Kacey Musgraves - 2013 Anticipation

I never thought I'd be posting new thread in a ILM country anticipation thread. I was listening to an NPR podcast, where Ann Powers was discussing this single released by country singer Kacey Musgraves, called "Merry Go 'Round".

Maybe the album will turn out shit but this single will rank in my top 20 for 2013 for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjeWDvh6J0

it actually did pretty well in the Pazz & Jop 2012 singles. i was the first person to post it on ILM! but yeah, looking forward to the album! she was great on Fallon a couple weeks back.

Merry Go Round is great, looking forward to this

hearing this song on the radio has been nice

ann and another person were raving about the album proper on twitter; so stoked

i remember the first time i heard "Merry Go Round," the local country station was doing a 'hey it's 10pm let's throw a new song out there and see what they think' thing and i was like damn well this is different

Album is really, really good. I've got a long Spin review of that and Ashley Monroe's album (which I might like even more) running this week -- My two favorite albums of 2013 so far. (At least I think it's running this week -- deadline was last Thursday, and I already got the edit back.)

Took a while, but Spin got my review up:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/ashley-monroe-like-a-rose-kacey-musgraves-same-trailer-different-park?utm_source=spintwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spintwitter

this record is awesome; great review chuck

follow yr arrow is...unexpected? even for 2013 country. in a good way.

Sounds like a big crossover pop hit waiting to happen, in a good way.

I wasn't crazy about "Merry Go Round" but I'm looking forward to it.

this album is pretty damn great huh

also did you all know she co-wrote "mama's broken heart", the best song on miranda lambert's last album

first impression: her VOICE. it's interesting cuz she's so detached - not in the blank sense, she's fully emotionally involved in her situations, but almost dispassionate, almost snotty. it's not a vocal stance i've heard much in country, it almost reminds me of...aimee mann or someone? it really works.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/magazine/kacey-musgravess-rebel-twang.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=music

Good album. "Blowin' Smoke" is a good safe choice for a second single; it'll sound good coming out of truck radios. But what's stopping her people from shipping a few promos of "Follow Your Arrow" to some non-country formats, I wonder. Maybe chucking a cheap lyric video on Youtube while they're at it.

caramanica:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/arts/music/new-albums-by-ashley-monroe-and-kacey-musgraves.html

"follow your arrow" being a single would be so great!

i've only listened to the album twice since it came out yesterday but i love it already

omg 'stupid'

i played this record over and over today. and sang!

this album is fucking great

xgau reviewed it: http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=fe6e27de-1614-48a4-b055-40db617c61e8

that standard of writing is basically "listened once, initial thoughts that i dumped on ilx"

His country writing is fraught. His last couple: Ashley Monroe: "how rare it is for a major-label Nashville hopeful to put this much care into every song" (nonsense). Pickler: "American Idol haunts this artistic breakthrough, a sense that she'll always sing what she's told no matter how many composition credits she bags" (so what?). The reviews argue that the songs and their performances are triumphs anyway; I question the assumptions that their Nashville and AI backgrounds would make us wary.

this fucking album

"keep it to yourself" is so empathetic (like, she ends up in an unfulfilling booty call two songs later) that it's just ice cold

instagrammy video for "merry go round" is interesting too, b/c that's def a route through which i can see her crossing over

"blowin' smoke" is so well constructed, like the first verse is such a red herring - you think it's going to be about kelly who escapes the small town but no it's about the waitresses who sneered at her but got stuck there forever (but pretty non-judgmental too)

"stupid" is just awesome. STUPID LOVE IS STUPID DON'T KNOW WHY WE ALWAYS DO IT. she's so over everything and i love it

"Step Off" is a perfect little throwaway, quieter than Taylor Swift's "Mean."

apparently "i miss you" lifts the tune from some radiohead song? w/vs she certainly improved it

"Step Off" is a perfect little throwaway, quieter than Taylor Swift's "Mean."

kacey's over-everything attitude comes into its own there, like you really believe that it doesn't affect her even though she's troubled herself to write a whole song about it (whereas taylor - deliberately - gives the game away in the middle eight)

also helps "follow your arrow", like the line about kissing girls isn't there to Make A Point (well it is, but her delivery ensures it's not signposted heavy-handedly), it's there because duhhh

this is my 2nd fav album of the year, anyway

I was driving around DC listening to the local country station when I heard "Blowin' Smoke" for the first time. I had no idea who it was by, but made a note to find out. The next day or so I randomly came across two reviews of Musgraves, so I made a note to buy the album when I got home. Then when I played the album and heard "Blowin' Smoke" I though, huh, that's really how this is supposed to work, right? Hear a song on the radio, read a couple of reviews, get rewarded with a great record.

Playing in London next Monday. Tempted to go. The album is very good.

apparently "i miss you" lifts the tune from some radiohead song? w/vs she certainly improved it

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man, I don't give much of a shit about Radiohead, but "apparently"?

well i can only remember how about two radiohead songs actually go!

def gonna try to reach on mon

Sounds as much like Radiohead as Radiohead sounds like The Hollies.

Creep sounds a lot like that Hollies song. I noticed it the first time I heard it.

closest radiohead analogue i could think of was "nude" which is ridiculous

seeing her monday :D

but it's a waste of breath and it's a waste of time i know

tremendous album. "Follow Your Arrow" is my least favorite song, though, when it opens it sounds like she's deliberately trying to rewrite "Merry Go Round."

I'm going on Monday too. Excited!

I love the person/first one rhyme.

loving this. 'merry go round' is a little to clever for its own good imo. blowing smoke & i miss you are incredible

<3

Been enjoying this album. In Merry Go 'Round, I first heard the "Mary two doors down" line as "Mary Tudor's down" and thought she might really be reaching with a 16th century reference in there.

this album is great! the opener, "Silver Lining", is killing me: the chorus' melody is the catchiest thing I've heard all year. I love the sound of her voice.

is there any feeling that the album's going to be a hit? it seems pretty low key for that. like it reminds me as a really well crafted take on the alt.country tunes I jammed in the 90s; & we know how that was received by Nashville.

huh, wiki says that "Merry Go Round" has sold 524,000 copies already. if so, whoa! yeah, that's a hit

it debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 (behind the Timberlake juggernaut) xp

shit, yeah, just saw that too, #1 country too. that's great!

love the plunk-plunk sound of the guitar on "Dandelion"

it was cool to see her the other night at the ACM awards, nominated for 'top female vocalist' up against the big marquee names

I've listened to this album like five times in a row now, just got it yesterday but it's gonna be one of those records

Favourite line on this so far (among many) is "Every arrow that I aim is true / but I miss you" - such a great couplet

is a real boy is the besssst, and though they've never equaled it in defense of the genre is at least a fun mess. their last record kinda sucked.

omg that's supposed to be in the fall out boy thread. what is this

I can hear Fall Out Boy doing "Step Off."

well yeah my country tastes tend toward "things that could be transparently covered by crossover emo bands"

pop-punk cover of 'stupid' would be pretty easy to bang out in a coupla hours

Well, I enjoyed that very much. The Weezer cover was a little unexpected!

she does a weezer cover?

Looked for you but didn't see you Tim!

Enjoyed her Mama's Broken Heart too - stripped out Miranda's camp, much more sullen. Final song that she said had never been released was amazing

Great concert! Such a beautiful voice. Not to mention beautiful looks omg I was stunned. BUT THE SETLIST WAS TOO SHORT! No "Dandelion" :( :( It felt like that boring opener guy was on for longer.

Love her so much for "Follow Your Arrow" and how she's championing it as a future single.

Best part = her ridic impressive whistling

Not to sound stalkerish but I totes saw you there lex.

Likewise, the Lex (but you said you mightn't make it so I didn't scour the place). Yeah that encore was tremendous, something to anticipate on the next record I guess...

love short sets! I suppose that's one of the reasons why debuts rule.

