Album Review: Kacey Musgraves, <i>Same Trailer Different Park</i>
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park
In just over half a decade, the now-24-year-old Texan Kacey Musgraves has gone from placing seventh on the 2007 season of Nashville Star and releasing a trio of independent albums to finally being granted some well-deserved mainstream exposure. It was beyond a pleasant surprise when her beautifully written, critically lauded debut single “Merry Go ‘Round” became an honest-to-goodness Top 10 hit at country radio – a format not known for being friendly to intelligent, honest women. Whether the industry will continue to support her remains to be seen, but Kacey Musgraves’ major label debut effort positions her as a ray of hope for country music at a time when such are very few – an artist who, if given the platform, just might have the potential to change country music for the better.
Appearing as a co-writer on every track along with a co-writer pool that consists of Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne, and Luke Laird, Musgraves displays a songwriting voice characterized by clear-eyed insight and a tone of simple, plainspoken honesty. She neither preaches nor judges; she simply observes. ”Merry Go ‘Round” foreshadowed this trait quite accurately. On her debut hit, Musgraves mused on the human tendency to try to escape heartache through a variety of vices such as drug use or illicit sex, but noting that ultimately that “same hurt in every heart” still remains – each distraction is like a medicine that covers up the symptoms, but doesn’t cure the cold. On “Follow Your Arrow,” she sneers at small-town gossip while laying bare the futility of living to please others, noting that “You’re damned if you do; you’re damned if you don’t.” On the witty upcoming single “Blowin’ Smoke,” she takes on the voice of a working class woman who chats with her co-workers on a smoke break about plans to leave her current line of work in pursuit of bigger dreams, but admits that “We’re just blowin’ smoke.” The set is ripe with a strong sense of self-awareness that country radio has been sorely lacking for years now.
Musgraves clearly understands the value of escapism in country music, as evidenced by songs like opening track “Silver Lining,” in which she makes creative use of familiar metaphors to illustrate the point that if one wants good things to happen, one must accept the bad things that come along with it. ”My House” is a delightful ode to life on a house with four wheels, and to having someone with which to share it. ”Any place beside you is the place that I call home,” Musgraves sings, backed by a charming harmonica-laced arrangement. Every bit as enjoyable is the witty “Step Off,” which plays like a Jason Mraz song with a banjo.
But oh, how rewarding it is when Musgraves channels pure vulnerability – a gift that finds its fullest expression in the pleading ballad “Keep It to Yourself,” in which Musgraves begs a former lover to let her move on, the lyric anchored by a melody that pierces deeply. And while “It Is What It Is” has been nicknamed The Slut Song, such a moniker says nothing of the raw desperation that Musgraves conveys through her quivering performance.
Same Trailer Different Park sets itself apart from the pack by honoring genre traditions while slyly subverting modern conventions. For a genre that takes pride in being the realm of “real” music, Kacey Musgraves is
one of precious few mainstream country artists to actually live up to that ideal, and for country radio programmers to let her slip through their fingers now would be an awful shame. To call Same Trailer Different Park one of the year’s best mainstream country albums would not do it justice – it’s one of the year’s best albums period.
Top Tracks: “Merry Go ‘Round,” “Keep It to Yourself,” “Follow Your Arrow”
Category Album Reviews
Tags: Brandy Clark, Josh Osborne, Kacey Musgraves, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally
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