It's the same old criticisms that consistently happen to female artists on this forum. They have collaborated with others, therefore they're not as valid a songwriter. There's an aesthetic element to the rollout, therefore the music must be a secondary thought. The album isn't as good as [insert classic rock album from at least 40 years ago], therefore it's not going to be a worthy listen. It's 2021. Kacey doesn't have to be held to the standard of 'Blood On The Tracks' or 'Rumours', or to that of any other artist. She's also allowed to evolve on her own terms and if she wants to explore the melodrama of her divorce on her album then she has every right to. I'd also suggest she is doing it through a very camp lens - note the presence of Orville Peck and the drag queens in that teaser trailer for the film. The suggestion that she's not being 'real' enough about her heartbreak seems to ignore all the cues she is giving about what the artistic intention of the project is. It's giving me Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet' meets 'Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert' and I am here for it. As for the comment that 'all she’s done for the past few years is play to teen crowds and ramp up her social media to look like a fashion magazine full of ads starring her', she's also won four Grammys, including Album Of The Year. Let's not diminish her extraordinary accomplishments just because her social media doesn't look like how you imagine Bob Dylan's would have looked in 1975. x
You may feel more comfortable on her YouTube channel. Kacey fans are "crying" over her two new videos. They're that good!
But almost all of her “good” songs on the early albums were co-writes. Every one of the songs on Pageant Material features three co-writers. “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was a co-write. “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” was a co-write. “There’s a Honky Tonk Angel” was a co-write. That’s sort of how Nashville works, or, at the very least, a long-standing aspect of Nashville songwriting.
I have a lot of time for Kacey Musgraves. Liked Golden Hour enough to pick it up on vinyl when it was still relatively new, and stream her older stuff regularly, even though I'm generally not a country lover at all. Really enjoy the two preview singles here, especially "Star-crossed". The concept album aspect really appeals to me, so colour me intrigued.
I really disagree with a lot of the takes being thrown around in here, so I'm still very excited. I don't think either of the two songs we've heard are more pop than anything on Golden Hour. I mean High Horse came out before that album, for god's sake.
I don't know all this hand wringing about her move away from country. Arguably the best song from Gold Hour, Oh What a World, was pure pop with a few nominal country embellishments (a bit of banjo on the breaks) and some Daft Punk/ELO-style vocoder at the beginning/end.
I'm tempted to give this a shot. Unlike the rest of the world, I am not a big fan of Golden Hour...starts off great and there is some really great material at the beginning, but the album also has a proportion of material that was either very bland, or down right irritating (Velvet Elvis, Wonder Woman, High Horse) and I rarely play this album as a result Although poppier, I quite like the 2 songs so far......my fear is the material we have not heard yet, and that fear is she falls even further from her own individual style that was very apparent on her first two albums into more bland generic current pop music (which of course is very successful, but not my cup of tea). I have no issue in her moving in other directions musically, I just fear we lose the individual charm that was so attractive in the first place.
I understand that co-writing is common for Nashville, especially mainstream Nashville. Her hero John Prine didn’t start doing co-writes but drifted into it. Guy Clark, Townes, etc. all started and wrote THEIR body of work. Guy would co-write many years into it just to keep him writing. My point is that if you are a singer and you’re telling simple stories in simple songs, you shouldn’t need 3 other people to do that. She needs 3 people to help her explain HER feelings about the person she loves or about her very personal failure of a marriage? A true songwriter doesn’t need 2-4 people to help them write a song IMO. I think she will never truly have a sound because “her” sound is determined g the producers and songwriters helping her.
Listen to this and tell me that there's ANYTHING unexpected with respect to what we know so far about the sound of the new album:
I'm not as put off by the songs as others, but I am frustrated by whatever effect they've added to her voice that, in my system at least, gives it this odd digital quality.
Stop! In The Name of Love and all of the other magical early Supremes singles needed three people to write them. Lennon needed McCartney, Jagger needed Richards, Stipe needed Berry, Buck, and Mills. While there have been countless classic songs written by one person with one personal vision, that’s not the only way to write a classic song. I’ll judge Kacey’s new album by whether or not I like the songs, not by how many people it took to write them.
It’s so well written, performed, arranged and sequenced. I hope you like it half as much as I do. Tashian’s DNA is truly shared between both records, not to knock either Kacey or Josh.
Under Tbe Cold Blue Stars is another great one. I think he peaked with Nashville. But still has put out some great records since, like El Turista.
How many songs did Elvis write, or Frank Sinatra? It's how they sang it that connected with people. Nobody cared if they wrote it.
Fundamentally disagree with this.A song isn’t an academic paper or a court deposition it’s a song.You are trying to do things on multiple levels not just explain your feelings.By your theory you shouldn’t use other musicians either because they are determining your sound. BTW I like what I’ve heard of this so far and will now stay away from it until I have the album in a few weeks.
I’m not diminishing info her due to anything with Dylan or any other male singer. How about writing some great songs instead of doing campy everything? She definitely isn’t writing songs for anyone like me and that’s fine. I’m saying that for someone that used to talk and talk about the importance of songwriting and writers like John Prine, I don’t know what drag queens have to do with writing great music, but if it helps she should have one of the best albums ever coming up. Her albums and focus of her career will prove us wrong or right. As a fan of that album I’m just disappointed that she wasn’t what I thought she was when I just had that to go on. I was hoping for a run of great albums where she talked about her life and life in general as she changed and grew, but I didn’t realize that she relied on co-writers so much. For that reason alone, I don’t hold her to the same standard as any songwriter that writes their own songs. It’s not the same thing. She has teams of writers working to make something a hit and appealing to as many people as possible. That’s not the same thing. I’m also not judging the whole album by the 2 underwhelming songs I’ve heard.
I am struggling with this. I understand your perspective in theory, but does that lessen the standard of the songs John Lennon wrote with Paul McCartney? For the bulk of the new album, Kacey has written songs with two other writers - the same two who were the key producers and collaborators on 'Golden Hour'. We're not talking about an artist who has just walked into an established 'hit factory' and leveraged a co-write credit on a deep cut here and there. I too find it remarkable when an artist composes an excellent song entirely on their own, but it feels like a false economy to imply that it's a requirement of being a good artist. x
Well I'm hoping that this new album will continue her growth based on the last 3 albums! Golden Hour was incredible! Do Grammy Awards even mean anything at all. Grammy's really are the flavor of the month awards. Music in general these days is quantity over quality and branding yourself / look!
Playing the cavernous hockey arena in Toronto in January. That's a surprise. Can't see it even being 1/2 full but what do I know?
Whether or not I like this album as much as Golden Hour, which remains to be seen, she’s clearly primed to make the leap to arena artist. Like Taylor Swift before her, she’s transcended the country or alt-country genre, and is poised to make the leap to full on pop stardom. Her last album won the all-genre Grammy for album of the year, she opened for Harry Styles on her last tour, and, as we see from the publicity roll out for this album, she’s getting attention from everyone from the New York Times on down. This is her time. Even if this turns out to be some sort of pop “sell out,” selling out is going work for her.
