Kacey Musgraves : "Deeper Well"

 

This album has been out since March, it's the singer's 6th. The title track is about how she quit smoking pot, but it sounds like still was hitting the bong when she wrote the opening track. It has a 60s ambiance to it. The title track also carries more atmosphere than what you might expect from a country musician who is not smoking pot. From her past work, I would never have taken her as a pot smoker, so it's funny that the album she is not smoking sounds like the one she's smoking the most on. "Too Good to be True" carries an introspective melancholy to it, though is solid songwriting,. 

For all practical purposes, this is as much of a pop album as it is a country one. However she does not have an entire staff of producers and songwriters, there are fewer of each on the entire album than there are on one Beyonce song. "Moving Out" is the first song that does not sound as inspired as the previous one. It meanders like a daydream. "Giver / Taker" ambles more like a lazy river, the key here is the melody has movement. Her vocals are really well produced and the harmonies are arranged perfectly. "Sway" finds the guitar creating this sense of motion, that pulls you into the song while her vocals are pretty laid back, almost sleepy from all the pot she is not smoking.

"Dinner With Friends" has some good vocal harmonies, but the bulk of it is kinda sappy. "Heart of the Woods" finds a more mellow 70s sound creeping in, obviously no pot was involved to create this. There are some great guitar sounds on this album, though the vocals got the most love. "Jade Green" sounds like a mix of Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton. Making it one of the album's best songs. "The Architect" is a quaint folk song, but in light of the vibes she has laid down thus far, it's not as impressive. "Lonely Millionaire" has a more hushed groove, but it is indeed a groove, that makes the song slap. 

"Heaven Is "is another folk song, that is well sung, but these are placed right after slappers so fall a little flat. The bulk of this album's songs could be defined as ballads, so "Anime Eyes" falls into this category. The melodies are not quite as gripping, though the lyrics are clever. The production is more stripped-down and organic for the last song. There are some good songs on the extended editions of this album in fact some of them are better than most of the songs on this album, but for the purpose of this review, I am just going over the songs presented in the original release format.

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