Day 283: Kacey Musgraves – star-crossed
I’m on a mission to go through the full discographies of some of my favourite bands or artists that I’ve discovered during this project, and Kacey Musgraves is definitely one of them. That’s surprising to me because I never saw myself as a country gal, and getting into country music in 2026 somehow seems decidedly unchic, but the heart wants what it wants.
Album cover courtesy of Interscope Records
star-crossed was released in 2021 after she had released the hit album Golden Hour, for which she won Album of the Year at the 61st Grammy’s. Whereas Golden Hour found Kacey Musgraves writing about basking in the joy of being in love and engaged, star-crossed is a three-part journey through her heartbreak from the subsequent divorce. She was inspired by the themes and three-act structure of greek tragedies, so she wanted to build something similar from the 39 songs she’d written in the aftermath:
“I started looking into why portraying a tragedy is actually therapeutic and why it is a form of art that has lasted for centuries. It’s because you set the scene, the audience rises to the climax of the problem with you, and then there’s resolve. There’s a feeling of resolution at the end. I was inspired by that.”
I was looking forward to this one a lot. Golden Hour was a rare 10 for me, and star-crossed was co-written and co-produced with musicians Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, who also worked on Golden Hour. It’s maybe a bit less out there and simpler than its predecessor, but considering that she says she wrote the album partially during the pandemic when she was emotionally processing her divorce, the comparative lack of variety and colour makes sense.
That being said, what I love most about Kacey Musgraves is her writing, and it’s definitely weaker for me than the rest of her albums have been. Some of the songs like “cherry blossom” and “simple times” aren’t her sharpest lyrically, but it also feels like an album where she’s working through something and putting out more raw emotion rather than putting out her artistically most elaborate work. I think she leaves the best for last with the resolution part of the album with “there is a light” and “gracias a la vida”. It’s a very amicable divorce album, maybe she didn’t want it to be angry, gossipy or maudlin, so it was harder to translate the emotional depth into the earlier parts.
It’s a decent album, I did enjoy listening to it and if I am to ever become a divorcee, I might give it another spin with fresh ears. For now, though, it’s a 7.5/10.