A Star-Crossed Critique

Since “Golden Hour” is one of my favorite albums, I had to listen to “star-crossed” by Kacey Musgraves to see if it lived up to its sister. In this album, Musgraves strayed away from the country and had more electrical and pop elements blended in, which I didn’t think always worked. 

I would not call myself a country fan, but I make an expectation when it comes to Kacey, and I wished that she stuck more with that sound. The songs that I loved, I loved thoroughly. I do also think that there were many efforts in this album to expand her sound, but I missed the simple sounds of her previous work. The overall lyrics were not lacking and I appreciated that even if I didn’t like all of the style choices, she still has her honest writing. 

star crossed: A good opener that fits the album, it goes really into the idea of a relationship being broken up by many forces which are bittersweet. Just yells “star crossed” over and over at the end though.

good wife: I thought this song was funny, it has a good sarcastic tone that gets the message across, I loved it when she said “even when he’s not right he still needs me”. A catchy mixture of instrumental and electronic beats, this one is stuck in my head. 

cherry blossom: I enjoyed this chorus a lot, I did not understand what a lot of the lyrics meant like the metaphors but that could be due to lack of relationship experience. It was a cool blend of Japanese music and country which doesn’t sound like it would work but it did.

Simple Times: Sounds like it’s trying to be relatable very hard, more like it’s trying to relate to grown-ups and their childhood that I didn’t have. Some of the lyrics were cringe though. 

If this was a movie…: The line “And you’d run up the stairs, you’d hold my face.” was very cute but I did not like the echo sounds going on in the background, it sounded creepy and didn’t match the vibe of what she was singing about.

justified: The song with the most streams and the one that I hear on the radio, definitely catchy and makes me root for Kacey against the boy that she is singing about.

angel: So pretty, sounds like a lullaby but in a sad way. The thunder sounds in the back also add to the lyrics about keeping someone out of the rain.

breadwinner: This one was trending on Tik Tok, but the lyrics are cringy and sounds too much like she’s trying to be a millennial. Good message but I don’t see anyone choosing this song out of the album as the one to listen to.

camera roll: The beginning where she took pauses between the words was really hooking, and she kept doing that which I enjoyed. It’s a sweet but sad song about not being able to delete the pictures from an ended relationship, “I’ll never erase it” was my favorite part.

easier said: This song about not being able to love someone was definitely one of my favorites from the first listen. The lyrics made it extremely enjoyable to listen to and also to relate to personally. The chorus was “scream if you are heartbroken” worthy.

hookup scene: Not what I expected,  it turned out to be a sad song about hooking up which isn’t usually two ideas that go together. The deeper message of not having a real connection within her love life is bittersweet, and the song is all guitar in the background makes it feel like a country song.

keep looking’ up: I feel indifferent because I like what she is saying but there is a lot of competing background music that I think is clashing together and I don’t know what to focus on. 

what doesn’t kill me: The line “Golden Hour faded black” was such a good line that was in reference to her previous album. Besides that, I did not like this song for some reason it sounded too electronic which I don’t think fits.

there is a light: This song is a happy way to wrap things up, after so many sad songs Kacey sings about the future looking bright. It has a saxophone I think, which was just so unexpected but it switched things up, but then she started chanting and I didn’t like that part. The song just kept going for so long. 

gracias a la vida: This song was all in Spanish but she sounded pretty even though I don’t understand, I can hear that she is repeating some of the lines over. In the beginning, you could hear static like it was on an old radio, and throughout the song, it would get electrical at times which I thought was odd. 

Rating:

Easier said

Angel

Good wife

Justified

Camera roll

Cherry blossom

Star-crossed

Hookup scene 

If this was a movie…

Simple times

Breadwinner

There is a light

Keep looking up

What doesn’t kill me

Gracias a la Vida