Released March 30, 2018
7 / 10
Favorites
Slow Burn; Oh, What A World; Mother; Love Is A Wild Thing; Golden Hour
Least Favorites
Butterflies; High Horse; Rainbow
Kacey Musgraves’ most inspired moments on 'Golden Hour' come from the heart, not the head - with a little less inhibition thanks to good ol’ pal Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. ‘Slow Burn’ is the result of a trip with Lucy and sees Kacey find great comfort in taking her time in love and in life. It marks the inauguration of a new sound, self-described as “cosmic sound”, crafted with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk who co-wrote and co-produced the album by her side. It’s not a total departure from her past work, as the insertion of a line from her unreleased fan favorite ‘Burn One With John Prine’ in the record’s opener suggests: Kacey is holding on to the familiarity that is so characteristic of her lyrical content as she candidly sings “Grandma cried when I pierced my nose”. ‘Slow Burn’ is the first of several awestruck pieces, where Kacey tries to convince us there is marvel around every corner - and often, not always, succeeds. The most magnetic moments are those where her delivery matches the fantastical atmosphere so well that words take on a whole new meaning. “Good when you’re putting your hands all over me” could be hard to pull off in another context without being overly suggestive in tone yet Kacey manages to make the line sound reassuring. The whole opening track really is akin to the sun rising in an understated reverb fantasy. The cinematic (as in Sundance, not Hollywood) arrangement could have also been the setting of some grand phantasmagoric story but Kacey doesn’t indulge in air castles. Instead, she is as forthright as could be throughout the record through her texts, simply trying to put words on emotions even - and actually mostly - when they are hard to decipher.
Atop soothing instrumentals, the sincerity and straightforwardness of the lyrics strike a chord without pretense. Coming at the heel of ‘Slow Burn’s shimmering outro and its humble send-off message - “I know a few things, but I still have a lot to learn” - ‘Lonely Weekend’ meditates on how missing time with a loved one makes her feel. Kacey acknowledges the emptiness and distraction but doesn’t let them dictate her mood: “Even if you got somebody on your mind / It’s alright to be alone sometimes” she sings on the song’s bridge. A good part of the song displays an uncanny ability to go into storytelling mode as a writer - as she faces dilemmas most introverts are no strangers to. The transitions are driven by percussion and the chorus enhanced by airy backing vocals that give ‘Lonely Weekend’ the contemplative amplification it deserves. The short ‘Mother’ delivers an emotional punch from a longing place: it’s hard to deny the potency in the simplicity of “I’m just sitting here / Thinking ‘bout the time that’s slipping / And missing my mother”. “Is there a word for the way that I’m feeling tonight?” Kacey wonders on ‘Happy & Sad’, in an attempt to capture the creeping melancholia that underpins her most blissful moments. The track is particularly candid: we learn that Kacey is constantly on the lookout for rain on her parade. Again: no frills, what we get is what she feels: “And I’m the kind of person who starts getting kinda nervous when I’m having the time of my life” hits the nail right on the head for a generation driven by anxiety. The instrumentals are complete with R&B beat and plenty - plenty - of reverb. It’s the type of genre melding that fuels the current wave of dream pop artists who Clairo has become the poster child for.
The heart being the engine of ‘Golden Hour’, it’s no wonder there are as many love songs on it - especially striking for someone whose past releases scarcely dealt with affairs of the heart. From the yearning of ‘Lonely Weekend’ to the title track love letter, tender moments abound. ‘Butterflies’ basks in honeymoon glow - and was written only three weeks after meeting her then-husband (yes, they filed for divorce some weeks ago). Kacey puts a spin on country with the addition of sporadic vocoded backing vocal support (prefacing ‘Oh, What A World’’s heavy usage of the technique) but the quirks don’t suffice to prevent the track for plateau-ing. It’s also one of the more wordy cuts on ‘Golden Hour’, trading her charm for extended metaphors that don’t really pay off in my opinion (“I was hiding in doubt until you brought me out of my chrysalis”, “Untangled all the strings ‘round my wings that were tied” sound like the product of several writing sessions; at odds with the more spontaneous quality of Kacey’s writing). Vocals are pushed to the front to serenade her lover in pillow talk confessions in ‘Velvet Elvis’. Its fun take on a love song sounds fresh after a string of tracks that run the risk of sounding formulaic in production style.
In truth, Kacey jeopardizes the emotional power of her tracks by stacking them in ‘Golden Hour’ the way she does. Listener fatigue is a trap easily fallen into as surprises come fewer and farther between across the two thirds of the track list. There are no throw-aways on the album - although I could personally do without ‘Butterflies’ - but the music’s effectiveness is dampened by the feeling Kacey re-uses similar tricks to those that caught our attention along the opening leg of the record again and again. One of the earlier tracks, the ode to love itself, ‘Love Is A Wild Thing’ features some stellar vocals and is subtle in its incremental value proposition - very Taylor Swift pre-22 era. Later cuts, like ‘Wonder Woman’ or ‘Golden Hour’, although enjoyable on their own, don’t come into their own in the context of the album. The spacey hazy pop country composition and the instrumental cues of ‘Wonder Woman’ feel like an encore of some of the earlier moments. ‘Golden Hour’s (the track) hybrid style that blends R&B and country instrumentation touches nods to ‘Happy & Sad’ a bit too much for its own good. Not to say that the song sounds prosaic outside of the context of the album, because it does not. There’s just a bit of lost magic in those repeat moments. They are certainly signs of stylistic cohesiveness but my personal experience was one of creeping lassitude as a consequence. Finally, the conclusion to ‘Golden Hour’, ‘Rainbow’ is unwillingly overshadowed by the more poignant ‘Mother’ that shares its sparse piano accompaniment. Its message is uplifting and sweet but leaves me wishing for another dip into Kacey’s soul. This is the thing with us famished listeners, we will suck the soul out of the music and complain about it being lifeless after the deed. When all is said and done, ‘Golden Hour’ is a pretty good album so check it out!
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