Song Review – Kacey Musgraves – “Deeper Well”
As a country music fan, you had to sit back with a mild smirk as places like Variety and Whiskey Riff got all hot and bothered by the idea that Kacey Musgraves would be making some grand return to country with her next album. Don’t get it wrong, it would be great if Kacey Musgraves made another country album, and who knows, her new album Deeper Well out March 15th might be that.
But the title track gives you little or no hope for the great Kacey Musgraves comeback to kitschy country and quality songwriting that made her one of the most interesting women of mainstream country in the 2010s.
Musgraves shouldn’t be asked to make the same album twice or a similar ones to her award-winning albums of the past. She should be allowed to grow as an artist. But despite the rhetoric surrounding the album Deeper Well, the song “Deeper Well” feels like the same soft and pallid expressions adorning uninspired, aloof writing that so quickly blends into the background, just like most of Kacey’s last album, 2021’s disappointing Star-Crossed.
Though the fingerpicked acoustic guitar at the beginning of “Deeper Well” gets you a little excited for whats to come, it’s the doubled up vocal signals and the watery keys part that immediately imparts concern that the same issues that plagued Star-Crossed will beset the new one too, namely the production.
Once again indie rock dudes Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk aren’t just credited as producers on the track, but writers as well. This troika got lucky with a few songs on 2018’s Golden Hour, they swung and missed on Star-Crossed, and now once again we get to witness indie rock interlopers de-fanging a country woman, and turning her music into indistinguishable “Americana.”
Instead of a return to country like was being buzzed about, Musgraves adopts a Greenwich Village folk motif of classical guitars and dressing like an English goat farm lass in the “Deeper Well” video. She recorded and wrote most of the new album at the Electric Lady studios made famous by Jimi Hendrix. “I was seeking some different environmental energy, and Electric Lady has the best mojo. Great ghosts,” Musgraves says.
Similar woo woo language appears in the song “Deeper Well” itself, with Musgraves referencing the Saturn Return of her horoscope and the “dark energy” of a lover she’s moved on from. Once again she also cites the lameness of her upbringing in small town Texas near the end of the song—a recurring theme in her music.
Another recurring theme is Kacey’s marijuana references, but few distinguishing listeners care to hear about her gravity bong or her “wake and bake” routine. Certain media outlets will line up to praise Musgraves for her edgy lyricism by bringing such themes to country, but it’s been over a decade since “Follow Your Arrow,” and nearly 55 years since “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” You pot references are passe at best.
With Kacey’s recent collaborations with Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan, she’s clearly trying to rekindle the kind of mainstream, cross-genre success she had with Golden Hour, and spies folk as the new fortuitous direction popular music is taking. But it was the powerful, emotional-laden lyricism and bold soundcscapes created on her early albums that distinguished her from the crowd. Perhaps Deeper Well will have that in store as well. But the song “Deeper Well” doesn’t.
The song isn’t as much bad as it is immediately forgettable. And right now in music, forgettable is a worse position to be in than bad. Just ask Jason Aldean.
Let’s hope for more from the album itself.
5/10
February 8, 2024 @ 12:54 pm
I liked it, beautiful clip.
February 8, 2024 @ 12:57 pm
It’s not as offensive as the noise on Star-crossed, but it is forgettable. The message is good if you do not fall asleep first. Weird choice for a lead off single (if such a thing even matters anymore).
February 8, 2024 @ 1:08 pm
I’m still disappointed star-crossed wasn’t a full spaghetti-western style breakup album.
But yeah, even the clip they released Sunday made me not hopeful for this album, and this does nothing to change that.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:58 pm
I think the 2 artists in question have been quite respectful with their post divorce music. Subtle lyrical moments here and there, and in some cases you even hear gratitude.
Breakup albums/songs can be good songs but they do run the risk of harm if they’re not well-written.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:10 pm
For me the pot references on this track are more confessional in nature which make them more interesting. How many songs have been written about liquor being used to forget, cope, or numb the world? I think these lyrics are in that spirit and add to the narrative of the song.
Its a decent song and you can imagine her singing this at an NPR tiny desk concert sounding like a track from one of her early records. Hopefully an acoustic version pops up sometime in the future, as the production isn’t to my taste.
