Growing up, I HATED country music. The banjo annoyed me, and all of the lyrics sounded the same. Anyone I knew in high school would tell you that I would have gone to my grave denouncing country music.
That is, until Kacey Musgraves won the 2019 Grammy for album of the year.
I had given it a couple of listens before, and it didn't seem that bad to me. But when Alicia Keys announced, "Golden Hour" I decided to give the album another listen.
And I absolutely loved it.
The album is full of catchy beats and telling lyrics about the world around her. Each song has its own unique sound, but she still manages to keep a coherence throughout the album. It opens with "Slow Burn," a laid-back song that expresses the joy of just taking it slow and chilling out. Her song "Space Cowboy," a song about learning how to let go of a love that just isn't working, demonstrates Musgrave's ability to write painfully relatable ballads. And "Happy & Sad," one of my favorites on the album, is a song about feeling a kind of happiness never felt before, and never wanting to leave the feeling. The album then closes with "Rainbow," a song reminding you that no matter how sad things seem, there is always something around you that will make you happy again.
What also makes "Golden Hour" so unique is Musgraves' genre-pushing sound. Her disco-infused song "High Horse" and synth-pop song "Velvet Elvis" sound nothing like your typical country song, but they still hold that classic country vibe.
Kacey Musgraves is now the new princess of country music. I hope she continues to experiment with her sound but will always stay true to her country roots. Truly talented musicians know how to evolve their music but keep their sound.
So, I tip my cowboy hat to Musgraves for attaining the impossible: getting me to actually enjoy country music. I hope she stays for a while in her "Golden Hour" of success.
