Middle of Nowhere are confident and cohesive, but Musgrave’s lyrical point of view seems to blow hither and yon from song to song.
Middle of Nowhere are confident and cohesive, but Musgrave’s lyrical point of view seems to blow hither and yon from song to song.
Musgraves’ chameleon soul is clearly her superpower, as none of those new terrains have ever felt wholly out of place for her. But it makes sense that this is where the dime-store cowgirl sounds most self-assured.
If Musgraves seemed slightly adrift in the years since 2018’s Golden Hour, Middle of Nowhere marks a true homecoming.
Sometimes staid and sometimes stirring, Middle of Nowhere finds her at a creative crossroads, in the middle of the road.
It isn’t flawless: a few tracks blur together in the middle stretch, and some lyrical moments fall flat. But the integrity and conviction behind the creative statement more than compensate.
Subtly arranged, tinged with western swing and traditional Mexican music, the low-key sound gets back to Musgraves’ rural roots and makes a smart backdrop to these beautifully weary songs about reckoning with delusion.
Although the classic country production gives Middle of Nowhere a more conservative tone compared to Deeper Well or Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves nonetheless continues to create unified narratives that almost every listener can relate to, no matter their walk of life.
Yet another career-best offering. .... Her voice is clear, pure and precise – delivered over deftly picked acoustic and swooning slide guitars – making each truth all the more devastating. Middle of Nowhere isn’t Musgraves at an impasse. No, she’s exactly where she needs to be.
Musgraves is gifted at letting the melodrama slip into something sensual and ‘Mexico Honey’, and its neon-lit innuendos, proves that her pen is still razor sharp. .... Her voice is as serene as ever and it rarely complicates her desire to embrace the undefined. If anything, it amplifies it through her day-glo incisiveness.
A sumptuously produced record with an enviable hit-to-miss ratio, Middle of Nowhere delivers more than enough drama, humour, and sparkle to solidify Musgraves’ place on the country music throne.
That’s the trick of Middle of Nowhere: it never rushes to define what comes next. Instead, Musgraves lingers in the in-between, finding humor, heartbreak and a surprising amount of peace along the way.
She knows exactly what she’s doing here – instead of simply incorporating other musical elements within country, Musgraves is inverting the process – she’s incorporating country music elements within other musical forms, often searching the best balance between the two.
The album’s only real misfire, the half-rapped profession of lust “Mexico Honey,” is an indicator that the “dry spell” announced toward the beginning of the album is over. But creatively, “Middle of Nowhere” is anything but a dry spell; this is her true return to a deeper well.
Middle of Nowhere are confident and cohesive, but Musgrave’s lyrical point of view seems to blow hither and yon from song to song.
Musgraves’ chameleon soul is clearly her superpower, as none of those new terrains have ever felt wholly out of place for her. But it makes sense that this is where the dime-store cowgirl sounds most self-assured.
If Musgraves seemed slightly adrift in the years since 2018’s Golden Hour, Middle of Nowhere marks a true homecoming.
Sometimes staid and sometimes stirring, Middle of Nowhere finds her at a creative crossroads, in the middle of the road.
It isn’t flawless: a few tracks blur together in the middle stretch, and some lyrical moments fall flat. But the integrity and conviction behind the creative statement more than compensate.
Subtly arranged, tinged with western swing and traditional Mexican music, the low-key sound gets back to Musgraves’ rural roots and makes a smart backdrop to these beautifully weary songs about reckoning with delusion.
Although the classic country production gives Middle of Nowhere a more conservative tone compared to Deeper Well or Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves nonetheless continues to create unified narratives that almost every listener can relate to, no matter their walk of life.
Yet another career-best offering. .... Her voice is clear, pure and precise – delivered over deftly picked acoustic and swooning slide guitars – making each truth all the more devastating. Middle of Nowhere isn’t Musgraves at an impasse. No, she’s exactly where she needs to be.
Musgraves is gifted at letting the melodrama slip into something sensual and ‘Mexico Honey’, and its neon-lit innuendos, proves that her pen is still razor sharp. .... Her voice is as serene as ever and it rarely complicates her desire to embrace the undefined. If anything, it amplifies it through her day-glo incisiveness.
A sumptuously produced record with an enviable hit-to-miss ratio, Middle of Nowhere delivers more than enough drama, humour, and sparkle to solidify Musgraves’ place on the country music throne.
That’s the trick of Middle of Nowhere: it never rushes to define what comes next. Instead, Musgraves lingers in the in-between, finding humor, heartbreak and a surprising amount of peace along the way.
She knows exactly what she’s doing here – instead of simply incorporating other musical elements within country, Musgraves is inverting the process – she’s incorporating country music elements within other musical forms, often searching the best balance between the two.
The album’s only real misfire, the half-rapped profession of lust “Mexico Honey,” is an indicator that the “dry spell” announced toward the beginning of the album is over. But creatively, “Middle of Nowhere” is anything but a dry spell; this is her true return to a deeper well.
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