Album Review: Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Musgraves
11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Album Review: Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Mugraves (Mercury, 2013)
With her folksy major label debut, Kacey Musgraves may have stayed away from the polish and sheen of most modern country music, but there is plenty on Same Trailer Different Park that sparkles brightly.
The album was produced by Luke Laird and Shane McAnally, along with Musgraves, with only two more writers, Brandy Clark and Josh Osborne, contributing to the songs. It resulted in a very cohesive record with a narrative flow, almost like a novel, that works through life’s everyday triumphs and disasters. The songs are not filled with shiny happy characters but with real people describing real experiences.
In a society that fetishizes perfection, the simple wisdom in opener ‘Silver Lining’ cannot be repeated enough – the bad is part of the good. ‘Merry Go ‘Round’ and ‘Blowin’ Smoke’ give a descriptive account of small town life without an ounce of judgment, and with a melancholy that stays just on the right side of hopeless. Musgraves is also not afraid to make (what in 2013 should no longer be) controversial statements whilst calling out society’s judgmental gaze and encourages everyone to ‘follow your arrow wherever it points’ as she deftly delivers ‘Follow Your Arrow’‘s YOLO message.
Interspersing the observational tunes is a deeply personal story that can be tracked from happiness (‘My House’) to disappointment (‘Dandelion’), to the various facets of struggling to move on in the trio ‘I Miss You,’ ‘Back on the Map,’ and ‘Keep it to Yourself,’ before finally trying again, even if just for one night, on ‘It Is What It Is.’
The sassy, plucky banjo tune ‘Step Off’ and anti-love-song ‘Stupid’ complete this impressive album. With country radio embracing rootsier sounds again, Same Trailer Different Park comes at just the right time. The star of the album is not Musgraves beautifully melodic vocal performance, but the quality of the songwriting. All five writers involved should be immensely proud of this project, which feels like a watershed moment for contemporary country music.
Same Trailer Different Park will be in stores tomorrow, March 19.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Latest posts by Liv Carter (see all)
- Well yes, racism, but it’s more complicated - February 13, 2017
- Black River Entertainment had a great reason to party! - October 25, 2016
- Keith Urban returns to the States for US arena leg of his “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016” - October 10, 2016
