Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material

Kacey Musgraves
Pageant Material
2015

Here is the thing about contrivance; It can make something that sounds really pretty feel like complete shit. It's forced, it's not real and it is something that popular country music has been suffering from for awhile now. Now here is the the thing about Pageant Material it suffers from none of this. Everything on this record feels totally organic and raw. There is almost no production on Musgraves' voice and the only harmonizing is done with another male voice. There is a classic polish on this album that is never old, just right. Even when She gets silly in songs like "Biscuits" it is just fun music and great song writing. She is able to take common tropes like "Can't take the country out of the girl" and makes them seem so authentic that their played outness vanishes. Even on songs like "Dime Store Cowgirl" where you would expect her to expel on the "just how country I am" and how uncountry everyone else is that never happens. Her music is more about relating on the personal level rather that setting a line that country fans are either on, or not.

Pageant Material is fun and sad, beautiful and heavy funny and light. "I'm always higher than my hair" is an absolute standout line from the title track "Pageant Material" and just goes to show how Kacey can take her music seriously when she wants to or make fun of herself, whatever fits. Anyone can listen to this record, country fan or not and find something to latch on to, an emotion to feel. That is one of the central themes to Musgraves' career, inclusion. If country music was looking for someone or something to break it out of a rut they have found it with Kacey Musgraves. Pageant Material is transcendent and real, do not miss out on it.

9.0 out of 10