Day 246: Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well
I’m still on the Musgraves today, except this time I was sharing my mental health coping strategy by putting on Kacey Musgraves to soothe someone else who was aboard the struggle bus. And it worked! I’ve cracked the code, surely serious mental health issues still need professional treatment but for your usual everyday troubles, slap a bit of Kacey Musgraves on and call it a day.
Album cover courtesy of MCA Nashville
Deeper Well was released in 2024 as her sixth studio album, and it earned her a Grammy for Best Country Song with “The Architect”. It’s mostly an album of pared back country-twanged folk-pop singer-songwriter stuff with her usual topics of interpersonal relationships, her life and the metaphysical.
I had a little look at the reviews and I was surprised by how much the critics disliked it. Pitchfork described the lyrical content as “pottering around your local wellness shop picking up crystals and sniffing the hand-rolled palo santo incense”, which was not intended as a compliment but that’s a good day to me, so of course I like the album. The chat about crystals and healing and your Saturn return are pretty much designed for people like me, of similar age and disposition to her. Something like “Deeper Well” is hard for me to listen to without getting emotional, all the while some critics said it was hollow waffle. Different strokes!
That being said, I do like it less than my previously reviewed Middle of Nowhere or Golden Hour. The clean minimalism of the album is dreamy and enjoyable, but I do find it less interesting than her more intricate work. I think the softness of it goes with the general theme of healing and enjoying life, but stylistically it’s not her at my most favourite. It’s still a very good album, but not her best.
It’s so nice to have an artist who you’re excited about, all my usual favourites are unfortunately dead or geriatrics. I now have someone I’m hyped about whose artistic peak could very likely still be ahead of her. Good stuff. It might not be to some people’s tastes, but Deeper Well is an 8.5/10 to me.