By Jessica Thrasher, Contributor 

[UMG  Recordings; 2024] 

Rating: 4/10 

Kacey Musgraves has existed in the country music scene since 2013 and has formed a very solid musical identity during her time in the industry. She relies heavily on her signature twinkly acoustic guitar in her new song “Deeper Well” as she often has in her career. 

As a casual listener of Kacey Musgraves, I felt that this song could have been released with one of her prior albums, because to me it sounds the same.  The sound is easy to listen to and simple. Unfortunately, I think the lack of risk taken in this song (and likely the coming album) is apparent and comes across as one-dimensional. While it is likely a real expression of Musgrave’s growth as a woman, her growth as an artist is not present.

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The music video came off as a pilgrimized version of Li Ziqi’s infamous outdoor cooking videos. Musgraves comes off as somewhat disingenuous in the video as she frolics through a homestead, pats a pony, touches crops, and holds some fruit. I did notice what felt like an absence of a truly blithe spirit. It felt like she didn’t belong in the setting of a farm resting on a seaside cliff. 

Watching this video evoked a similar feeling in me as seeing these photographs of Kim Kardashian in a prairie dress. Something just didn’t feel right about it, they didn’t look “at-home”. Of course, they are both welcome to these spaces and styles, they have every right to be there, but this does not mitigate the feeling of incongruity it evokes. Both this and Musgraves’ video seemed ironically unnatural in the natural settings in which they were found. 

Overall, “Deeper Well” came off as “phoned in” and underwhelming. It felt like I had listened to this song already, maybe off of her 2015 album, Pageant Material, although it has less charm and personality than that body of work. 

Listen here: