Gold standard of introspection

Country music’s latest rebel upset traditionalists by deviating into disco and endorsing dope, magic mushrooms, and a free and easy approach to love.

It hasn’t done her any harm. The golden girl from Golden, Texas, went platinum in America with her first studio album.

Kacey has also notched up two Top 10 albums here, including 2018’s Golden Hour, an ambitious mix of country and mainstream pop with bewitching tracks like Space Cowboy, a perfect setting for her warm, beguiling vocals.

The follow-up Star-Crossed centred on her divorce from country star Ruston Kelly.

Deeper Well, her sixth fulllength release, confounds expectations as Kacey detours into singer-songwriter introspection and selfquestioning. The result is sweet, earthy and occasionally ethereal. On the sublimely beautiful title track, she lists the bad habits she is now happy to jettison – including weed.

“Everything I did seemed better when I was high, I don’t know why,” she sings over gentle acoustic guitar – a long way from her celebrating being “as high as the angel on top of the tree” in 2016.

Other standout songs include The Architect, an exquisite ballad that tackles life’s big questions, including God’s existence, in three bewitching minutes. And Giver/Taker which mulls over relationship dynamics.

Jade Green, one of several gorgeous numbers, was inspired by her three-year romance with Nashville-based poet Cole Schafer.

Sway is almost a prayer. “Most of the time, all the thoughts in my mind keep me running/Show me a place where I can just think of nothing.”

A couple of the later tracks – Anime Eyes, Dinner With Friends – are weaker, but this is a bold and often beautiful album.

Musgraves had her biggest-ever hit duetting with Zach Bryan on last year’s US chart-topper I Remember Everything.

She is here for the duration.