February 8, 2024 @ 6:32 pm
You’re looking for an acoustic track of what is basically an acoustic track? I think that underscores the production failure of this song.
That’s a fair point about the pot references. It’s just to me, “Wake and Bake” is a cliche saying, and telling us about her gravity bong seems like a strange flex. For the record, my biggest beef is how certain media outlets use pot references to refer to an artist as edgy. That’s not necessarily Kacey’s fault as much as a general observation.
February 9, 2024 @ 9:56 am
The edgy part is promoting sobriety.
February 9, 2024 @ 11:21 am
Yeah I thought that as I wrote it. But you know what I mean. This song would fit very nicely with a basic clean production on her first two problems. I think the bigger issue is that it wouldn’t be a stand out track, and certainly not a single from either of those albums.
If you’re looking for an ethereal indie-folk song right now, the latest waxahatchee track is head and shoulders above this.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:15 pm
Guitar sounds like a rip off of Home by Phillip Phillips. And when she pops her head through the brush. ????????????. Hilarious!!
Seriously tho. Song just doesn’t hit that hard. I don’t think it makes the type impression it was going for.
February 8, 2024 @ 4:57 pm
I thought that was hilarious as well. I wanted to pop her over the head with a rubber mallet like in the old whack-a-mole game…in a zany cartoony way, not an actual assault. Gotta clarify that before people try to accuse me of promoting violence against women.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:38 pm
Reminds me of the Homer Simpson clip of him disappearing into the hedges!
February 9, 2024 @ 4:52 pm
THANK YOU! That’s what it reminded me of I couldn’t think of the song.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:15 pm
The video clip was interesting… the song gets a tad boring as it proceeds to the ending. The Space Cowgirl musicalities with atmospheric keyboard splashes only goes so far (for me). I bought the first 4 albums, and even enjoyed the kitschy Christmas record. Kacey’s beauty, voice and songwriting made me a fan… but I was let down on that last album, which I did not purchase. I will have to wait and see how this whole record unveils. It is a different and understated song to release as a first offering. We’ll see…
February 8, 2024 @ 1:18 pm
Sonically and vocally, it sounds like every song Sheryl Crow has released since The Global Sessions.
Lyrically, you’re right. It’s trite and dull.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:28 pm
Acoustic guitars alone don’t make for folk music by any definition I know of. Hell, I LIKE folk music. This is just bland, snooze-inducing pop.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:29 pm
These lyrics sound exactly like my ex talking. And, hey, if Saturn or healing crystals or whatever they’re into helps them somehow, that’s cool. But I don’t think I’ll be listening to an entire album worth of it. So hopefully this track is an outlier. Musically, it is an improvement over her last album and still a downgrade from the albums before that.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:40 pm
Maybe she drives a Saturn???
February 8, 2024 @ 6:35 pm
There is definitely an effort here to create a very specific aesthetic with the video, some of the lyricism, and the rhetoric accompanying the song release.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:30 pm
I am (was) a huge Kacey Musgraves fan. I fell in love with her voice on the song Oh Tonight by Josh Abbott, and when her album Same Trailer Different Park came out, it was perfection. Her and Miranda were my beacons in mainstream country music. She Released Pageant Material and it solidified to me that this girl was the real deal…. and then Golden Hour happened. I could appreciate a lot of the writing, but the production was a little hard to take, and then Star Crossed came out, and with so much awesome music happening with women in country, I was done with Kacey. I moved on. Out of curiosity I listened to this song because I do like her voice, and while it is a bit better than most of Star Crossed, it solidified that she’s moved on, and so have I. I put some Ashley McBryde on after and was quickly reminded that Kacey isn’t worth my time anymore. We had a great few years, but sometimes fans and artists drift apart, just ask The Band Perry.
February 8, 2024 @ 1:39 pm
I absolutely loved Kacey Musgraves. I thought her first couple albums were brilliant and I thought she would never sell out. I thought that she was real and that she was beautiful, etc. I was so wrong. Does it upset me that she “left country music”? Sure.
But here’s my bigger problem: it’s that she fully sold out to “them”. You can define “them” however you want, but the best way I can describe it is that “they” are “the powers that shouldn’t be”. Look at everything she’s done the past several years. She went all in. All of the luciferian/freemason symbolism and the transgender-transhuman agenda. They push the idea that you not only can choose/change your gender, but that you can/should also choose/alter how you look. She messed up her face with whatever alterations and plastic surgery she did. She was beautiful, and now she looks like she belongs in the circus with the rest of those freaks. I’m so done with her and I can’t even bring myself to listen to anything from her now because it just enrages me.
Sorry, Trigger. I rarely comment here, but felt I had to get this off my chest.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:02 pm
…and I need to add that you can tell she has sold out to “them” because of the number of views and obvious bot comments under the video already. This manipulation of YouTube(and presumably other platforms) is common with controlled artists to artificially push them.
Continuing from my last comment, her quotes about this song, the lyrics on her last 2 albums, and her social media clearly illustrate her allegiance. All of the mysticism and occultism in her quotes and videos is so apparent – it’s overwhelming.
She doesn’t deserve any attention at this point.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:09 pm
I have no idea if these comments are supposed to be a joke. If it is, good one. If its not, seek help.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:45 pm
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then maybe you should take some time to research for yourself before commenting. I felt that I needed to say what I said – and I personally don’t think it’s funny or cute. However, I Invite you to look for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:18 pm
She doesn’t deserve any attention and yet you’ve now written the two longest comments on the article so far, spaced 20 minutes apart. I do agree with you that she was stunning before and whatever she’s done to her face is a big step down. She’s not the first and won’t be the last. Other than that, I can dislike a song or an artist without believing them to be Luciferian and in cahoots with some shadow cabal.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:58 pm
Well, this is creepy…
February 8, 2024 @ 5:57 pm
I agree with a lot of your sentiment. She traded the “oppresive traditionalism ideals”
of her small town upbringing, for the vapid conformity of social media influencer psuedo-pagan empowered-feminist ideals.
Even if I wanted to role play as Aquaman and a fetish for fellatio from pufferfish I wouldnt find that stupid lip filler plastic surgery look attractive. It’s a shame because I too really enjoyed her earlier music and hoped she would be a lasting driving force in female country.
February 9, 2024 @ 10:02 am
I have to agree, her persona on social media stories is so inherently unlikeable, uninformed, and childish it impacts her artistry and music.
February 8, 2024 @ 8:30 pm
Frank, I have always wondered who the proverbial “THEM” is. You gave a great definition. Seriously.
“they” are “the powers that shouldn’t be”
March 23, 2024 @ 11:42 am
y’all are so miserable on here lol. you don’t have to like the song, but then going a step beyond & criticizing kacey herself & what she stands for? jesus, get a life. she promotes kindness & living authentically- some of y’all could learn a lesson or two from her. it’s not my favorite kacey song, but i think alot of these harsh takes are coming less from a place of constructively critiquing her artistry/talent, & more from a place of being upset that she isn’t your typical female in country- conservative. like, let her live? some of y’all are way too pressed about people you DO NOT KNOW & it’s weird. grow up & find some new, more important priorities. love you, kacey.
February 8, 2024 @ 2:35 pm
I don’t know, I think this review is unnecessarily hostile/embittered. She didn’t even commit the cardinal SCM sin of publicly disavowing country music! Merely the secondary SCM sin of slowly edging herself into bland singer-songwriter terrain 😉
“once again we get to witness indie rock interlopers de-fanging a country woman, and turning her music into indistinguishable “Americana.””
Eh, i don’t think that’s even fair to the interlopers. Even compared to someone now as uber-powerful as Taylor Swift, who seemed to get pulled into weird EDM trends circa-Red, Kacey seems pretty in the drivers seat … even if that means straying into indistinguishable genreless singer-songwriter terrain of acoustic ballads! But, being fair, there’s a chance this track was specifically meant not to reveal the hand of whatever the broader stylistic goals of the album are — it’s meant to be more of a teaser/trailer. Maybe that’s overly optimistic.
And her reference to marijuana is not intended to be edgy IMO — if anything that critique made more sense vis-a-vis “Follow Your Arrow”. On this track the admission that she was doing a daily gravity bong (a really, really intense way to get high that usually is only reserved for the stoniest of stoners) is akin to admitting that she was an addict, or something close to one. Which I think is a pretty raw songwriting confession, worth more than the cynical take you had about getting edginess points.
