Kacey Musgraves didn’t identify Golden Hour to acknowledge her vital and industrial standing on the time of its launch. However the feeling of widespread appreciation for her maverick abilities, established by Similar Trailer Totally different Park in 2013 and amplified by 2015’s Pageant Materials, was additional enhanced by the looks of the much-awaited new album in March 2018. Its efficiency was equally golden on the following yr’s Grammys, the place it gained no fewer than 4 awards.
A document imbued with pop, disco, comfortable rock and digital influences as a lot as its nation base, Golden Hour was the sound of an artist successful on precisely her personal phrases, free from a rustic mainstream for which she remained too outspoken and, in fact, too adventurous. With nation radio nonetheless cautious of her boldly non-conformist model, solely its fifth and last single, “Rainbow,” made the nation High 20, and that after she carried out it at her triumphant Grammy Awards look.
Nonetheless the album was a rustic No.1 and a High 5 document on the all-genre Billboard 200 on its method to platinum standing, additionally changing into Musgraves’ first High 10 album within the U.Ok. It gained Grammy Awards for each Album of the Yr and Finest Nation Album, whereas “Space Cowboy” gained Finest Nation Tune and “Butterflies” Finest Nation Solo Efficiency. By 2020, Golden Hour was securing a spot slightly below midway on Rolling Stone’s up to date 500 Biggest Albums of All Time checklist.
Musgraves once more served as co-producer on the album, for which she wrote all 13 tracks, recording at plenty of Nashville studios together with Sheryl Crow’s Large Inexperienced Barn. However this time, as an alternative of constant her extremely profitable studio collaboration with Luke Laird and Shane McAnally, who had shared the desk together with her on Similar Trailer… and Pageant Materials, Musgraves created a brand new one, with producers and multi-instrumentalists Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian. The trio have remained on the helm since, on each 2021’s Star-Crossed and the 2024 album Deeper Nicely.
Musgraves was sometimes forthright when explaining to Rolling Stone about Golden Hour’s diversions from her nation base. “It was a bit of a riddle to figure out in making sure that my spirit isn’t lost,” she stated, “and also trying to find a new sound for me, because I am still so attached to the parts of country music that I love and that have gotten people familiar with me. I don’t need to pander around and try to make some random pop album just for the shit of it.”
A matter of days after Golden Hour’s launch, Similar Trailer… was licensed platinum within the US. Pageant Materials stopped wanting any RIAA certification, however Golden Hour took the star again to each the gold and platinum commonplace, in June 2019 and Might 2021 respectively.
Highlights included “Oh What A World,” a vocoder-driven monitor that lent its identify to the world tour that ran throughout two legs from October 2018 to July the next yr; the primary single “Space Cowboy,” of which Stereogum’s Chris DeVille wrote: “The melody is so gorgeously wistful, the wordplay so subtly pristine, the heartache so profound”; and the genre-defying “Butterflies,” which she co-wrote with prolific hit composers Luke Laird and Natalie Hemby.
In a five-star album assessment, Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian: “The success of ‘High Horse’ is indicative of the ease and confidence that courses through Golden Hour. Regardless of genre, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better collection of pop songs this year. Everything clicks perfectly, but the writing has an effortless air; it never sounds as if it’s trying too hard to make a commercial impact, it never cloys, and the influences never swallow the character of the artist who made it.”
Hearken to Golden Hour on Apple Music and Spotify.
