Kacey’s RecLOVEry album
I chimed in about Kacey Musgraves after the release of Pageant Material which was nominated for Best Country Album in 2015. It had been compared in greatness to Adele's 21, I loved it (I was pageant material too. Next blog), but I wondered whether it was beginner’s luck. It wasn’t.
I just finished listening to her 5th album Star-Crossed — a personal journey of her marriage falling apart. So…ya know that feeling when you buy a bag of cherries and you keep eating them in search of the perfect cherry and when you finally find it you can stop eating them because there could never be another cherry as perfect? At least for a while? That’s how I felt when this album was over. Sated. Nourished. From music, not cherries.
I’ve been obsessed lately with 19-year-old Olivia Rodrigo and just how many songs a girl can squeeze from one heartbreak. But there’s a difference between Olivia‘s collection of songs and Kacey’s. And I couldn’t put my finger on what that was until now.
We all have a friend who’s gotten broken-up with — she can’t get past the why or the way it happened. She keeps trying to make sense of the unexplainable. She keeps writing the same song. And you listen because that’s what friends do. Even though (admit it) you become weary of the lack of progress.
Kasey on the other hand walks me through the stages of her break-up. Twelve steps of RecLOVEry. Each step has unique properties. Relationships are complicated. Every step is worthy of a song.
Trying to be a good wife >>> SONG
But it’s falling apart >>> SONG
If this were a movie….Ah but it’s not >>> SONG
Scrolling through IPhoto Wahhhh 💔>>> SONG
He didn’t treat me right so maybe I had a reason to cheat >>> SONG
In fact, he was a bit of an ass >>> SONG
Warning his future conquests >>> SONG
Dating again…Words of advise…Hindsight…Optimism
I think they call it a theme album. She was hardly the first. Bruce wrote a stellar collection on Tunnel of Love as well as Robyn, Bon Iver, Miranda Lambert. They’re not all depressive either. In fact Kacey did the opposite on Golden Hour on which she examined the stages of euphoria at the beginning of her marriage. (How quickly things change. I can’t help but wonder whether artists create drama in order to have new material. Break-up to make-up. Make-up to break-up.)
Regardless, theme albums are few and far between these days because we’re all thinking about what people (and Spotify) want to hear. Don’t think I don’t notice when an artist (cough cough Ed Sheeran) is pandering to what he thinks fangirls want him to say…what they hope their boyfriend could say to them. It’s so transparent. (Although he does it amazingly well!)
Authentic detail speaks to me…
“And if he comes home stressed out I can pack him a bowl”
…and the stuff we discover as we drag ourselves through who-won-the-breakup. If the result of the break-up is an album this stellar I’d say Kacey won.
Star-Crossed received generally favourable reviews from music critics. (“Favourable” with or without the ‘u’ is an understatement.) 95% of it was co-written with Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian. That helps to keeps things tight. No committees there. Still some called its songwriting weak and dubbed it an inferior work to Golden Hour. WTF is wrong with these people? This record is jaw-droppingly honest and vulnerable from start to finish. And everything in between. It takes maturity and some experience to write a RecLOVEry album. It requires an awareness that falling in and pulling-out of love is a process. I trust Olivia Rodrigo will write one of her own one day…the whole rainbow from start to finish — one day, when she’s lived (and loved) a little bit longer.
star-crossed on Spotify star-crossed on Apple*
*They PAY more and have more respect for Songwriters.
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