I don’t even really disagree with your track review overall review. This track is nowhere near as distinctive as ‘Space Cowboy’ or ‘High Horse’ — but as someone who enjoyed Pageant Material and Golden Hour (and thought Same Trailer and Star-Corssed were meh) I am stil moderately excited and hoping for the best.
February 8, 2024 @ 6:37 pm
I agree I come in a little hot here, and I had that observation myself when writing it. But this song and Kacey’s new album has been so highly buzzed including about being her big country return, I think they set too high expectations for what is a very pedestrian track. As I said in the review, but perhaps could have emphasized more, there is nothing wrong with this song as much as there’s so little that’s right. Like others, I’m puzzled why they thought this was going to make a big splash.
February 15, 2024 @ 9:32 am
“I think they set too high expectations for what is a very pedestrian track.”
I’m in total agreement there. They are splattering the lyrics from this teaser track all over their merchandise, and I’m like… really? “I’m saying goodbye to the people that I feel are real good at wasting my time” These lyrics are not interesting enough to wear on a t-shirt or make the basis of your campaign…
February 8, 2024 @ 3:14 pm
It’s pretty and I’m excited for the next album, actually. But I’d really love for her to return to her “Pageant Material” sound at one point. “Pageant Material” still stands as one of my favorite albums ever.
February 8, 2024 @ 3:22 pm
Sometimes, globalism was a mistake.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:47 pm
Sometimes?
February 8, 2024 @ 3:29 pm
“Deeper Well” sounds okay to me.
I’d be happy to listen to it a few more times.
February 8, 2024 @ 4:05 pm
Song sounds great to me and I’m pumped for the new record. Folk, country, whatever. A good tune is a good tune. 5/10 seems a bit too stiff a drink here, Trig.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:43 am
Yeah I agree with you. I really liked the song. He gave the album “Golden Hour” a bad review as well, 5/10 if I remember correctly. That take aged really poorly lol. Now he seemingly praises Golden Hour in this article if I understood correctly? Seems unnecessarily negative towards Musgraves throughout her career.
February 9, 2024 @ 8:41 am
5/10 is not a negative review. 5 is 50% of 10, symbolizing how it is an average review, meaning half of songs would be worse than it in its peer group, and half the songs would be better. 4/10 would be negative, just as 6/10 would be positive. This is an unusual misconception I constantly am fighting. I recently gave an album by Stephen Wilson Jr. a 6.8 out of 10. The vast majority of readers too it as a negative because it was under 7.
My opinion about Golden Hour was that it was a mediocre album with some great songs on it. I’ve admitted in the past that my opinion that it wouldn’t go anywhere was completely wrong. But my opinion that some of the songs on the album are throwaway remains.
I hope “Deeper Well” is a great album. I want to like music, not hate it, and country music needs women like Kacey Musgraves since there are so few established female performers.
February 9, 2024 @ 9:41 am
Hi Trig,
Thanks for the response. It’s a common misconception because it doesn’t make a ton of sense to the average reader who bases and understands score ratings on an educational grade scale where a 70% is basic knowledge of the material and a 50% is a failing grade. Furthermore, I think most mainstream rating systems with regard to entertainment don’t work like this, so people aren’t used to it. With that said, I’d be curious if you keep a record of every score you’ve ever given, and where a 5/10 would fall in that mode average? My guess is you don’t give 5/10’s often, which would imply that this is not a average score, and the song is below average in terms of mode. I fully understand your logic here as you’re taking the average to median and not the mode, but I think you’re always going to have a tough time convincing folks that a 5/10 is an “average score” and not negative. Either way, my point stands, and it’s still too stiff a drink for this nice and gentle tune.
February 9, 2024 @ 10:56 am
Well, this isn’t high school, and Pitchfork and other places that used decimal point grades do it on a 50/50 scale as opposed to pass/fail. I believe Dave Portnoy’s One Bit Pizza Reviews are another good example. For years I did not use numeral grads, just did “Guns Up” and “Guns Down.” One Gun Up meant average.
I understand your point though. The simple fact is, most people expect music coverage to only be positive. When anything negative is broached, it often comes as shocking to the public.
Ultimately it’s the review itself that counts, not the grade. My opinion is the song is average.
February 8, 2024 @ 4:32 pm
Definitely liked it more than Trigger did lol. Last album was terrible though.
February 8, 2024 @ 4:32 pm
As soon as the song ended I said out loud, ‘Well that was a big nothing burger.” And then thought – will anyone listen to this more than once? Still looking forward to the other songs on the album, but agree (sadly) that they will probably not be her best work.
On a side note – I’m so tired of women wearing next to nothing on stage and apparently now baring it all on album artwork. Of course they say it’s ‘part of their artistry’ but it’s so unnecessary. In my opinion, they end up looking mostly ridiculous especially when compared to the men (who dress normally) and country women of the past. I recently watched a few 80’s and 90’s women of country music on YouTube and then right after searched for Kacey’s cover of Neon Moon. She was standing on stage in basically a two piece swimsuit – and it wasn’t flattering. The whole time she’s singing I think – what is this – and cannot get past the outfit. She’s singing along with her band who are in suits. What. is. this. (And now we have Lana Del Rey coming over to country. Don’t get me wrong – I really like a lot of both of their songs, but I wish these kind of things would stop.) You don’t have to show me you got a bikini wax to win me over with your song. You don’t have to announce you’re going country/going back to country. Just sing a good song (preferably with less production) and make a quality country record.
February 8, 2024 @ 7:38 pm
I mean…2015 to 2018 Kacey Musgraves in a swimsuit is not a thing to complain about.
February 8, 2024 @ 4:43 pm
I agree with the criticisms of the song. But I’m not sure why this song is open to this level of critque when music by Chapel Hart is not. I find everything from Chapel Hart to be incredibly boring despite it being loud. Loud doesn’t equal good. There is nothing inhertenly wrong with the music being low-key and ‘boring.’ Much of Don WIlliams and Waylon’s music is very soft and low key. I agree that this track is far below her other output but take ‘A Couple More Years’ or anything from Don Williams – It’s low key country and anti-climatic. I’d rather here this Kacey track over the monotonouly loud high-energy psuedo blues swamp butt rock excretions of a Jelly Roll and the like – which is the trend in modern country.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:04 pm
Another lost soul. A phony from the beginning. Gets a bit of Fame playing ” country music” and then bails on it entirely with a little taste of success. Honestly, the Kacey Musgraves ” fans” I have met are genuinely NOT country music fans. It’s a whole different audience entirely. Not being critical, Mind you, just calling it out the way I see it. Waste of talent. ( she does have a beautiful voice and can sing a pretty good melody, and was gorgeous to boot, prior to the plastic)
February 8, 2024 @ 7:33 pm
Yeah. Her voice is amazing, and in many ways my favorite active female singer voice. I just wish she’d stop trying to disappear into this faceless, gauzy ambience.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:17 pm
This isn’t even remotely country music, nor is it folk or even New Age. It’s a fuzzy, synth-laden soft pop song aimed at the Olivia Rodrigo crowd (the Jewel crowd of the previous generation, although Jewel was kind of Kacey in reverse, trying her hand at country music AFTER her sensitive-pop prime and doing OK at it, IMO.). I can;t see this doing much as a single in any format. Her duet with Zach Bryan hints that there still may be some country in her blood, but I guess we’ll have to wait for a full album to come out to see whether that’s the case.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:43 pm
I don’t dislike it, it’s still good music and enjoyable, but it is more Saving Americana Music material than SCM.
February 9, 2024 @ 3:23 pm
God forbid somebody should try saving Americana.
February 8, 2024 @ 5:58 pm
I was 16 when “Sunday Morning Coming Down” hit,and this is the first time I knew that it had a marijuana theme.
I’m glad Ms. Musgraves is back in Country,but I guess she was trying to throw something against the wall to see if it would stick.Hopefully,she’ll get back to her old provocative self.
February 8, 2024 @ 7:24 pm
The Urban Outfitters vinyl cover has her naked backside on it, so there’s that.
I guess I’m about the only be who really liked “Star-Crossed”. I don’t know if it was the time or circumstance in which I first listened to it, but it really made an impression on me.
February 8, 2024 @ 7:30 pm
Pretty, boring, generic. Kind of catatonic nothing.
February 8, 2024 @ 7:53 pm
If this is her attempt at making her own folklore/evermore sound, both of which are mainstream pop take of folk-y and indie-y music, she needs to be more interesting with the songwriting and the sound she produces with the other guys. This is as boring as Star-Crossed as a whole, but with less plastic feels. Still feels inorganic, but not obnoxious and boring at the same time.
February 8, 2024 @ 9:22 pm
Kasey Musgrave SAVING country music? Seriously? I don’t remember ever hearing a true country song from her. Stay in the genre in which you belong which sure as shit isn’t country.
February 8, 2024 @ 9:27 pm
*Kacey Musgraves
Tell us you didn’t read the article without telling us, Diane.
Nobody said Kacey Musgraves was saving country music.
And sure, she’s released some true country songs in the past.
February 8, 2024 @ 9:37 pm
Sounds like music written by someone who smokes way too much fucking dope.
Strait nailed it with this comment: “She traded the “oppressive traditionalism ideals” of her small town upbringing for the vapid conformity of social media influencer pseudo-pagan empowered-feminist ideals.”
Boring.
February 9, 2024 @ 12:13 am
This is a bit harsh. You probably put a lot more stock in genre than any songwriter does, unless the writer’s main objective is cashing in on a varying degree of plagiarism.
When it’s just you and an acoustic, this is what you get.
To me, it doesn’t sound much different than Follow Your Arrow. Which I find both to be kinda boring. It does have some Travis picking, and Kacey’s modern approach of John Prine/Ray Wylie simplistic lyricism.
At least she’s telling her story of enlightenment instead of getting Nelly or Ludacris to rap a verse.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:38 am
Songs aren’t released in a vacuum. Jason Isbell recently won the Saving Country Music Song of the Year, so I am no purist, though people love to cast me as such. When judging a song, I judge the song first, and then take into consideration genre concerns, namely if they are trying to call it country.
Whiskey Riff and other outlets ran dedicated articles on how they believed that Kacey’s new album would be her big country comeback. Chris Willman at Variety said this was one of his most anticipated upcoming albums, and believed it would be a return to country as well. The amount of promotional money that has been put behind this single and album announcement is borderline unprecedented. They ran an ad for it during the Grammy Awards, released teaser videos, have a whole social media campaign lined up for it. And this is what we get?
This is my job as a critic to say, “This isn’t working guys.” I agree it can come across as a bit “harsh,” but it’s my job to be constructive and tell the truth. I think they put a ton of muscle and buzz behind a mild song, which risks alienating your audience.
February 9, 2024 @ 4:23 pm
I was unaware of the marketing campaign, or that she had left the genre where she found success.
I haven’t watched the Grammy’s in 30 years. I rely on folks like you to tell me if I missed anything, which most of the time I don’t feel that I have.
It just feels like it’d be more beneficial for the genre as a whole to include the pretty girl who plays acoustic guitar and writes charming songs. Instead of rappers who can’t play a single instrument, but know how to market themselves to the country music fanbase.
Not saying that I think you are some sort of gatekeeper, but not living up to your own personal expectations, doesn’t mean that it is any less good. It seems to me to be the same thing I’ve always heard from her. Which I’d still prefer over the other things that have consumed the genre over the past 20 year.
February 9, 2024 @ 12:32 am
Maybe you can go fuck off! :)) Your opinion is not universal and maybe if you had a brain or were in tune with your emotions you could actually listen to this song without being a judgmental mental asshole who can’t think beyond their own little box.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:39 am
You’re totally right that my opinion is not universal. Everyone’s opinion matters, and if you like this song, that’s all that matters.
February 9, 2024 @ 5:53 pm
Well you weren’t as harsh as that. Ouch!
February 9, 2024 @ 2:20 am
…she’s a godess. full stop.
February 9, 2024 @ 4:34 am
I enjoyed her first couple of albums but thought she lost her way or completely changed her direction with her last album being boring. This song seems to continue where she left off with her last album. It does seem rather boring.
