Kacey Musgraves review, Deeper Well: Symbolism, Saturn returns and psychedelic folk

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Symbolism is all over Deeper Well, Musgraves’ sixth record, which opens on the spectacular “Cardinal”. “It was right after I lost a friend/ Without warning/ Words unsaid/ Scarlet red… Cardinal, are you bringing me a message from the other side?” Deeper Well comes in the wake of considerable tumult for Musgraves, as she alludes on the opening track. She waves goodbye on the title track over glimmers of synths and a Nashville roll: “You go your way and I’ll go mine/ It’s been a real good time/ But you got dark energy, somethin’ I can’t unsee/ And I’ve got to take care of myself.” On the languorous “Too Good to Be True”, Musgraves admits her fears that a partner might walk away: “Please don’t make me regret/ Opening up that part of myself again.” She’s in a more romantic mood on “Anime Eyes”, her wide gaze fixed on a “Miyazaki sky” – referencing the great Japanese director of animated films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke – marbled with psychedelic swirls of colour. Musgraves produces alongside her longtime collaborators, Nashville’s Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, and you can hear the confidence they lend her during a superb interpolation of the muffled piano hook from rapper JID’s “Kody Blu 31” on “Lonely Millionaire”.