Anyone heard her three self released records?

can they still be bought?

i'm jealous of everyone who got to see this show. she's opening on kenny chesney's tour but idk how i feel about going to a giant arena show primarily for an opening act.

the more i think abt it the more "follow your arrow" seems like it is destined to be a live/fan favorite that nonetheless will probably not quite work on the radio. glad she is pushing for it tho. i think "keep it to yourself" would be a gorgeous fall/wintertime radio single.

uberweiss you shoulda said hi! i was going to moot some sort of pub drinks beforehand but i had to be elsewhere and sadly missed the opening guy. thought her set was surprisingly long given the album's only 35mins - only songs she didn't play were "dandelion" and "i miss you" (hmm, the most lovelorn ballads), but she played two older songs and the lambert/weezer covers instead.

voice much less diffident than on record - "keep it to yourself" was kind of revelatory, prob my highlight, totally slanted towards the empathetic side, maybe even the subtext that she herself is thinking the same things (and of course ultimately even more ice cold for it).

this is the only trace of the unreleased encore online - it was sort of weird at the time to hear a song that i knew i might not ever get to hear again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULMDI1uRP88

In Washington, in Idaho
In Oregon and away we go
To Tennessee and Arkansas
No we won't stop 'til we've seen 'em all

vs

Man I'm out in Texas, man, I'm out in A-town
Then I'm up in Chi-town or Miami shuttin' it down
It's that New Orleans, it's LA or The Bay
It's New York, Philly, and the whole DMV
I'm a Detroit Player, man it's North-South Cack
Ohio, Pittsburgh, got St. Louis on deck
It's Delaware, Connecticut, it's New Jersey got hella bricks
It's Queens, Brooklyn, and yeah they wildin'
Bronx, Harlem, and Staten Island

she also didn't play "back on the map"

and yeah the setlist wasn't actually short, just in that i wanted it to go on and on.

"i'm ashamed of bush... don't ruin my career" was lol

and yeah lex i should have! but my friend wanted to stay near the front (slightly awkward considering i was probably the tallest person in the room; people behind me must have loved me) and then i didn't see you after the show

She's playing a one-off sort of show here before she heads out with Cornball McHammocktwang. I'm going to try to see it.

Awesome, seeing her in a week now!

totally slanted towards the empathetic side, maybe even the subtext that she herself is thinking the same things (and of course ultimately even more ice cold for it)

this is what i like so much abt this song (not that i saw the performance or anything but yeah)

"Keep It to Yourself" is a highlight; it's sung so tenderly (to herself?) but the words aren't; expresses the relevant ambiguity very well

pretty awesome to end a song, 'mary just don't give a damn no more'—THE END

when i interviewed kacey she urged me to check out someone called brandy clark - i just have and let's just say i'm super-impressed. on first blush fits right into the forthright young country women axis

http://soundcloud.com/brandy-clark-music

"pray to jesus" and "stripes" are the immediate keepers in that soundcloud set but the quality is very high throughout

great great great album btw

She was great tonight. Special radio station show between Kenny Chesney dates. I won a nice poster. My wife left saying she bet Kacey is awesome to hang out with. So charming, lots of fun,

VERY IMPORTANT: if anyone neglected to check out that Brandy Clark album that lex linked to it is pretty much brilliant - at least as good as the Kacey LP tbh, and well worth a listen. It's all available for free download on her soundcloud at 128 kbps and only three tracks have been released as an EP on iTunes, so I don't know what's going on there.

pray to jesus is perfect

crazy women is great

get high is great, albeit a bit pistol annies

illegitimate children is lovely also.

What Will Keep Me Out Of Heaven is THAT COUNTRY REALNESS

it's nice

(Clark co-wrote Mama's Broken Heart and Follow Your Arrow fyi)

"The Dah She Got Divorced " is wonderful!

thanks for the reminder on this; imagine it's going into heavy rotation for a bit.

The lyrics are nothing special -- it's the taunting string arrangement that kills

Yeah, excellent album, thanks to lex for the tip here.

Kree Harrison, a current top 4 contestant on American Idol, is best buds with Kacey, sings on her record, and is I believe the younger sister (or cousin?) of Kacey's guitarist.

Brandy Clark album is pretty strong, especially for being, you know. free.

So has anyone heard Musgraves' earlier releases? Does anyone have any of them? What has she done between then and now?

brandy clark is sad!!!

rural america sure sounds strung the fuck out on the basis of this thread

Brandy Clark is playing NYC this week i think

So has anyone heard Musgraves' earlier releases? Does anyone have any of them?

i was curious about these too. they seem to be extraordinarily rare. the most recent one, self-titled (from 2007, when she was 18) was apparently sold here. but now it is sold out, and, as the site notes, "WHEN THEY'RE GONE, THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF THIS CD... EVER!" however, if you would like to buy a copy, there is one on amazon for $370 rn lol. anyway, apparently the album has a few miranda lambert co-writes on it.

as for the others, idk where they were actually sold. buuut i do see them (+ the 2007 one) on this weird probably-sketchy site called soundsbox?? the preview clips appear to be legitimate... but idk whether to trust the site. it seems to be along the same vein as that alltunes/allofmp3 site from last decade, which sold mp3s for dirt cheap prices and was/is way illegal.

also i am listening to the brandy clark album rn and it is really good!!

ha i asked kacey about them and she was pretty much THANK GOD THOSE ARE NEVER GOING ON ITUNES

she said she started off doing really traditional "yodelly" stuff and also went through a proper emo phase

well i need to talk to kacey musgraves about that immediately

she wasn't proud of it!

She's the Sunday-afternoon opener at Bonnaroo this year. Be interesting to see how she fares there. I imagine "Follow Your Arrow" will go over big.

Honestly, watching her I was wondering how she's been faring opening for Kenny Chesney in giant arenas (stadiums?).

xpost Sounds like Emmylou trying to suppress her own first album! Won't stay missing for long ...

she wasn't proud of it!

well idk i think there are a lot of audible connections between emo crossover and pop country so i just always enjoy seeing that connection made literal

Listening to "Merry Go Round" at the moment... this is really good

http://vimeo.com/34610090

^^^ Most emo-country thing I've ever seen. Surprised this sort of aesthetic isn't more widespread actually.

From the show I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU-FrI7hzoA

Clicked on Matt's link above, wondering what it was, and preparing to type "if you think *that's* emo you wanna take a look at "If I Die Young" by the Band Perry.

Heh.

oh man I like "If I Die Young" a little too much than is healthy, I think

It's time to tip our hats to Miranda Lambert, who with Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, and Pistol Annies albums heads a cottage industry that's produced three of the year's best albums.

i honestly think the brandy clark album/soundcloud set might be the best of the lot (and she falls within that cottage industry, too)

(still working out what i think about the new pistol annies)

seems like women country music artists are just miles ahead of men these days. probably there's a thread about this somewhere. I wonder if it's that the audience for country music these days is heavily women (I think that's true?); because then male singers & songwriters are expected to address different concerns to that audience than women are; & in particular women can give more attention to observation and less on causing things to happen.

Surely many of Lambert's characters cause things to happen...

yeah I don't know how to draw the right contrast

Surely many of Lambert's characters cause things to happen...

Fires to start, bullets to fly, alcohol to be guzzled, new girlfriends to be terrified...

is that the tracklisting?

aw she sang "island in the sun", one of the weezer songs i like :)

apparently brandy clark's album is supposed to see a legit release at some pt this year (or at least that was true in feb. when she gave an interview)

i still need to listen to ashley monroe + pistol annies

she did a cover of miley's "see you again" in 2008

http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=91337732&ac=now

yeah i think her version can be bought on itunes (and a version of "apologize" that she did)

seems like women country music artists are just miles ahead of men these days

I'd say that the same holds true in rock and pop as well, but, yes, I agree with you, women dominate the list of interesting artists in country.

When Sleater-Kinney were at their peak, I remember thinking that women with guitars was the future. I just didn't expect it to be in Nashville.

I think maybe the innately conservative nature of country music makes it easier to make your mark whenever you deviate from the norm. Of course, it doesn't always work out (looking at you, Brad), but women in particular have (and always have had?) perhaps more potential to do something interesting in this milieu. I mean, god knows, the dudes have ruled, but the women (from Patsy to Dolly to Loretta to Emmylou and so on) have always rocked the boat in the best possible way. There's just so much more they can write about, and it doesn't hurt that the mode for young country dudes right now seems to be almost exclusively party music. But then, as Alfred pointed out, it's a pretty close circle of country ladies doing the interesting stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/arts/music/out-and-riding-high-in-nashville.html?hp&_r=0

Changes do seem to be afoot in Nashville. Mr. McAnally cites the reaction to Ms. Musgraves’s debut, the closest thing country has to a Generation Y manifesto, as evidence of “hunger” for a new kind of country music. The close-knit group of collaborators that produced that album includes Mr. McAnally; Ms. Musgraves; Mr. Osborne; Luke Laird, a songwriter-producer with dozens of hits under his belt; and Brandy Clark, a rising singer-songwriter, and a lesbian.

Like previous Nashville iconoclasts they are changing country from the inside, upholding its songwriting traditions while tweaking its clichés and tipping its sacred cows. Ms. Musgraves’s mission statement song is “Follow Your Arrow,” co-written by Mr. McAnally and Ms. Clark, which spunkily advocates nonconformity of various kinds, including same-sex romance: “Make lots of noise/Kiss lots of boys/Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into,” Ms. Musgraves sings.

