It’s been a few years since Kacey Musgraves secured several Grammys for her hit 2018 album Golden Hour. Since then, the singer has gone through several transitions in her life, including a divorce, but she’s now preparing for the release of her upcoming album, Star-Crossed.
Musgraves officially announced Star-Crossed Monday, saying it will arrive in early September alongside a film on Paramount+. She also recently sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to discuss her LP. While writing music for the album, Musgraves was at first worried that she didn’t yet have a concept and that it was just “going to be a bunch of sad songs.” But then, she started learning about the structure of old Greek theater and realized her Star-Crossed album is a “modern tragedy in three acts.” Because of this, Musgraves is giving her own modern-day definition of “star-crossed”:
“It’s to be f*cked by love or luck. You’re ill-fated, it’s just not written in the stars. It is not for you. And everyone puts out their highlight reel, nobody’s putting out their f*ck ups. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s daunting. But I’m excited to share ‘star-crossed’ just because people know me to be a songwriter that writes about what I’m going through. And I think it would have been extremely awkward if I just acted this last chapter didn’t happen for me. So I think you saw my highlight reel with Golden Hour and this is the other side of that. And I mean there are beautiful parts of that too.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Musgraves said there are some parts of the record that sound more country than Golden Hour, but her album is also meant to be theatrical. “I always love when something classic or something traditional, something futuristic kind of meet,” she said. “I just, I’m always intrigued by that. Whether it’s in fashion, etc. I think that there are certain aspects of this record that sound a little bit more country, I guess than Golden Hour. I don’t know. But at the same time, I feel like I’m tapping into more influences on this, widespread influences on this album.”
Watch Musgraves’ full interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Star-Crossed film trailer above. See her Star-Crossed album artwork and tracklist below.
1. “Star-Crossed”
2. “Good Wife”
3. “Cherry Blossom”
4. “Simple Times”
5. “If This Was A Movie..”
6. “Justified”
7. “Angel”
8. “Breadwinner”
9. “Camera Roll”
10. “Easier Said”
11. “Hookup Scene”
12. “Keep Lookin’ Up”
13. “What Doesn’t Kill Me”
14. “There Is A Light”
15. “Gracias A La Vida”
Star-Crossed is out 9/10 via Interscope Records/UMG Nashville. Pre-order it here.
