Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material

5/5

Review:

Another excellent, witty album from Kacey Musgraves 

I think Kacey Musgraves has achieved that rare feat of following up a terrific debut album with one which is just as good.  I loved Same Trailer Different Park for its tunefulness, musicianship, wit and subversion and this has the same qualities in abundance.

Kacey Musgraves has a very good voice which she uses to great effect again.  She sings with a warmth and a twinkle in her eye much of the time, which has real skill beneath it.  The band are excellent and the production is again pitch-perfect;  it's never overdone and sets off each song with just the right overall sound.

Again, what makes this really special is Musgraves's lyrics. With her songwriting partners Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally she has produced another varied set of witty, insightful songs which often cleverly subvert common attitudes of this genre.  The title track, for example contains these excellent lines:

"…my momma cried

When she realised

That I ain't pageant material;

I'm always higher than my hair

And it ain't that I don't care

About world peace –

But don't see how I can fix it in a swimsuit on a stage…"

All this is set in a singable, toe-tapping song which robs it of offence or any sense of taking herself over-seriously.  She's making good serious points in the best way – with humour and charm.  And she made me laugh out loud again, this time on Family Is Family which is about how family may drive you bonkers but you love them anyway, with this immortal couplet:

"They may smoke like chimneys

But give you their kidneys…"

Well, quite.  A perfect picture in very few words, which is exactly what the best Country songs do.  Musgraves adds wit and warmth of heart, too, which makes her work rather special to me.

Kacey Musgraves is a class act (as recognised by Brian Wilson, who featured her on his recent No Pier Pressure album).  This is another really excellent album which I love; it makes me smile, it makes me think and it's musically very enjoyable. Recommended wholeheartedly.

(Brandy Clark's own album 12 Stories is also well worth a look, by the way.  Her song Stripes, for example, has all the wit and musical delight of the songs on this album.)