star-crossed - Kacey Musgraves (2021)

by Chloe Richardson

In her first album since her shocking 2020 divorce, Kacey Musgraves takes a completely different direction — inspired by the theatrics of Shakespearean tragedy, but juxtaposed with the more realistic subtleties of a declining marriage, star-crossed has proven to produce some of the country singer’s rawest material yet.

Beginning with the title track, Musgraves literally “sets the scene” as she introduces the tragedy of her love story, starring “two lovers ripped right at the seams”. She flip-flops through a range of emotions throughout the album, shoving herself into antiquated gender roles in “good wife” but invoking a melancholy fantasy on “if this was a movie”, in which she declares that “if this was a movie, love would be enough”. When the album hits its midpoint, Musgraves revels in her anger about the failed relationship, fighting for her right to move on in “justified”. A particularly interesting track is “breadwinner”, in which Musgraves describes the ways that her status intimidated her ex-husband. “He’s never gonna know what to do with a woman like you”, she sings, implying that the man in question may not have been all too trustworthy from the very beginning. In the tracks that bring the album to a close, Musgraves briefly returns to her sadness, but picks herself back up elegantly and boldly in “keep lookin’ up”, “what doesn’t kill me” and “there is a light”. As she states in “justified”, healing does not happen in a straight line, but Musgraves along with star-crossed prove that that messy journey can birth some truly incredible art.