic, but they’re better for it because they flow so effortlessly with the songwriting’s inherent simplicity. It’s a lush, verdant album full of nature and all things green, a
spring like atmosphere that directly parallels Kacey’s emotional resurrection in the aftermath of some very dark times. It’s a cleansing rain.
Deeper Well’s highlights flourish with the best moments of her entire career. The title track is the obvious prime cut here, but there are numerous other gems to unearth. ‘The Architect’ is brilliant musically and lyrically, with Kacey calling the entire universe into question while pleading for answers to not just only world’s grandest marvels, but also the most basic: “Even something as small as an apple / It's simple and somehow complex / Sweet and divine, the perfect design / Can I speak to the architect?” As she muses over the mystique of human existence, pristine acoustic chords seemingly echo her inquiries with the clarity of truth. If it wasn’t intentional, then it was an accident no less beautiful than the miracles of coincidence she so fervently sings about.
Yet, most of
Deeper Well is rooted in the ordinary occurrences of daily life: ‘Too Good to be True’ sways with the comforting warmth of a dreary Monday spent indoors with the one you love (“Made some breakfast, made some love / If this is what dreams are made of, please don't wake me”), ‘Moving Out’ reminisces about the memories she’s made in an old home (“Four walls and so much space / Was way more than just a place / Wasn't it, babe?”), and ‘Cardinal’ sees Kacey plunge deep into her own thoughts one morning as she sees a cardinal land on a branch and imagines it’s one of her friends who passed away unexpectedly. Again, it all feels very routine – but it’s no less beautiful, and that’s kind of the point. When we look back at our lives one day to see the whole thing for what it was, it won’t be a fixed image. It’s pointillism, and the finished product will be comprised of all the tiny moments that we brushed off as mundane.
If the record stumbles, it’s because it’s not diverse enough to justify its fourteen tracks. While all of these songs retain the charm and elegance of
Deeper Well’s overarching atmosphere, too many of them get lost in the general haze. There’s a fine line between the album’s standouts and the ones that fade into the background, which speaks to Musgraves’ consistency, but there’s little to be gained from ‘Jade Green’’s idle philosophizing about charging one’s soul by bathing in the moonlight – or ‘Heart of the Woods’’ nondescript immersion in nature – when you have so many songs here that do it better and with more purpose. Although
Deeper Well is by no means bloated (it’s a fairly standard forty-two minutes), it easily could have benefited from some trimming – or if not, then a few additional climaxes in the same vein as what we witness towards the conclusion of ‘Anime Eyes’. Musgraves just about perfectly executes
Deeper Well’s aura, but at times it’s just a little bit too much of the same thing.
On the surface,
Deeper Well may seem like a rainy day album that is too stripped-down and ephemeral to make a lasting impact. While it certainly has a few weaker tracks, the core of the record is truly breathtaking to behold. It’s a moment of self-discovery and commitment to growth that eschews the lavish tendencies of
Star-Crossed for something more personal, honest, and vulnerable. Musgraves’ venture into folk is befitting of this moment’s gravity; it’s not her usual brand of gazey country-pop because she’s a woman whose life is in transformation. Her desire to ditch self-indulgent habits and home in on what truly matters is infectious, and
Deeper Well serves as a reminder to do exactly that. Everyone’s focus in life will end up being slightly different, but as we grow older, we do tend to find our
deeper well. It sounds like Kacey has found hers.
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