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May 09, 2018 Web Exclusive By Michael Watkins

Owing much to the stagnant nature of modern country music, Kacey Musgraves—along with acts like Chris Stapleton and…well, that’s pretty much it—has appeared to be somewhat a beacon of hope that this genre isn’t all outdated musings of heady optimism, pick-up trucks, and religious overtones. There was a beautiful mix of grounded, authenticity-driven lyrics that can be found on her first two efforts that set Golden Hour up to be the album that hammers home the fact, once and for all, that Musgraves is a cut above of her counterparts. Unfortunately, it falls considerably short of proving anything of the sort.

Whilst tracks like “Butterflies” and “High Horse” offer the best of what Musgraves can do in terms of balancing her obvious charm against a certain steely underbelly that has served her so well so far in her career, all too often, Golden Hour delivers a lackluster vibe and a feeling that Musgraves has become too infatuated with the pop side of her artistry and is beginning to forget about the things that made her so interesting and worth investing in in the first place.

It’s a shame that Golden Hour has seen Musgraves fall foul of the notoriously difficult “third album problem” because she always appeared to be better than that. It would be extreme to say that this failure should see the first two records, and their merits, be reconsidered but, whereas going into this record, the excitement surrounding what she would do next was well-founded, this release will mean that next time around, the same furor will be hard to justify. (www.kaceymusgraves.com)

Author rating: 6/10