Kacey Musgraves: Here’s How Her Next Album Will Differ From Grammy-Winning ‘Golden Hour’
Kacey Musgraves has proved herself to be a force in the music industry. She made an impact with her first album, Same Trailer Different Park, in 2013, which showed how she could bring feminism and modern lyrics to her own country sound. Her biggest album thus far has been 2018’s Golden Hour (she even opened for Harry Styles on his tour), and she has yet to release her follow-up. How will her next album differ from Golden Hour? Read on to find out.
Kacey Musgraves released career-changing ‘Golden Hour’ in 2018
While Musgraves had released three albums prior to Golden Hour, this was the album that truly changed it all for her. She wrote on all 13 album tracks, including the first one she wrote for the album, “Oh What a World.”
Musgraves spoke about her creative process behind writing “Oh What a World” with Marie Claire.
“It was based on this idea that while I was sitting on the tour bus, somewhere plants were popping out of the ground and northern lights were changing colors up in the sky,” Musgraves said. “We don’t know why we’re here, how we got here. And it’s beautiful because it’s one thing we all have in common.”
The country singer also discussed her internal struggle regarding striving for perfection.
“It can become an addiction thinking that something isn’t good enough unless you’ve f*cked with it a little bit,” she continued. “Learning to differentiate between when something is necessary or not is a goal of mine. Not every pebble has to be a boulder.”
But for Musgraves, Golden Hour proved “good enough” for critics and her audience for sure.
She won a slew of awards for the album ‘Golden Hour’
Musgraves found great success with Golden Hour. She won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2019. The country singer took home the prize for every nomination she received — Best Country Solo Performance (“Butterflies”), Best Country Song (“Space Cowboy”), and Best Country Album (Golden Hour).
The singer’s reaction when Alicia Keys named her the winner for Album of the Year turned into a viral internet meme. Musgraves was clearly shocked that she won.
“Oh my god,” she started her speech. “I don’t even know what to say. It was unbelievable to even be in a category with such gigantic albums. Really brilliant works of art. It’s really crazy, but I’m very thankful.”
She continued: “I would have nothing without songs, to me it’s all about the songs.”
But where does her career go after that monumental achievement?
How will Kacey Musgraves’ next album differ from ‘Golden Hour’?
Musgraves’ revealed that her next album will be coming out “this year” in her cover story for Rolling Stone. She opened up about the anxiety she experienced in 2020 due to not touring throughout the year.
“I’m someone who deals with anxiety by making sure I stay busy and moving,” Musgraves told Rolling Stone. “And I haven’t had that luxury this year. So I’ve been forced to sit with my sadness, sit with my anxiety, sit with my anger, sit with all the things that you normally can outrun.”
She added: “I think that’s kind of a beautiful thing.”
But, the singer has taken this time to get to work on her next album.
Musgraves felt inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach and Greek tragedies in a recent session while creatively brainstorming for her upcoming body of work.
“This last chapter of my life and this whole last year and chapter for our country — at its most simple form, it’s a tragedy,” Musgraves said. The artist split from her husband Ruston Kelly in 2020.
She then discussed why portraying a tragedy through art is meaningful.
“I started looking into why portraying a tragedy is actually therapeutic and why it is a form of art that has lasted for centuries,” Musgraves said. “It’s because you set the scene, the audience rises to the climax of the problem with you, and then there’s resolve. There’s a feeling of resolution at the end. I was inspired by that.”
Musgraves so far has written 39 songs that could be part of this three-part tragedy. As for the sound? She described Bill Withers, the Eagles, and “a dance vibe” as references that came to mind.
Musgraves also talked about one of her new songs, “Star-Crossed.”
“Anthemic? Kind of,” she started. “Well, OK. ‘Star-Crossed’ could be the easiest, laziest thing: It could be a ballad. But what if it was an uptempo, sad dance song? What would that be like? Or what if it was kind of that Nineties, midtempo laid-back…”
She also added that it could be a “bossa nova, waltz-type vibe.”
We’ll be eagerly waiting for more news regarding Musgraves’ next album.