February 9, 2024 @ 6:12 am
It sucks. Full stop.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:06 am
Sonically, it reminds me a bit of some of the stuff on John Moreland’s last album, which has grown on me.
I like the song OK. 7/10 for me. Also, enjoy it more if I’m not watching the video. And beats the hell out of what I heard on the last album.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:45 am
Seriously, this is horrible. The vocals sound inhuman, as if generated by computer AI. It’s the equivalent of having Siri or Alexa read a book to you. I’m surprised there are comments here that enjoy this.
Kacey continues her stab at every genre except the one that made her name in the first place, this time trying to hop in the popular acoustic Americana scene. She comes off more and more disingenuous. I honestly could care less if she ever actually returns to making country music, which I’m guessing she probably will when all else fails.
February 9, 2024 @ 8:08 am
“Everything I did seemed better when I was high” – Wonder if that includes this song?
February 9, 2024 @ 8:35 am
Did…did any of you actually listen to the song? Y’all keep going on about how the pot references aren’t cool or edgy, when the whole second verse and chorus is her saying exactly that and explaining she’s moved on from waking and baking and her gravity bong.
February 9, 2024 @ 10:18 am
….. thank you. This shows you the huge bias at hand.
The song is more interesting than people think, if one can get past the navel gazing nature of her previous album and this one, so far. Sonically, it’s soothing, similar to Golden Hour, and does actually have a relatable, positive, and hopeful message.
February 9, 2024 @ 7:14 pm
Part of the comments about the pot references were not aimed at Kacey Musgraves, but the way the media portrays them as “edgy” in country when they shouldn’t be.
February 9, 2024 @ 8:58 am
I don’t hate it. I would rather hear Pageant Material or Golden Hour.
February 9, 2024 @ 9:55 am
Would like to see a review of The Castellows record, they’re definitely country and could really become something. It’s only 7 tracks too!
February 9, 2024 @ 10:57 am
I will probably review The Castellows album, though it has all the earmarks of a release where it will feed into a bigger album in the future. I hate reviewing the same songs twice. It causes my brain to short circuit.
February 9, 2024 @ 1:27 pm
I actually don’t mind the song, but the layered vocals ruin it for me.
February 9, 2024 @ 3:27 pm
She has an arresting voice – a perfect voice to my ear -which is what makes her choices frustrating, such as the unnecessary double tracked vox. The whole vibe of the song is so ethereal as to disappear completely, even though it is pretty in a nondescript way. And as someone else said she keeps avoiding the one genre she was successful in, and IMO has a great ear for. She doesn’t have to stay in country, obviously, but it’s there in her phrasing and melodies and accent, and it seems like such a natural fit for her. I hesitate to call her a wasted talent, but I can’t figure out if she has a clear sense of where she’s headed or if she’s flailing around trying to get traction, because she really is talented, but it’s like she can’t figure out what exactly to be. Her work on pageant material and golden hour was really coming together and it’s been left turns since.
February 9, 2024 @ 10:04 pm
I actually like her new album.
February 10, 2024 @ 8:42 am
It’s growing on me. It kind of reminds me of her ‘Same Trailer…’ era but with more ethereal production. I could imagine someone singing it around a campfire or at a coffee shop.
February 15, 2024 @ 5:04 am
A “Deeper Well” does not mean a shallow puddle made one inch deeper.
Maybe fame can eliminate her immediate need of a shovel or a drilling rig.
February 18, 2024 @ 12:11 pm
Haven’t bought any new Kacey albums since Golden Hours came out. Are there any exceptions
March 3, 2024 @ 9:31 pm
Jeez. Harsh. I’m someone who never heard her before and I was moved by the song. I’m a songwriter, and this review scares me –if I ever become known, I’ll have to dazzle critics and build on earlier work or I’m total trash? This whole world needs to calm down and learn how to be civil.
March 7, 2024 @ 9:56 pm
I guess I’m in the minority, because I really like this song! I didn’t in the beginning though. To me, what really irks me about this song is that it seems to end abruptly. Personally, I feel like there should be something else after her last verse. Also, I wish the lyrics were: “I’m saying goodbye to the people WHO I feel are wasting my time,” rather than “that” haha.
I have high hopes for this album, and hope it isn’t disappointing like the last one (although, that has grown on me more).