Ms. Musgraves recalled the “Follow Your Arrow” co-write: “I had a few lines, ‘Make lots of noise, kiss lots of boys.’ I was like: ‘I wish I could just say: ‘Or kiss lots of girls.’ And Shane was like, ‘Why can’t you?’ I’m not sure that line would have happened if Shane wasn’t in the room.”

great feature

very nice, didn't know McAnally was gay.

still want to think more about the correlation between today's *audience* of country music, & the success of McAnally & the coterie of singers mentioned in the article---like, what is it about that audience that primes them to respond to these songs? maybe the answer is, nothing, duh, they're just good songs, nice melodies, good singing...but I think there's more than that to it. but it hasn't been the month for me to do that thinking alas.

love the "Blowin' Smoke" video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEsEUpk5rU8

Wow, that McAnally story read like a major piece. Clip and save.

I think the success of the songs he and slightly similar writers have come up with stems from something I think I mentioned upthread. Country music is still so formally conservative that it doesn't take much to stick out. At the same time, many of its fans are so attuned to its tropes that they've become really sensitive (in every sense) listeners, receptively picking out every witty turn of phrase and totally aware of the subtleties of each track's narrative. It's also a fan base pretty evenly divided between men and women, so the audience is by definition broad. Play by the rules as a writer and, ironically, you are accorded more freedom to flaut the rules, since once you've hooked a fan base they'll have your back forever.

right; I think in your last sentence you mean "rules" in two different senses, though. in the first instance you mean the "formal" rules: these are melodic & textural rules. then in the second instance, you mean the topical rules: what you can talk about. in the second sense though you can't flaunt things too much: the audience isn't gonna buy much in the way of say science fiction (Joe Diffie's "Third Rock from the Sun" pushes that about as far as you can go). You gotta write about things that are "real". but what's "real" for country's audience today is pretty broad! & as long you're writing hooks that meet the formal rules, you can stray pretty far from conservative orthodoxy...as long as you're staying within what's real for that audience. homosexuality is nowadays within its audience's real.

I loved that piece! Would jam with Scott.

Country music is still so formally conservative that it doesn't take much to stick out. At the same time, many of its fans are so attuned to its tropes that they've become really sensitive (in every sense) listeners, receptively picking out every witty turn of phrase and totally aware of the subtleties of each track's narrative. It's also a fan base pretty evenly divided between men and women, so the audience is by definition broad. Play by the rules as a writer and, ironically, you are accorded more freedom to flaut the rules, since once you've hooked a fan base they'll have your back forever.

This is how genre fiction works, too, you know. Mystery fans and airport-thriller fans and horror fans and sci-fi fans all know what they want, and the folks who play within the rules but tweak them in some small but vital way rocket to the top of the heap with astonishing speed.

Re Kacey Musgraves, I read that Times article this morning and checked for her on YouTube - the first performance I came across was "Merry Go Round," from a recent awards show, and I didn't like it much. But I'm listening to the album on Spotify now and it's pretty good. I don't totally love her voice, though - it's too crystal clear and pretty-girl chirpy for me, I wish it had more grit to it.

i think ultimately one of the album's greatest charms is the not-quite-right voice and the tension between it and the material. if she was a sassy big-voiced Gretchen Wilson type it'd be a whole other deal.

i think the voice fits in with sort of an i've-got-a-song-to-sing posture that clicks with the characterization of self and surroundings going on in the songs

euler otm about the real.

Really like Brandy Clark, the songs are just so well done. Lots of great little touches:

-leaving out the final refrain of "Divorce" is such a nice move, the song just hangs there as it fades out....
-love the organ and guitar swells in "Hungover", and the half chorus is another tasty choice...
-"Stripes": I'm a sucker for this sound, and dropping back to the minor chord on the final word, "stripes" in the chorus is just delicious....
-"He's some stranger's husband, and I'm some stranger's wife" is the heartbreakingest line I've heard in a long time....

Good stuff

She's doing a stadium tour now opening for Eric Church, Ely Young Band , and headliner Kenny Chesney. Chesney has brought her onstage on multiple gigs on the tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxqtXt5SvUY

she don't sound so great in that video honestly but i dunno if she's built for stadium performance

she'll def never headline one, which i think makes tours like that kinda neat

her voice is too plain to suit arenas (which I suppose is why her club reviews got early notice).

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50144348n

old-ish news feature on her. doesn't say anything too exciting but still a nice watch.

Really like Brandy Clark, the songs are just so well done. Lots of great little touches:

-leaving out the final refrain of "Divorce" is such a nice move, the song just hangs there as it fades out....
-love the organ and guitar swells in "Hungover", and the half chorus is another tasty choice...
-"Stripes": I'm a sucker for this sound, and dropping back to the minor chord on the final word, "stripes" in the chorus is just delicious....
-"He's some stranger's husband, and I'm some stranger's wife" is the heartbreakingest line I've heard in a long time....

Good stuff

― m0stlyClean, Monday, May 27, 2013 8:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

all otm

i have so many thoughts on brandy clark that i haven't managed to write down yet - i didn't know she was a lesbian

she seems to have taken down all but four songs from her soundcloud? so glad i got them before she did that. further research indicates that "the day she got divorced" has been done by reba mcentire and "crazy women" by leann rimes - neither as good as clark's own versions

"just like him" is exactly as much of a sucker punch as she intends it to be, especially the big line about love being like coming home but she came from a broken one

i'm hoping the soundcloud thing means they're gonna get a move-on with releasing the album for purchase... but who knows.

nyt piece can't have hurt

http://www.mtv.com/videos/brandy-clark/933582/stripes.jhtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgSLZvV9-Oc

woof
i hope she got well paid at least

this : Spaghetti Warehouse :: Taylor Swift : Katy Perry

that has to be the saddest oreo commercial ever

haha that song is actually kind of great. inspired me to go back to the album after leaving it alone for a while, and shit this thing is breaking my heart all over again.

this album has helped me a lot this year... feeling stuck, lost and occasionally going 'idgaf' :\

yeah it really nails a very particular state that is not great to be in and that there is not a lot of music that really articulates it so well

It's my wife's favorite album since high school, and that was, um, a while ago.

feel that way too dyl, especially about back on the map and is what it is

man do i ever wanna go off somewhere with her and settle into a satisfying marriage

i know it is borderline cruel to unearth something from when someone was a kid for one's amusement but i am just really glad she was an avril lavigne fan in 2002 <3

http://web.archive.org/web/20021020021100/http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kidscoops/story/0,14989,365507,00.html

"I’m really a big fan of punk music, although yodeling and that don’t go very well together. That will be for me to decide later."

Would buy.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/12/3_Bar_Ranch_Cattle_Callin%27.jpeg/220px-3_Bar_Ranch_Cattle_Callin%27.jpeg

Never let it be said that Hank Williams III hasn't brought something new and different to the world of heavy metal. Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers once opined that a really fast speed metal tune was roughly the same tempo as an ordinary bluegrass breakdown, and Hank3 seems to have reached a similar corollary regarding the verbal speed of punk rock howlers like H.R. of the Bad Brains or Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, and the syllable-crushing skills of a good auctioneer. Credited to Hank 3's 3 Bar Ranch, Cattle Callin is a 75-minute exercise in a genre Williams calls "Cattle Core," in which he marries speed metal guitar figures and high velocity double-kick drumming to recordings of livestock auctioneers as Hank cranks out neck-snapping tempos and sheets of metallic noise, while guys shout out one price after another for this steer or that heifer with a velocity that makes Hank sound like he's the one straining to keep up. If this sounds like a joke, Hank seems to be having fun with it, but he also shows a genuine respect for the these guys and their very real talents, and the music he weaves around the auctioneer's calls not only makes reasonable sense but twists in and out of the patterns of these found vocals with rough-hewn grace (though the pace is fast and relentless enough that there isn't much rhythmic ebb and flow).

follow your arrow is the next radio single it seems

oh huh

split between "hey, awesome" and a fleeting "woof, right before radio switches over to Christmas programming"

oh c'mon, it's not like radio doesn't break any songs in the 4th quarter of the year

ha, yeah, hence "fleeting"

"Merry Go Round" was released last September & it did ok!

shepherds bush show tonight! anyone else reaching?

it wasn't a single already??

me and teenaged me love this record so much

she did some nice work on jools holland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSvWO3Geai4

How was last night, The Lex? I couldn't make it, sadly.

Celebratory, great fun show last night. Couple of covers I didn't expect - Lovefool and something by Weezer (according to friend's audio recognition app). Very appreciative audience too.

yeah it was a surprisingly pan-genre show. she did the weezer song last time (i don't know it) but i was surprised by "i put a spell on you" and "three little birds"! both played quite straight, she didn't pretend to be a torch singer or (thankfully) do reggae, but she didn't countrify them either. she did a great job of linking them to her own songs: during "i put a spell on you" i was thinking, this reminds me of her bluesy version of "mama's broken heart" - which she then segued into. and during "step off" i thought, wow, never noticed the kind of ska rhythm, can totally imagine a reggae version of this song and then she segued into "three little birds".

pretty packed house and audience loved it, amazed by how much she's blown up - it was barely 6 months ago that she played to a not-at-all-sold-out bush hall.

i really love how undramatic her "mama's broken heart" is compared with miranda's raging theatricality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-52LXiKaNlE

man that sounds awesome, excited to see her in a couple weeks

Just heard Same Trailer Different Park this weekend, recommended weirdly enough by someone I know as mainly a fan of dancehall/grime (lex might know him actually)...have fallen head over heels in love with it, so replayable!

What other stuff out there sounds like this?

Apparently, the Brandy Clark album. But I haven't actually heard that yet.

Otherwise, Pistol Annies and Miranda Lambert.

yeah the brandy clark album is incredible - she co-wrote a good chunk of the musgraves album so is probably the closest in terms of sound/songwriting. pistol annies debut is essential (their second album is good too). miranda lambert's entire career too, especially crazy ex-girlfriend. also would suggest sunny sweeney's concrete from a couple of years back - she's been a bit silent since then and a bit forgotten (last i looked she was crowdfunding the follow-up) but she absolutely belongs in the conversation

someone I know as mainly a fan of dancehall/grime (lex might know him actually)

any clues? i didn't think any of my dancehall/grime crew were paying attention when i talked about country, would be nice to be proved wrong

oh yeah and (another third of pistol annies) ashley monroe's like a rose

2***n?

nah don't know him

Ahhhh.

Will grab the other stuff you two have bigged up, cheers!

Lex is the expert here but Brandy Clark and Ashley Monroe are my post-Kacey finds.

Other things you might want to have a listen to, which might be a bit too, uh, country to match your request but which I love:

Lee Ann Womack, whose atitude is very different but, oh my, some of those songs. The last two LPs ("There's More Where That Came From" and "Call Me Crazy") are amazing, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS35hISn7x0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKTr9pKw-5I

I can't find a better link to hearing "Sleeping With The Devil" than the clip of it on Amazon but it's an amazing record: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-With-The-Devil/dp/B004MZC8Z4/ref=sr_1_4?s=dmusic

when i interviewed shane mcanally he said he got his first big writing break with lee ann womack, who was his favourite country singer back then!

xpost Wow! I dodn't know that!

("Sleeping With The Devil" is by Brennen Leigh btw, which is obv if you clicked the link but not obv if you didn't and thought it was more Lee Ann.)

I feel a bit bad for Sunny Sweeney, I'm not sure why she's not bigger than she is, you get the feeling she can't get nayone in the country music establishment to care about her.

the Brandy Clark album is good not great: her strength (modesty, well-observed songs) is also her weakness.

I can't recommend Lee Ann Womack's There's More Where That Came From more highly enough though.

the Brandy Clark album is good not great: her strength (modesty, well-observed songs) is also her weakness.

this is only a weakness in terms of her crossover potential, not in terms of the actual album or songs

really liked your recent feature in the guardian lex!

ashley monroe's like a rose

^^^

xp thx dyl

one of my favourite moments on like a rose is the "you got me"/"the morning after" double-header midway through, where she first uses unhealthy romantic obsession as a metaphor for substance addiction and then vice versa

also "you got me" is her str8-up most gorgeous melody

Agreed. Title track second.

I like Like a Rose more than 12 Stories: funnier, more gothic, better sung. but I'm delighted we have both! think I prefer the 2nd Pistol Annies to the 1st too

cma new artist of the year

the new(?) song she has been doing on her tour "rainbow" is really beautiful

also this happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFzv-UdAm7A

Surprised to find out that Brandy Clark wrote a chunk of this album, because I've played Same Trailer Different Park more than most albums this year and can't get into the Brandy record at all. Partly because its character observations just feel dull to me, whereas the Kacey album has so much more spark and wit.

I've played the Caitlin Rose album a ton this year as well, maybe that's at the slightly indier end of the spectrum but it's also great.

Miranda Lambert is the one with the really undeniable vocal presence though - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hits so many different registers and comes screaming out of the blocks faster than most albums I can think of.

Listened to STDP for the first time yesterday. Wow, goosebumps, instant love. (NB I almost never listen to country music. The last time was probably Gillian Welch, if that even counts, which it probably doesn't.)

I wondered if I was overrating STDP because of the novelty of finding a modern country album I like but damn it holds up

also this happened

collllllddd

i'm not sure about the timing, but maybe she was pissed about being censored on the tv broadcast of her performance of 'follow your arrow' during the show?

http://tasteofcountry.com/kacey-musgraves-follow-your-arrow-censored-2013-cma-awards/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnkfiLvZUIk

It's a bit of burying the lede there. After all, TV/radio has a long history of censoring mentions of drug use. Granted, it's erratic, but it'd be more of a bad thing if they somehow subverted or censored the sentiment of the song rather than that one detail.

that is what i expected at first - maybe that they'd censor the 'kiss lots of girls' part.

but oh well, censorship is censorship, can't make an artist happy.

the censorship was so puzzling because they left in her mention of crack

"you're on crack" among a country audience is not an unrecognizable metaphoic insult
"roll up a joint" as a recommendation followed by "i would" is to raw for a still criminalized action
unless you're talking about hitting somebody or shooting obama i guess

"roll up a joint" as a recommendation followed by "i would" is to raw for a still criminalized action

predictably my fave line on the record

Also, "you're on crack" is a pejorative.

dude, i misspelled "to" so probably best not to split hairs

Just say you were on crack and it's all good.

brb kissing lots of girls

She's coming to town next year, opening for Lady Antebellum and tickets are pretty cheap (and by cheap, I mean $30). Should I go? On one hand, Kacey. OTOH, Lady Antebellum.

Lady Antebellum have at least half an album of good tunes, and "Downtown" is fabulous.

I'm getting the sense from this thread that a lot of what people love about Musgraves comes down to the lyrical content, something that rarely matters in a big way for me as a positive (though it can matter as turnoff) about music. This especially jumps out in xhuxk's review. Maybe I read it too quickly but it seems overwhelming about what the music is "about." Also, all of this: popular music talking about the underbelly of society! excitement is a bit puzzling. I know we are talking country specifically, but is it really that unusual country? I'm sure I must be missing some more basic musical appeal here. It's probably just not (currently) for me, I still am not much of a country fan; though I have been checking out a little Leann Rimes (I love "Blue"), inspired by talking with a young aspiring country singer I know with a much less than six degress of separation connection to Rimes.

It's not that I find what I've heard of the Musgraves album unpleasant, but it just doesn't excite me. I'll probably try again at some point.

that's why I prefer the Ashley Monroe album: it's more interesting musically.

x-post

To pick it up from a different end, I'd be interested in hearing more about what people like about the way this music sounds. Maybe I've missed it. I know there have been some specific (but general) comments on what's special about Musgraves' delivery.

inspired by talking with a young aspiring country singer I know

A very young, not unattractive aspiring country singer, tbf.

I'll be honest, I came to Musgraves as mostly an outsider to modern country music, like besides T. Swift, Miranda Lambert, etc., so I don't really have a lot to go by besides lyrical content.

Well, the music doesn't sound like Def Leppard, so that's something that sets it apart from a lot of radio country. It's not afraid to be quiet or sound like people playing in a the same room. It's not afraid to be thoughtful or sensitive or sound like something other than the soundtrack to kegs being loaded off the back of a pick-up because Friday night woooo! I mean, it's no avant-skronk boundary pushing fusion or anything but Musgraves seems to recognize that there are various boundaries in country music just as she recognizes that there are subtle and smart ways to sneak past them.

Well, the music doesn't sound like Def Leppard

And xhuxk still likes it?!

it's an interesting question. i normally don't put a ton of importance on lyrics -- a lot of my favorite songs i still don't know the lyrics to, and i'll just sing along in some soundalike gibberish if i'm so compelled -- and yet i do think the lyrics on this album are especially tough to separate out from its sound (and indeed, at her recent show, i found myself singing along to every single word). sometimes what i love about the way the record sounds is how well it evokes the lyrical content: the guitar solo at the end of the "i miss you" chorus as a lonely call; the carefree lazy sound of the plucked banjo at the beginning of "it is what it is" like a resigned shrug of the shoulders. and sometimes it's in contrast: the warm, softly atmospheric shimmer of "keep it to yourself" only just hinting at the sympathetic subtext underneath her harsh words. but the lyrics are the center of it all -- there's nothing about the sound that's inherently new or exciting or hip, but it works so well for me.

I caught her live show the other night and was impressed. She has a new song called "High Time" that I like quite a bit.

i like that her songs are often about smoking weed

A friend of mine noted how often that seems to be popping up in country. Part of it is a continuation of the hip-hop-to-country crossover.

i can only think of like two musgraves songs that mention weed and one of them is not on the album

i can think of at least two on the album

"merry go round," "follow your arrow," probably others - i feel like "blowing smoke" might ref it too?

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2013/03/kellychristinephotocomwhere_th.php?page=all

Mentioned in the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWjtWONuGc

Oh, here we go:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/05/marijuana_and_country_music_kacey_musgraves_pistol_annies_and_other_weed.html

"High Time":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDFNy89jkls

I guess you can interpret it as being about weed: "It's hi-i-i-i-i-gh time / to slow my roll" ha ha, but it's a pretty ballad that I hope makes the cut for her next album.

There are live videos from a few years back of her performing an early, shaky tune that’s nonetheless saved by its refrain: “I’m not good at being careful, I just say what’s on my mind/ My idea of heaven is to burn one with John Prine.”

that's the other one i was thinking of. i forgot merry go round lol

http://galesofnovember.tumblr.com/post/68418888607/i-aint-one-to-knock-religion-though-its-always

seems to be a studio version of the song josh mentions. it's pretty great

there's nothing about the sound that's inherently new or exciting or hip, but it works so well for me

Novelty is overrated anyway. Craft and charm are underrated.

DLOTM.

also think that if you're insistent that lyrics a priori don't matter to you, there's not much i can say that'll convince you kacey is great because she probably isn't for you

Wrote an end of year summary piece for Crack magazine on sincerity in 2013, KM is a pivotal part of it. I'm never not crushed by "I got a big smile on my face/It's the best one I can fake
I'm as happy as half a heart can do"

Kacey is also by some distance the most WKIW pop star of the year. The album makes her sound like she would be great fun to get drunk with.

Absolutely. She's the most likeable pop star around. That's the genius of Follow Your Arrow for me - subversive (in country music terms) sentiments delivered in the most winningly casual way, with nothing strident or self-congratulatory about it. I played it to a class I was teaching about protest songs the other day and they were all instantly won over. The "whor……ible person" line does it every time.

I heard part of an interview with Linda Ronstadt yesterday. In it, she recalled the first time hearing Emmylou Harris, being in almost total awe, and having to decide, split decision: would I rather be her friend or be her rival? She chose friend, and it benefited them both. Which is a sideways way of saying how glad I am that this particular group of writers and singers, the dudes (mostly writers) and the girls, are so in sync. Musgraves, Clarke, Monroe, Lambert ... It's amounting to a real satisfying body of work accumulated over a short time. When is Angaleena Presley releasing a record?

Oh hey, a video for "Follow Your Arrow"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8xqyoZXCc

Ha, that must be the cheapest video ever made. Way to budget, Kacey!

Anyone know anything about the dudes in her band? They seemed like a really good match for her live, and it's nice that she's stuck with them.

they were definitely a good live match for her. i believe she is dating one of them as well.

Oh no, that never ends well ...

Love hearing "Follow Your Arrow" on the radio almost every day. Love the kids singing along with it in the back seat. Makes me feel like I'm living the ending of some whimsical indie dramedy.

do they edit out the smoke a joint line from the radio?

No, not on country music, at least. Surprisingly.

they don't edit out talk of getting stoned on Johnny Cash songs, or Hank Jr songs (prolly a bunch of others too) so I wouldn't expect country radio to edit Kacey Musgraves either

any guesses as to which would be the biggest vote-getter in 2013 polls, 'merry go round' or 'smoke' or 'arrow'?

last December I first heard "Merry Go Round" in the radio while driving through Nashville. today I heard on the same station again driving through, but this year the dj was effusive about her accomplishments this year. very cool year!

arrow was around longer and made the rounds on the awards show, so i'd guess that.

no, i think 'merry go round' was around longer - technically a 2012 single - and was nommed for awards etc., but 'arrow' is fresher, maybe more prone to attract votes?

my guess is that "blowin' smoke" will be mostly neglected, with "merry go 'round" and "follow your arrow" sharing the attention.

if we're talking pazz & jop, it's worth noting that "merry go 'round" already placed there last year (25th). i am guessing, since many didn't hear the song until she started getting lots of press in 2013 (i myself didn't hear the song until it was peaking at radio -- maybe january?), that it'll get votes this year as well. p&j does that thing where it includes a song's votes from the previous year if the number of new votes is great enough (i think at least ~half the previous total), so if that happens it could place again, presumably higher.

yes, that was my reason for wondering about the probable numbers

if only 'stupid' was a single, then i could vote my heart :/

kacey performed WITH MIGUEL at a carole king tribute concert and i am distraught that i can't find video anywhere :(

!!!!!!!!

i like this album!

Which Carole King song did they do (assuming they did one)?

Also Bob Harris (Time Out founder/Old Grey Whistle Test Presenter) put 'Merry Go Round' on his Desert Island Discs this week, which was pretty cool.

the article i saw says they covered the everly bros "crying in the rain". still doesn't seem to be any video out there alas...

https://community.focusonthefamily.com/b/pluggedin/archive/2014/01/28/a-real-low-point-for-the-grammys-and-it-39-s-not-what-you-think.aspx

yasssss this was always coming, RW xtian blog about kacey that basically calls her the ACTUAL DEVIL

it's true, she has a surprise guest appearance on the new behemoth even

Musgraves has bought into the same "apple," and would love to have music fans everywhere join her in the fruity snack

Follow Your Apple

Music fans everywhere! Join her in the fruity snack!

i dont listen to country really but just posting to say this album rules

The wife and I happened upon the Grammy performance of "Follow Your Arrow," and I just saw the CD on sale at Target for only $7.50 so we picked it up. I am one of those people who say "I hate country music but I love Johnny Cash" to the annoyance of many bu it's kind of true.

just did austin city limits
http://acltv.com/artist/kacey-musgraves/

apparently at a recent show w/ lady antebellum she said "keep it to yourself" is being released as a new radio single: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/music-review-lady-antebellum-and-kacey-musgraves-at-the-patriot-center/2014/02/23/90734364-9ca5-11e3-8112-52fdf646027b_story.html

happy about that bc it is my favorite on the album but also bc it probably means she is not being rushed to crank out a second album too soon

i think it's just a great indication that the label is being supportive of an album that has not really been a blockbuster. probably all that airtime on The Grammys helped them decide to release a 4th single.

Some Lady A fans may be getting to the gigs early and discovering her via the live show too

Now she's gonna go out on tour with Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss...Getting her name out to their audiences instead

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlNFDAiIgAAMqtO.jpg

(From FB) She was just working with Brian Wilson

http://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10300691_626616574079789_6575597291140894559_n.jpg

so not gonna happen

studio version of live staple "the trailer song" has been released to itunes etc

it's pretty nice and i did enjoy it at her show but i understand it having been left off the album

Covered No Scrubs live tonight <3333

Nice. Any new material?

yeah, a couple of new ones, one was a charming song about weed and another was a charming kinda-rewrite of "follow your arrow"

she said she hasn't had time to write much and apologised for playing same trailer songs but she's going back in the studio in the autumn

sounds like a familiar story: second album harder to write b/c artist on the road.

second album after major label debut that is

:\ i hope she's not tempted to churn out rewrites of "follow your arrow"

http://m.cmt.com/news/1731108/

Glad to hear it is with the same creative team

Charming as ever last night. Three new-ish songs - "Biscuits," "High Time" and "Cup of Tea," each very much in the vein of her other stuff. Bunch of great covers, including Dolly's "Here You Come Again" and TLC's "No Scrubs." Cool light up suits and boots. And cacti.

Mama's Broken Heart, written by musgraves (and clarke and mcanally) rereleased as a Kacey single on Spotify after showing up on Miranda's last album back
it's pretty great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEmFr53keqI

i've been into her version for a while so that's really nice. wish it were available for purchase tho :(

Recently got to play with John Prine

[Removed Illegal Image]

^ salacious

It's in This

I think she's on the new Brian Wilson, for some reason?

Yup.

http://www.countryweekly.com/sites/countryweekly.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/screen-shot-2014_04_21-at-1.jpg

Brian's been collecting the Manic Pixie Singer Girls

http://www.jambands.com/images/2014/07/18/51692/20140716-brianwilson-x600-1405541382-353x.jpg

her second album is apparently finished and the single will be out in a few weeks: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/6487352/kacey-musgraves-keith-urban-eric-church-umg-crs-showcase-nashville

it's the song "gravy" that she has performed live over the past while. unless she has rewritten the song to be different from how it sounded in live performance i honestly don't really like it, it's clearly meant to be a less lyrically 'controversial' "follow your arrow" and some of the similarities in melody and progression are so blatant as to be distracting

er sorry the song is called "biscuits" as if that makes much difference lol

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10959765_796252447116200_4528675302121849571_n.jpg?oh=5c2347fd4a61ace377ee89cced98163e&oe=558AACD7&__gda__=1435152573_3b77c720209f883868febe705167d09f

"Biscuits" is on the radio and stuff enough to chart on the Hot 100 this week but the studio version is impossible to find online because the label keeps pulling it anywhere it's posted until the iTunes release on the 17th. kind of aggravating, i really wanna hear it.

https://soundcloud.com/becky-isbell/biscuits-by-kacey-musgraves
get it while you can; it's pretty good

hot take here on listen one but this sound like a more crossover friendly version of Follow Your Arrow with a lotta Miranda thrown in and wonkiness and banjo solos
i think this could blow up bigger than anything she's done prior and hopefully the album will have some new wrinkles to enjoy.

it's mostly a countrified:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PXUnrCeZnE

she's been playing this live - nice enough, an obvious "lead single to follow a breakthrough", pretty sure it'll be the least exciting thing on the album

Thx for the link, and thanks to Becky Isbell for the good initiative.

Will make for a nice track on the album but found "Love is a Liar" a much more interesting song. Her down-to-earth-trailer-persona comes through well on this, but I prefer the torn-in-love-stuff.

lex otm

it had better be the least exciting thing on the album b/c i'm pretty disappointed with it

otm

you only just now heard it!

yeah but it's so much like "Follow Your Arrow" that I'm disappointed. I dunno, it'll be nice enough on the album.

It sounds exactly like Follow Your Arrow. Assumed the eerie silence in this thread since it leaked reflected the collective shrug

i like this song

she has a sound

it's a good sound

xp i heard this song at a live show a long time ago and didn't particularly like it then either

also heard the studio version a few days ago

agree that of her post-STDP songs, "love is a liar" is miles better and more interesting

Like the songs on STDP it's simple yet gets better with every listen and of course it includes the hilarious line If love wore pants they'd always be on fire

there was something about "Follow Your Arrow" that always fell short for me, so this is an improvement imo, especially melodically

"Follow Your Arrow" sounded facile and pat -- lyrically and melodically. This is better (e.g. the banjo and pedal steel solos), but it plays as if the songwriters were so in love with the title concept that they failed to imagine an accompanying song.

It's closer to "Step Off' than "Follow Your Arrow" IMO, though all that really means is that "mind your own business" is a recurrent lyrical motif for Kacey.

Musically/arrangement-wise it's not really much like either (or anything else from the debut).

musically it is basically a facsimile of "follow your arrow" tho

I don't like it - sounds overproduced and generic. Not every one on the debut is a keeper though.

"Biscuits" is catchy, fine, but it also feels like pandering to me -- in a way that nothing on the first album really did, for all its homegrown cornpone.

new album june 9th, pageant material

1. "High Time" (written by Kacey Musgraves, Luke Laird and Shane McAnally)
2. "Dime Store Cowgirl" (Musgraves, Laird, McAnally)
3. "Late to the Party" (Musgraves, Brandy Clark, Josh Osborne)
4. "Pageant Material" (Musgraves, Laird, McAnally)
5. "This Town" (Musgraves, Laird, Clark)
6. "Biscuits" (Musgraves, McAnally, Osborne)
7. "Somebody to Love" (Musgraves, McAnally, Osborne)
8. "Miserable" (Musgraves, Osborne, Clark)
9. "Die Fun" (Musgraves, Laird, McAnally)
10. "Family is Family" (Musgraves, McAnally, Osborne)
11. "Good Ol' Boys Club" (Musgraves, Laird, Natalie Hemby)
12. "Cup of Tea" (Musgraves, McAnally, Osborne)
13. "Fine" (Musgraves, Ashley Arrison, Shane McAnally)

promising titles all around

i wonder if any of them will be about how people should mind their own business

don't you worry your pretty little head about that

lol

i am kind of excited though, the wait won't be very long at all

considering that i have not heard her new single on the radio even once yet (like i even heard "keep it to yourself" ~5 times and that was not exactly a big radio smash) i was worried they might hold off giving the album a release date but thankfully not. (not that i am aching to hear "biscuits" on the radio or anything, i still am not a big fan.)

has anyone else heard this album yet?

i am...a little disappointed. it's fine, i guess. her songwriting has taken a turn for the trite :/

all the same cowriters?

can't remember offhand but largely, yeah

hmm that is disappointing. will check it out tho

i wonder if any of them will be about how people should mind their own business
― Premise ridiculous. Who have two potato? (forksclovetofu), Sunday, April 26, 2015

don't you worry your pretty little head about that
― j., Sunday, April 26, 2015

"Trite" is precisely the word I'd use.

I blame all the dang pot smoking.

i blame the touring and limelight, her twitter is just so POSI it's sad : /

What's the ratio of detached ironic kacey to sincere kacey?

i'm glad we can all preemptive dogpile on the presumed Bad Album based on a couple sentences from the only person here who's heard it

"Trite" or "cute?" Either way, I'm looking forward to this. Country weathers trite just fine.

that's why some of us who've heard the album can say it's trite

xpost

http://www.thefader.com/2015/05/28/kacey-musgraves-cover-story-pageant-material-interview

terrible headline imo

terrible lede, terrible sentences

don't think this is a dogpile so much as it is people taking easy shots at the artist who has been putting out multiple singles that sound very much alike
i'm looking forward to hearing this, as much as to gauge where mcanally and osborne and brandy clark are headed.
Does clark have music on this album?

"Musgraves’ already-trademark brand of kitschy, catchy country tunes"

this is some "I come to bury Caesar not praise him" shit.

i don't mean to take shots, i haven't heard the record, but i love the last one so much i am looking forward to the new one with apprehension

I want to love it so much that i can't accept that it will me less than awesome.

lol/smh at the title line of "biscuits" having been written while they were writing "follow your arrow"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK3siVvUT5A

slow-waltzing closing track, “Fine.”

maybe this was written at the same time as "it is what it is"?

ok i'll stop, i still have hope i will enjoy this album

OK, I've given it a quick listen and yeah, sometimes trite isn't far off the mark. It's also a little too ... gentle? Safe? A little too campfire on the beach? But her vocals/melodies are fine, and it's got a nice, chill vibe all the same. I look forward to spending some quality time with it.

now i'm gentting sad. three people saying (almost) the same.

i mean when i heard her play "high time" live i described it as having a "polynesian feel" but i meant that as a compliment

"Biscuits" is a better song than "Follow Your Arrow" idc idc

lol @ the fader story, if this means hipster music writers are gonna start getting into country after ignoring it all these years...

i really love "follow your arrow" for many reasons but i doubt i'd have become as enamoured of kacey if STDP had been that level of songwriting x 12

"Musgraves’ already-trademark brand of kitschy, catchy country tunes"

the thing with this album is that it feels like she's getting into the box that's been created for her; even its better songs feel like pandering, to an extent

ugh @ all of this

follow the money wherever it points

I like how "Biscuits" is basically the same song, but different. When I saw her play it live, for some reason I didn't think of "Arrow." And when she did "High Time" live, I definitely got the Hawaii vibe, too, which is one reason why I described the feel of the album as kind of beachy. That could potentially position it for a summer crossover, but it's so mellow and not rock the boat that it sort of smooths itself into a corner. Again, not bad, often lovely, lots to like, sounds like her, just not assertive enough to make an impression other than the fact that it doesn't make much of an impression. That is disappointing, even if little on the record is objectively sub-par.

Will I curse things if I concede I've got high hopes for the new Ashley Monroe?

OMG, I was playing the album for my wife, who is a HUGE fan of the last album - like, a weekly listener - and she mentioned this morning that "one of the new songs is the same as one of the old songs, just with different lyrics!" She meant is as a complement, actually.

http://www.stereogum.com/1804629/shamir-merry-go-round-kacey-musgraves-cover/mp3s/

also, via factcheckingcuz:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/05/27/sexist-tomato-barb-launches-food-fight-music-row/28036657/

(also too much time on ilx but i could only think of http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=77&threadid=72829 )

The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that.

Yeah, lame-ass fast food iceberg lettuce.

shamir is such an irritant

dunno about that but i'm not feeling that cover

OK, this hit the spot a bit better tonight (thanks, beer!), but I think the problem is not really that it's trite but that its production choices and arrangements are too timid. By choice, sure - she made the decision - but it hurts the album, imo. There's only one outright stinker, "Late to the Party" (which sounds like Norah Jones covering "Tears In Heaven") but the rest are pretty solid songs crying for a little more oomph and diversity.

she played "Family Is Family" on Seth Meyers the other night, really like that one

First listen after a long day and so far this is really hitting the spot

the strings and handclaps on the opener seem like pretty clear signs?

y'all got me ready to feel underwhelmed by this but the first three tracks rule? especially "late to the party"?

