Hi everyone, Lookthony Outtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Kacey Musgraves album, Middle of Nowhere.

This is the newest and seventh full-length album from this Texas singer-songwriter, Miss Musgraves. And for a while now, Kacey has been seen as one of the biggest crossover successes to come out of the country scene in the last 10 years. And a lot of that comes down to the breakout success of her 2018 album, Golden Hour, a record that has been listed multiple times over as one of the best albums of the 2010s, one of the best country albums of the modern era, etc.

Now personally, I didn't really think much of its very faint and spacey and toothless indie-fied spin on the genre, honestly. But regardless, this record did blow Kacey up to unforeseen heights of popularity that, personally, I feel like she has been struggling to maintain ever since that record dropped, because the follow-up albums have just been nowhere near as good. The record, Star-Crossed, at best had a mixed reception due to its candy-coated pop-country production, and also terrible mixing and mastering that left so many songs sounding way more blown out than they needed to.

And while Kacey's last record, Deeper Well, was certainly more listenable by comparison, its bland songs and instrumentation just felt super duper safe, predictable, and also unremarkable in every conceivable way. Which is a disappointment, especially given this is the same person who's released records like Same Trailer Different Park — albums where Kacey would present her country roots in a kind of quirky, charming way.

So, it's with all of that that I go into Middle of Nowhere with a mix of hope and confusion. Not only because its title track, which was a lead single, I'm still kind of making heads or tails of. While the slow chord progressions and vocal harmonies at the start of this track kick things off well enough, this track also has to feature one of the worst choruses on the entire album. A hook that is not only forgettable, but the transition into it is painfully awkward with the tempo change. The whole thing sounds completely tacked on. Musically, it's utterly forgettable. It's almost like it's trying to do everything it can to prevent itself from being catchy.

Then "Dry Spell," which, unfortunately has some pretty uninteresting production, actually features some of the funniest bars we have heard on any Kacey Musgraves record to date, with her singing about being lonely with a capital H, having to sit on the washing machine; she is really going insane on this one. The writing is a perfect mix of raunchy but also sad. And going deeper into the record, I heard tracks where I was left feeling pleasantly surprised, like "Back On The Wagon," which is a track all about being with a partner who has a drinking problem.

The classic country instrumentation is very Dolly Parton, and overall it's just great writing. There's something very endearing and hopeful about Kacey's romantic aspirations on this track, but there's also an impenetrable sense of sadness on every bar too, that just hangs over everything she says, like a rain cloud of doom. And Kacey has left enough undefined space so that where you see this relationship going from here really depends upon your interpretation.

But then we are once again hit with some pretty bland instrumentation and production again on "I Believe In Ghosts," a track that feels like so-so acoustic pop rock more than it is straight-up country. But still, it is kind of an admirable moment because it sounds like something that could have been on Star-Crossed had the mixing been better overall. Similar sounds and ideas, but presented in a much more palatable fashion here, I can appreciate it.

Some other highlights in the first half include, of course, "Abilene," which has an unnerving story to it that I really enjoyed. The drama of "Coyote" is immersive and enchanting, save for what sounds like a underwater harmonica solo fed through a flanger; it's pretty horrible. And then "Loneliest Girl" feels like the other side of the coin that Dry Spell is sitting on, except on this track Kacey kinda revels in her isolation.

Kinda fast-forwarding here: it's really the second half of this record where I ended up being impressed the most, as Kacey really starts knocking it out of the park in terms of humor, in terms of songwriting, crossovers, instrumentation too. Like "Horses and Divorces" with Miranda Lambert. The track features this Tex-Mex mix of pedal steel and accordion, and the song is essentially about two people who share more in common than they might think on the surface; see it as the "Girl, so confusing" of the country world. You know, finding unlikely kinship over a great 3/4 time signature. Some heavy kick drums, too, and what feels like some dive bar ambiance due to the reverb surrounding the whole thing.

Which I think also carries over onto "Uncertain, TX" with Willie Nelson, another great track. I wish more songs on this record sounded like this, honestly. And while Willie's vocal inclusion on this track is very subtle, very background, the song is great and really the selling point of the whole thing, as it's very obviously about uncertainty in love and kind of manifesting that by imagining it as a place, a location where people can't quite decide whether or not they want to or want not to commit to a relationship. The slightly psych guitars are a really nice touch on the track too.

And with "Rhinestoned," in a lot of respects you could say this track is your typical, Kacey Musgraves soft, dreamy pop country number, but I would say that sound works a little bit more in this context given this track is literally about kind of living very carefree in a particular moment where you are trying to de-stress and just get stoned. Maybe Willie Nelson should have been on this track too. Either way, even though this is not like my favorite sound Kacey does, it does serve the message of the track pretty directly.

And speaking of Golden Hour vibes, I think "Mexico Honey" brings that to the table as well, but I think the production being a bit spacier, a bit more immersive, and those accordion touches too, make it a little more interesting this time around for me. And then with the closing track being far stripped back instrumentally, this really allows just how heart-wrenching the lyrics are on this track to really shine through. The idea of wanting to be someone's angel, but then them making it hell on you is just such a horrid contrast and really a gut punch moment on this record lyrically. Something again that I wish there was a little bit more of here, given just how high some of the high points are with Kacey's writing on this project.

And I know I have my criticisms of certain songs on here, of Kacey's, you know, usual sound and style these days, but make no mistake, I actually did end up enjoying this album, and I do think it's the best thing Kacey has released in years. Like, for sure, this is way better than what Star-Crossed was doing, by numerous miles. And even if you did manage to be a fan who enjoyed what she was doing on Deeper Well, I think you will appreciate the slightly more lively approach Kacey takes to this one, the fact that she is getting a little bit funnier with her lyrics, and that the instrumentation across the record is a bit more more diverse and flavorful.

Now, obviously these comments are coming from somebody who is not really a Golden Hour fan. I think in the eyes of many Kacey fans, this record probably isn't gonna beat that out, which is fine, but I think the most agreeable takeaway I can give for this record is that it's really kind of a step up or two from her last couple on nearly all fronts, which is why I'm feeling a strong 6 to a light 7. A light 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Kacey Musgraves, forever.