Kacey Musgraves Wears Her Soul on her Sleeve in

‘Golden Hour’
Her fourth studio album marries pop and country in 13 tracks about emotional honesty,
heartbreak and the inevitable grasp of love

After sweeping all her nominations at the 2019 Grammy Awards, including the highly
esteemed Album of the Year award, Kacey Musgraves was catapulted into stardom
beyond any comprehension. Swirled with emotion, truth and melancholy, Musgraves’
fourth studio album Golden Hour is an open letter to the everyday tribulations of love
and relationships, a tame rollercoaster ride through love, heartbreak and second
chances. With tracks like “Space Cowboy” and “Butterflies,” Musgraves won over music
lovers everywhere, scoring her awards for Best Country Solo performance and Best
Country Song, respectively.
At first listen, Golden Hour sounds like many other contemporary country-pop albums;
its catchy beats remind you of pop music, and the classic twangy crooning recalls a
country album. It’s not until you dive deep and sit with the music and lyrics that you
realize this album deserved every award it received. And then some.
Musgraves has mastered the art of songwriting; she knows how to string words together
in the perfect combination that will have you thinking about a verse for days. This could
stem from the fact that Musgraves co-wrote country hits in the past: she has credits on
Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart” and Martina McBride’s “When You Love a
Sinner.” Musgraves’ songwriting skills give her a leg up in comparison to other
contemporary artists.
Among many hits on Golden Hour sits melancholy track no. 7, titled “Space Cowboy,”
where Musgraves sings “Since you don’t wanna stay anymore / You can have your space,
cowboy / I ain’t gonna fence you in.” Mourning a love lost but still being able to let go,
and staying on brand to her country music roots, she sings the story of a dead-end
relationship and admits that all things must come to an end.
But Musgraves is not small-minded when it comes to love. On “Love is a Wild Thing,”
she sings about how there is no escaping love’s inevitable grasp: “You can’t find it sitting
on a shelf in a store / If you try to hide it, it’s gonna shine even more / Even if you lose it,
it will find you / There’s no way to stop it but they’ll try to,” Love is, indeed, a wild thing.
Perhaps the most pivotal point of the album is when Musgraves sings the title track,
“Golden Hour,” With soft blending of acoustic and electric guitar and the slow thump of
a bass drum, “Golden Hour” is the perfect track for a lazy Sunday morning or a wistful
Monday evening. When she sings “You’re my golden hour / The color of my sky / You’ve
set my world on fire / And I know, I know everything’s gonna be alright,” Musgraves
wraps you up in a golden haze of musical paradise.
This album is for people who are sad, people that are happy, people who are in love, or
falling out of it. Influenced by Musgraves’ country roots but recorded in contemporary
pop style, this album offers something for everyone. There aren’t enough words in the
English dictionary to bring the genius that is Golden Hour to life in writing, so you will
have to go listen and experience it for yourself.