There's only one outright stinker, "Late to the Party" (which sounds like Norah Jones covering "Tears In Heaven") but the rest are pretty solid songs crying for a little more oomph and diversity.

lol nahhh

"miserable"! and "die fun"!

haha i haven't listened proper yet but i DID find myself thinking '… this sounds like tears in heaven…'

revisited it with "tears in heaven" deliberately in my head and again nah

Whatever "Late to the Party" sounds like, it's about 15 minutes too long.

it's so sweet!

anyway

Will I curse things if I concede I've got high hopes for the new Ashley Monroe?

i also have high hopes, the title track is incredible

imo the weakest song here is the title track and it's still pretty charming. i would suggest the album is maybe compromised by her writing from a more general perspective but the most egregious example of this, "somebody to love," is completely gorgeous and precise, so lol

precision is what this album really lacks to me, i hear her singing about cardboard characters and simplistic archetypes (of places as well as people) and hardly any of the nuance that made STDP so special. it sounds like an album made by someone who knows that the mainstream know her via katy perry. sort of disappointed by how low it aims, mostly: lots of easy-to-hum songs, hardly any easy-to-love songs. "good ol boys club" and "fine" are slightly better i guess

lol y'all made this sound like 13 "follow your arrow"s in a row and maybe that's why i'm surprised by how vivid and effective it is

anyway it sounds like an album made by someone who knows that the mainstream know her via katy perry is not what i get from this record at all and is really uh :\

even the more intimate songs are trite though, almost every song follows the same formula, i don't hear anything vivid here

and SO MUCH peppy repetition where STDP had so many lines that surprised me or undercut what had gone before or took the song in a different direction...like i feel you pretty much know where every song on this album is going from its title and first line

there are verses and choruses on this record, true

will say there's no image as flexible here as "blowin' smoke"

OK, I've got my copy. Let's seem how many of you fuckers are wrong.

i also think this record is great musically

It's certainly ... tasteful.

"Pageant Material" is the first cornball thing she's written.

"This Town" is Miranda Lambert's "Famous in a Small Town" and "Fastest Girl in Town" but I love the arrangement.

and using the Killers trick too

I never want to hear "Somebody to Love" again.

don't you want some 'somebody to love' to love?

y'all are so weird

I just listened to it once in my workplace, but it doesn't seem as awful as everyone is telling. from a first listen (without too much attention, i know) i had a good impression of it. It's not a STDP, but it's probably very good.

"family is family" is easily the worst thing here right? sets my teeth on edge

"cup of tea" is almost laughable, like you're really going to write this song AGAIN

"this town" does sound lovely but i feel that the group of artists musgraves comes from has portrayed small town life with so much more depth and nuance already

"late to the party"is a really sweet song -- nice to hear a straight up love song from her

"pageant material" and "this town" are a bit of a speed bump but otherwise i think this is pretty strong -- not as good as same trailer but also enough of a sidestep that i think it works on its own terms

it's a sweet and graceful album

I've got a discussion on my FB wall with a few critics about McAnally, Clark, Musgraves, queer in country, the lapse into cuteness, etc.

"Miserable" is my favorite today.

i didn't like the first few songs i heard - so much strummyness - so i'm just gonna let this happen when it happens

j0rd otm.

If you set a low bar I guess she's cleared it, sure

think this album is straight up great ... i don't think it sounds like same trailer!! i wonder if people would be making such a connection if we didn't know it was written at the same time

i also can't understand all the hate... 'miserable', 'die fun', 'dime store cowgirl', 'good ol' boys club' are as great as some of the best moments of 'same trailer'. and listening her with willie nelson in the end is gold.

idk why i thought "pageant material" wasn't good, the first 4 tracks are literally perfect

I haven't read any "hate" for this album. It's tuneful and disappointing.

it doesn't sound like same trailer. the arrangements are way more relaxed

Song for song, it's catchier and richer than ST. Like lex, I have a problem with how on the nose these songs are, how she (sill) relies on the cutes. "Cup of Tea" is the nadir. It’s 2016, rural America’s changing, and changing fast enough so that Musgraves can be less indebted to a wink-wink conceit.

*still

one-listen take: i am quite relieved that this is nowhere near as bad or predictable as i had feared it would be from "biscuits," which may be the worst cut on the album other than maybe "cup of tea." i haven't been unusually struck by any of its lyrics the way i was on hearing same trailer for the first time, but the songs are still quite a pleasant listen and many of its arrangements are gorgeous. yeah, i probably won't like it as much as same trailer in the end (which is kind of a high bar anyway), but it's certainly not enough of a step down for me to be disappointed either.

the two bad songs i mentioned aside i was also way off the mark in thinking that the album would just be a bunch of safe retreads. yeah lyrically she does sometimes rely on some of the same tricks which is getting eyeroll-inducing/tiresome but idk, otherwise (esp. sonically) she's definitely venturing somewhere new for her. whether others have done better in similar territory is another story (obv they have) but it still sounds good so i find it hard to complain ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's something happening in Biscuits that makes it work.

Anyone worrying that hipsters will start listening to Kacey Musgraves has never lived in America.

good to see P4k is gonna start reviewing country records:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20679-pageant-material/

A lot of country is about singing about what you aren't (or rather "ain't")

gross

circa-2004 hip-hop problem

wait hip-hop had a problem circa 2000?

feels like we've reached the point where if an artist is Important - which kacey certainly is - they need not actually be good, their existence is enough

Blah article in which Mugraves and Jason Isbell save country music because bros and countries and cars

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/814-jason-isbell-kacey-musgraves-and-the-duality-of-the-southern-thing/

oh one of those

written by the exact person i expected

We were without one for a week. Overdue!

all this stuff seems so prepackaged considering how poorly this narrative fits 'pageant material'

Yeah, if anything the album feels a tad wan for playing it too safe.

wait hip-hop had a problem circa 2000?

feels like we've reached the point where if an artist is Important - which kacey certainly is - they need not actually be good, their existence is enough

― lex pretend, Wednesday, June 24, 2015 4:42 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The problem was that nerds were drooling all over Madvillainy instead of Petey Pablo and Shawnna. Guess this is like 2004 after all...

Timbaland should get on this country thing.

"white tee" is an incredible song, too -- and it has a narrative!

xpost way ahead of u

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoYymnKUhZQ

really enjoyed the sneak "white tee era was devoid of content" diss from the site slobbing on young thug's knob like it's corn on the cob

Oh, shit, how did I forget about Bubba? Bubba, what happened, your second album was great, get back to me!

hey bubba was a buddy of mine in college! good dude.

pics or it didn't happen

sry, we weren't super close, but this was pre-timbo and he used to play a song of his that sampled country boy can't survive at parties.

hah, nice

http://www.stereogum.com/1810529/the-week-in-pop-instead-of-going-big-kacey-musgraves-goes-home/franchises/the-week-in-pop/

great piece

But Musgraves has refused to carry the burden that she was poised to assume

ehhhhhhh okay

hmmm yeah seems a little harsh

what I heard of the new Isbell really paled in comparison to his last album

anyway I am not familiar w/ Musgraves at all but I like a few songs on this, the bookends especially.

2/3 of that piece was really excellent but comparing the pageant imagery to lily allen's "hard out here" is bizarre and tone-deaf. also, at the risk of coming off "IT IS NOT A BEAUTY PAGEANT IT IS A SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM" the whole "pageant material" thing is as much about personality and class (someone's got to pay for those walking lessons and fees to actually do the swimsuit portion that earns 20% of your points and $1000 interview suits that you're never going to wear anywhere else because they're fucking light blue) networking than about looks.

also, so what if kacey musgraves was in a pageant as a kid? lots of people in the south are, especially if they're remotely involved in the performing arts.

Lex, you're tripping

what because i said an article was good, pelase elaborate

like I said, the first two-thirds or so was good, it just sort of went off the rails with that IMO. (I never did pageants myself but my sister did throughout high school so I am very familiar with all the trekking and prepping and endless people singing martina mcbride

I missed out on buying one of those smart Martina tomato t-shirts.

Carl Wilson: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2015/06/kacey_musgraves_new_album_pageant_material_reviewed_the_follow_your_arrow.html

THIS article is excellent.

Pageant Material looking to do 55k the first week, which is only a little more than Same Trailer did (although Same Trailer finally reached 500k this month).

i don't like that Wilson's lede suggests a false binary where she wasn't on track to be Country For People Who Don't Like Country thanks to "Merry Go Round," which was #25 on the Pazz & Jop singles poll before she had an album in stores.

