Much has been done of Musgraves ’experimentation alongside country music. But praise for its omnivorousness has often been read as exasperation by the assumed limits of the genre it has perceived as distance. Sometimes those who agitate for change from outside the genre are as conservative as those who agonize the boundaries from within.
This was always a fake of the head. Musgraves appeared as a traditionalist, and even when orthodoxy is loved, he at least invests slightly in heritage: on this album, “Keep Lookin’ Up ”is a charming country song. That Musgraves came to Nashville during one of his most restrictive times is not his fault; his closest analogue is Sturgill Simpson, who also retired to mild psychedelia in reaction to what everyone close to his ear was doing.
“Star-Crossed” isn’t as elaborate, both in terms of production as “Golden Hour,” which might seem overly annoying. (He worked here with the same team, writers and producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk.) In some places, it’s very windy, and has some answers in the small light of the 1970s and 1980s: the twilight of John Hughes ’film Easier Said nods at “Drive” through the Cars, and the melancholy “Angel,” with a literal rainstorm coming halfway through, accidentally feels indebted to Jim’s “Time in a Bottle.” Cross.
These relatively minor gestures of production speak loudly because Musgraves comes from a world where he is perceived as more radical than they really are. (That said, this album is really more at home along with, say, Phoebe Bridgers or Japanese Breakfast.) But they also resonate so loudly because Musgraves allows them to say things their voice doesn’t do.
He never seems to sing to convince you: his voice, of modest scale, but precisely deadly, connotes the power of discomfort and exhaustion. It is an embodied regret.
Sometimes, and often on this album, Musgraves’ resignation seems to extend to singing. When it boils, it is quiet. When she’s calm, she gets bored. Sometimes, at the end of a relationship, you’ve just said everything you need to say. To give more would be to give too much.
Kacey Musgraves
“Star”
(Interscope / UMG Nashville)