Kacey Musgraves – ‘Deeper Well’ review: navigating new beginnings leads to mixed results

15 March, 2024

Kacey Musgraves

‘Deeper Well’ vibrates with the excitement of a fresh start. The sixth LP from country crossover star Kacey Musgraves lives in a state of suspended animation, reeling out self-care mantras without worrying if they will seem embarrassing years later. Relationships and stoner jokes have preoccupied the 35-year-old’s work since the beginning – “I ain’t pageant material / I’m always higher than my hair”, she sang in 2015 – but here, she posits a way out from both: moving on and never looking back.

Musgraves’ assertiveness feels like a real glimmer of light amid the sparse compositions that run through this thoughtful, imperfect, down-to-earth record. On the title track, she sings of preserving her energy by cutting out time-wasting people and putting her gravity bong back on the shelf, vowing to quit lighting up. The relief in her voice sounds as gleeful as running a kite down a hill. For listeners, it felt genuine enough to inspire a lengthy Reddit discussion titled: “Is Mama Musgraves’ new track making you reconsider your relationship with weed?”

While the songwriting on ‘Deeper Well’ wades into the personal, the music feels soft and occasionally pallid. Emotional beats rise and fall to the tune of sweeping, barely-there synths (‘Cardinal’) and clusters of background harmonies (‘Jade Green’). The kitschy production flourishes that defined her earliest work, or the fluorescent charm that came later on (the Grammy-winning ‘Golden Hour’ and its follow-up, 2021’s ‘Star-Crossed’), are largely absent, save for ‘Anime Eyes’ and its funky strut.

Conversely, this slower pace gives Musgraves the space she needs to soar as a vocalist, but it also throws a few lyrical missteps into focus. “The money and the diamonds / And the things that shine / Can’t buy you true happiness,” she sings on ‘Lonely Millionaire’; ‘Dinner With Friends’ lavishes too much time on a seemingly anonymous crush. Vague allusions aside, much of the record feels lovely and sad at the same time: built around an honest instinct, these songs are a direct response to new feelings.

‘Heart Of The Woods’ opens with a ringing acoustic guitar out of Father John Misty’s ‘Nancy From Now On’, and much like another standout ‘Nothing To Be Scared Of’, it’s here where Musgraves’ self-reflection sparkles. The latter takes stock of her past few years: catapulting to unrelenting levels of fame in the US country world, quitting weed, zipping around the globe in the midst of a divorce. It’s compelling and generous and invites a burst of empathy.