Name: Golden Hour [3/30] *
Brand: MCA Nashville
SKU: 174264301
Price: 21.57 USD
Availability: InStock

Golden Hour *

Rating

Album: Golden Hour *
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Slow Burn	More Info...	0:04
2)	Lonely Weekend	More Info...	0:03
3)	Butterflies	More Info...	0:03
4)	Oh, What a World	More Info...	0:04
5)	Mother	More Info...	0:01
6)	Love Is a Wild Thing	More Info...	0:04
7)	Space Cowboy	More Info...	0:03
8)	Happy & Sad	More Info...	0:04
9)	Velvet Elvis	More Info...	0:02
10)	Wonder Woman	More Info...	0:04
11)	High Horse	More Info...	0:03
12)	Golden Hour	More Info...	0:03
13)	Rainbow	More Info...	0:03

Album: Golden Hour *
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Slow Burn	More Info...	0:04
2)	Lonely Weekend	More Info...	0:03
3)	Butterflies	More Info...	0:03
4)	Oh, What a World	More Info...	0:04
5)	Mother	More Info...	0:01
6)	Love Is a Wild Thing	More Info...	0:04
7)	Space Cowboy	More Info...	0:03
8)	Happy & Sad	More Info...	0:04
9)	Velvet Elvis	More Info...	0:02
10)	Wonder Woman	More Info...	0:04
11)	High Horse	More Info...	0:03
12)	Golden Hour	More Info...	0:03
13)	Rainbow	More Info...	0:03

Performer Notes

Golden Hour shimmers with the vivid colors that arrive when the sun starts to set, when familiar scenes achieve a sense of hyperreality. Such heightened emotions are a new aesthetic for Kacey Musgraves, who previously enlivened traditional country with her sly synthesis of old sounds and witty progressive lyrics. Musgraves barely winks on Golden Hour, disguising her newfound emotional candidness behind a gorgeous veneer of harmonies and synthesizers. Sonically, the album doesn't scan country. Whenever Musgraves makes an explicit nod to the past, she acknowledges the smooth grooves of yacht rock and the glitterball pulse of disco, styles that only have a tangential relationship with country but feel more welcome in a landscape where R&B and hip-hop are embraced by some of the biggest stars in country. Musgraves doesn't mine this vein, preferring a soft, blissed-out vibe to skittering rhythms and fleet rhymes. At their core, the songs on Golden Hour -- largely co-written with Musgraves by her co-producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, but also featuring Natalie Hemby, Luke Laird, and Shane McAnally, among other collaborators -- don't play with form: they are classic country constructions, simply given productions that ignore country conventions from either the present or the past. This is a fearless move, but Golden Hour is hardly confrontational. It's quietly confident, unfurling at its own leisurely gait, swaying between casual confessions and songs about faded love. The very sound of Golden Hour is seductive -- it's warm and enveloping, pitched halfway between heartbreak and healing -- but the album lingers in the mind because the songs are so sharp, buttressed by long, loping melodies and Musgraves' affectless soul-baring. Previously, her cleverness was her strong suit, but on Golden Hour she benefits from being direct, especially since this frankness anchors an album that sounds sweetly blissful, turning this record into the best kind of comfort: it soothes but is also a source of sustenance. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he set is a fine lava-lamp soundtrack, and if 'country' suggests engaging American musical traditions with respect and pioneer spirit, then this album is as country as it comes."

Entertainment Weekly - "[T]he spectacular GOLDEN HOUR mixes Musgrave's trademark country twang with a touch of outer space."