Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The trailer always moves on, by an artist’s own definition it cannot remain in the same place forever, how else would the same scenery inspire the muse or its creator to keep on producing new and exciting material if that were the case.
The trailer has certainly hitched up once again for Kacey Musgraves and now the country star heads towards a different outlook, a new vision, one that has her home addressed stamped firmly fixed in place as she travels onwards but one that is reaching out towards a Golden Hour. This for some, spells out a bewitchment of soft lullabies, and for others a reckoning into which perhaps is a sign that the much loved Country star is moving on, hitching up the wagon that served her so well in her previous albums, and bids farewell to the star that led her to that sweet pasture.
From Same Trailer Different Park and Pageant Material, Golden Hour represents a change in attitude, one still born of the anger at injustice and rallying against certain themes, but one that embraces with a harder hold on the softness of tone, one that realises you can still be forthright but also hold an audience together without ever showing those with opposing, and quite often quite peculiar views, that you are bothered by their reactions.
There is an abundance of love, the urging of the feminine spirit and 21st Century attitude which implores that greatness is not the right of the male preserve that sits healthily and heroically at the very heart of the album. Tracks such as Lonely Weekend, Butterflies, Mother, Velvet Elvis and Space Cowboy dominate the thoughts of the listener and glisten like pearls being bombarded by the rays of light passing through a rainbow.
It is with joy to be able to hear Ms. Musgraves bring out a set of fresh new songs for the fans of the genre to enjoy, however it is also an album that crosses deeper from its supposed territory and into a wider mainstream, one that has all the beautiful intentions that you could desire from a Country Queen but one that asks just that little bit more, that relishes the chance to bite down on a world that Country often distances itself from.
The Golden Hour is always upon us, so few take the opportunity to watch it count down and strike home; it is an opportunity grasped by Kacey Musgraves with honour.
Ian D. Hall