I'd never heard of her before yesterday and listened to Merry Go Round just now which was okay I guess. Would I like these albums? idk but that whole Wilson piece makes me not want to care, not interested in picking sides in some culture war

THIS article is excellent.

Although yeah it seemed like there were two different issues he was taking on? Idk I read it quickly but there was pop country vs trad country and feminist country vs male dominated country? Although yeah all the country lovin dudes I try to get in to kacey or Miranda are just are usually writing them off bc their female despite their trad country sound

If you're friends with Carl on FB, Chris Molanphy offers chart data re Musgraves.

And damn this Chris Stapleton album he mentioned fucking rules

I can't stand it but I'm quite alone on that one, I think.

Weird that he was using Stapleton as an example of an album "real country" people would dislike. Cause I'm pretty sure I could get tons of those people into that

this is a wonderfully produced record, so open and natural sounding, very polished but not overly slick
i almost forget they can still make records like this

no you didn't

i guess i don't hear a lot of records that have a real nice major label sheen w.o sounding kinda flat

this is a wonderfully produced record, so open and natural sounding, very polished but not overly slick

yes

is it that much of a sonic departure from STDP? or noticeably better?

I'll concede that it sounds great.

is it that much of a sonic departure from STDP? or noticeably better?

― lex pretend, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 3:45 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know i think i only listened to that once

anyway i OFFICIALLY RETRACT my comment cuz i feel like the wolves are circling around me for some reason but anyway this album sounds great

m@tt, I think you'd like any of the Pistol Annie projects. Try Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert.

that you guys can't pick up on how it sounds noticeably different is pretty weird to me

It does sound better; I noticed it a little while ago when I replayed the Willie portion of "Fine" and the strings of his guitar had real snap. The songs aren't better though.

just got through it for the second time and while it's well crafted it feels safe and maybe a little boring? there's some standouts but it's tamer than, say, Eric Church or Angaleena Presley by a damn sight. I'll try it a few more times.

i do think it *sounds* different from stdp. it's not necessarily 'better' in that regard (maybe some parts of certain tracks are), since stdp was also quite gorgeous, but it certainly stands out more than the songwriting this time around.

it's not BAD exactly but there's a spark of life and personality that was all over same trailer that feels lacking here... it's like listening to Kacey Musgraves: The Musical

i don't think it sounds radically different, but definitely smoother and more polished across the board. Just faultlessly even-keeled to a ... fault. Like I said earlier, I think the production is what hurts the songs. Many of the tracks on this album would have been better served with different arrangements and different sounds.

So after about five or six listens, I can stand behind "This Town" and "Miserable" and to a lesser degree "Biscuits" , "High Time" and "Fine/whatever the willie duet is called". The rest feels sing-songy and formulaic to me and not especially worth returning to. Spectacular production, as noted above, but so glossy that it often slips out of my hands.

A quick peek at the song credits suggest that what i like best about this album is where brandy clark put hands on, so maybe i just need to wait for her follow up album.

m@tt was otm

playing in the boston common for free-99 tomorrow evening

i'll hell of be there

I think I will as well depending on work

this is a strange crowd

she covered no scrubs, I'm dead

this kind of sounds like a record for people who are on vacation

Love this album. Production is beautiful and I find her presence endlessly likeable and reassuring. Agree with those who say the Follow Your Arrow-a-like homilies are the weak spots.

I finally listened to this yesterday. It does sound great, and I love the steel guitar playing in particular. The album pushes the boundaries of what I think Hawaiian country music would sound like, like Elvis on "Beyond the Reef".

I do not like the homilies, though, and that's most of the songs, no? So many songs written in the second person (or is it imperative tense?): but addressed to "you"---though I guess "Keep It To Yourself" is written that way too, and that's my favorite on the debut. This album has almost no love songs, really just "Late to the Party", and very little intimate writing: nothing like "It Is What It Is", "Back On The Map", "Keep It To Yourself". I like "Die Fun" and "Fine". But I hope she'll turn her songwriting a bit more inward on the next album, since she's shown us already how keen her voice is when aimed there.

"Late to the Party" is one of the better cuts, although it has a little of that bland NPR pop-folkiness that hurts some of this latest effort. She also climbs up the scales vocally a bit on that track in a pretty manner, while on many others is stuck in a similiar intonation/perky pop-folk narrow range.

"Late to the Party" sounded great live earlier tonight. "Die Fun" was nice. The 2nd album cuts sounded better live. The steel guitar and Hawaiian guitar touches from the band worked well too. She also did "No Scrubs," "These Boots Are made for Walkin'" (while wearing light-up go-go boots backed by her band in suits with flashing lights on them

I enjoyed the show. They closed with an a cappella "Happy Trails". She urged the fans to call country radio to get her airtime. She also proclaimed her joy that she was in DC the day the Supreme Court issued its gay marriage ruling.

i didn't even know what singles she's released since "Biscuits"...looks like she made a video for the Willie Nelson duet but is working the one w/ the Willie Nelson namedrop to radio.

I heard "Dimestore Cowgirl" in somewhere that was playing a Country station recently.

I think that was the song she wanted people to request. Wiki lists it as the second single.

just got her first album, digging it - the songwriting is really strong. her voice is kinda generic and not all that interesting.

And also it's very coherent, it's like a room you can enter. Which is to say it works well as an album, good feel, atmosphere.

it's v consistent, yeah. if she can maintain the quality of the material I can overlook the plainness of her voice

^^^ why I didn't embrace the album in 2013.

I'm going to the apollo show tomorrow, curious to see how she plays in that room as it reminds me of the ryman in many ways
i am hoping for that no scrubs cover

xxp people who criticize someone for having a "plain voice" get the Adam Duritz they deserve

duritz rules get it straight.

a very popular opinion there spottie

me n u bro, we can change the world.

just u 2 stumbling through the barrio

just u 2 strumming a banjo

"C'mon Edge, play the Bluegrass!"

the preview of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Pickin' on U2 2 beat autre ne veut to the punch

title also beat scott aukerman to a different punch

http://www.pride.com/music/2016/3/28/16-reasons-why-kacey-musgraves-every-gay-mans-spirit-animal

ugh no more "spirit animal" please

^^Her next album title?

wouldn't surprise me :\

16 reasons why i refuse to click that link

pls no more humans being spirit animals

Christmas album is nice!

ok, having listened to the whole thing there's a fair amount of silliness on there. "Present Without a Bow" is lovely though.

saw her open for Willie Nelson on Saturday. Her band is great, most of the material was great, and then there were a couple groaners (wtf is that "mind Your Own Biscuits/and live will be gravy" song ugh). She did "Rhinestone Cowboy" as a tribute to Glenn, which was cool. Also laughed when she said where she was from, a bunch of people hooted/clapped, and then she responded "I dunno what you're clapping for, that place sucks shit"

cover of CEe-Lo/Dangermouse's "Crazy" was really uncalled for

(wtf is that "mind Your Own Biscuits/and live will be gravy" song ugh).

The lead single from her last regular album.

it wasn't a good album

yeah I didn't hear a lot of new stuff that grabbed me, apart from this one that had a fairly extended spacey instrumental intro. Pedal steel guitarist really does a lot of heavy lifting melodically, at least live.

IIRC, I read somewhere that outside of a few numbers she didn't really get to sit and write much new stuff for Pageant Material, so many of the songs on it were unrecorded ST,DP leftovers.

both biscuits and pageant material are awesome

Yeah. Beautiful production too

pageant material was not as good at stdp obviously but still better than i thought it would be. however "biscuits" is still horrendous and there are a couple others on the album that are close.

I didn't even know she released a Christmas album until recently.

she played some new tracks (saw her open for Willie on Thursday at the Shrine) that were outstanding. they sounded a bit more like Ashley Monroe, particularly her more midtempo Fleetwood Mac-ish work on The Blade.

It was a treat to see her serenading alongside Kristofferson in a medley at the end of the show.

looking fwd to her new album even tho i wasn't as into the last one. I mean, pageant material is good but in the way that also feels kind of like a retread. anthony hamilton was an artist who everyone i know who's heard him likes one album from—whichever one they hear first. Im hopeful shes not like that

http://ew.com/music/2017/12/12/kacey-musgraves-golden-hour-new-album-interview/

For the upcoming Golden Hour, due in early 2018, following her heart meant trying out new styles as well as writing some of the most honest and genuine tunes of her career. Though she once expressed interest in making a reggae or surf-rock album next, Musgraves describes her new LP as having a “trippy” twist, citing the Bee Gees, Sade, and Neil Young as influences. And while she’s often celebrated for her clever wordplay and witty turns of phrase about small-town life, Musgraves says she avoided wrapping every lyric “up in a little bow” in favor of more direct, reflective songwriting.