Album Anniversaries: Kacey Musgraves' ‘Golden Hour’ Is Still Country-Pop Perfection 5 Years Later
From love songs to solo anthems, Elvis to gay rights, Kacey Musgraves’ award-winning 2018 album proves that then and now, country music is for everyone.
In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.
Written by Janie Bickerton
Photos courtesy of MCA Nashville Records
“And the Grammy goes to…”
The crowd is silent as Alicia Keys opens the final envelope of the night. Kacey Musgraves sits, unhopeful, among her fellow nominees — big names including Post Malone, Cardi B, and Drake, to name a few — for Album of the Year. She’s shocked when she hears her name called for the paramount award of music’s biggest night. “I would have nothing without songs,” she says on stage, holding her award whilst holding back tears. With little radio promotion or high-charting singles, Musgraves’ country-pop hybrid Golden Hour was a surprising but deserved win. Covering life’s simplicities and complexities with equal finesse, Musgraves pushes the boundaries of country music in Golden Hour, ensuring that everyone has a place in the often stereotyped genre. A Christmas Show, an album, and a divorce later, Golden Hour remains Musgraves’ most relevant and influential work through its nuanced reflections on life and love, and its revolutionary, genre-bending sound.
The Texas native proves her roots through witty Western-style wordplay while also balancing earnest themes of learning to love what you have and accepting what isn’t yours. “You can have your space, cowboy,” Musgraves sings in “Space Cowboy,” a punny remark recognizing that the only way for mutual growth is to grow apart. She takes a more confident approach to flying solo in “High Horse,” where she tells her haughty ex-lover to “giddy up / And ride straight out of this town.” She revels in shooing away her cocky, good-for-nothing ex, telling him, “Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road.” Musgraves plays into country stereotypes by singing of cowboys and horses, while simultaneously escaping them by exploring more complicated themes of loss within these archetypes, asserting a unique place for herself in the world of country music.
Musgraves’ effortless portrayal of life’s beauties and trials cemented Golden Hour as a quintessential balance of simplicity and complexity. The running theme of acceptance begins in the opening track “Slow Burn,” where she shows the importance of taking life as it is and seeing the beauty in life’s sometimes less-than-ideal offerings. “In Tennessee, the sun's goin' down / But in Beijing, they're headin' out to work,” she remarks on the differing yet connected experiences of humankind to connote her lack of control control amidst the world’s vast expanse. Rather than letting this existential dread control her, she embraces this truth and resolves to take time by the reins and “look at all the flowers.” Musgraves also finds more to love about the world in the pleasant allure of her partner, calling him “the color of [her] sky” in “Golden Hour.” Despite her 2020 divorce from the song’s inspiration, Musgraves’ driving comparison between personhood and nature as beautiful products of a simple world make “Golden Hour” an ever-resounding celebration of life and love. The world isn’t all that straightforward, though, and Musgraves proves it through some complex emotional reckonings. “Bursting with empathy, I'm feeling everything / The weight of the world on my shoulders,” Musgraves admits in her short piano ballad “Mother,” a stark contrast to her accepting bliss in “Slow Burn” and “Golden Hour.” She expands upon these consuming emotions in “Happy & Sad,” where she explores how fear of an end can prevent something good from feeling right, making her “Happy and sad at the same time.” Musgraves seamlessly combines these joyous and dismal feelings through her worldly yet simple lyrics in Golden Hour.
Not satisfied just with pushing country’s boundaries with complex themes, Musgraves also melds typical country sounds with pop and electronic motifs, making Golden Hour an all-around revolutionary album. She stays true to pure country with the driving guitar on “Love Is A Wild Thing” and “Lonely Weekend,” but she dives head-first into hybridization on other tracks. From the Daft Punk-esque vocal modifications in “Oh, What a World” to the pop-rock bass guitar in “Velvet Elvis,” Musgraves overrides expectations on what country should entail, welcoming a wider audience to the country scene. The dancey disco beats on “High Horse” exemplify Musgraves’ genre-bending genius. Mixing banjo plucks with a synthy symphony — complete with rhythmic claps mimicking a horse whip — Musgraves closes the gaps between country and pop and creates a catchy tune for divas and cowboys alike to enjoy. The sonic experimentation on Golden Hour reinforces Musgraves as a fearless tour de force on the engrained expectations of what country should sound like.
Musgraves breaks entirely free from country stereotypes by expressing LGBTQ+ allyship in the final track “Rainbow.” With the slow piano ballad, she addresses fears that come with newfound freedoms and encourages her listeners to let the beauty that was always within shine. Musgraves uplifts her addressee, reminding them that “the sky has finally opened” and encouraging them to let themselves be free. “There's always been a rainbow hangin' over your head,” she sings, instilling hope in her audience and promoting the ever-presence of beauty, even in the darkest of times. While “Rainbow” remains a universal message of hope amidst struggle, Musgraves’ symbolic use of a rainbow nods to her staunch allyship with the LGBTQ+ community. "I feel a kinship and a friendship with that community. They really opened my eyes up to a lot of different things that I wasn't aware of growing up in a small town in Texas,” she told Taste of Country in 2018, highlighting the importance of expanding one’s worldviews and promoting acceptance within the country scene. By ending the album on such a hopeful note, Musgraves challenges the heteronormativity that entrenches country music and confirms Golden Hour’s place as an influential ode to love in all its forms.
In the years since Golden Hour’s release, Musgraves’ revolutionary sounds, lyrics, and themes have paved the way for burgeoning artists to further expand the boundaries of country music. From Lil Nas X’s 2019 rap-country debut “Old Town Road” to Rina Sawayama’s 2022 pop-country single “This Hell,” several artists have delved into all the possibilities of country that Kacey Musgraves experimented with in Golden Hour, making the genre more inclusive in the process.
Golden Hour has left an inimitable imprint on the hearts of both country and pop music lovers because of Musgraves’ effortless, encouraging lyricism and thoughtful changes to country’s themes and sounds. Oh, and who could forget her 2019 Coachella set, where she “didn’t say fuckin’ yee,” which immediately placed the Golden Hour era into the pop culture hall of fame. Outside of Musgraves’ witty stage presence and beyond its Grammys success, Golden Hour lives on five years later as a vulnerable, powerful work of art and a hopeful reminder to love life, even with all its complexities.