Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour released

Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves

Released: March 30, 2018 Peak: 4 US, 12 CW, 6 UK, 11 CN, 25 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.06 UK Genre: country

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Slow Burn [4:06] (10/16/18, 38 CW, gold single) Lonely Weekend [3:46] Butterflies [3:39] (2/23/18, 32 CW) Oh, What a World [4:01] Mother [1:18] Love Is a Wild Thing [4:16] Space Cowboy [3:36] (2/23/18, 30 CW, gold single) Happy & Sad [4:03] Velvet Elvis [2:34] Wonder Woman [4:00] High Horse [3:33] (6/25/18, 36 CW, gold single) Golden Hour [3:18] Rainbow [3:34] (2/11/19, 98 US, 17 CW, gold single) All songs are co-written by Musgraves. Co-writers include producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk as well as Luke Laird, Natalie Hemby, Shane McAnally, Luke Dick, Jesse Frasure, Hillary Lindsey, Amy Wadge, Tommy Schleiter, and Trent Dabbs. Total Running Time: 45:44

Rating: 4.351 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Quotable: It isn’t “classicist, but perhaps it might be classic.” – Katherine St. Asaph, Spin magazine Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Kacey Musgraves “became Nashville’s most compelling crossover star since Taylor Swift” RS’20 by winning critics over with three previous albums in which she “enlivened traditional country with her sly synthesis of old sounds” AMG and her “clever wordplay and witty turns of phrase about small-town life.” AZ However, she didn’t “fit the standard archetypes for women in country: not a Southern belle like countless ingenues, not a brash spitfire like Miranda Lambert, not a maternal elder like Dolly or Reba.” SP She sang about “homesickness, and falling wildly in love with the witty precision of her earlier small-town polemics” RS’20 but also about “such un-conservative topics topics as gay rights and marijuana” SP and acid trips. That was never more apparent than when she won a Country Music Association Song of the Year award for “Follow Your Arrow.” That song pointed the way for an unconventional country artist who, on her fourth album, Golden Hour, still turns out “classic country constructions” AMG from a writing standpoint, but with music that “doesn’t scan country.” AMG A song like High Horse “gallops along with a Shania Twain conceit and lite disco licks that sound more like pop-radio Pharrell than what one might think of as country.” SP Throughout this album, Musgraves integrates “the smooth grooves of yacht rock and the glitterball pulse of disco” AMG as well as country pop, electropop, and electronica. WK She cited influences from the Bee Gees to Sade to Neil Young. AZ She said, “I’ve always loved Sade, but I also love Dolly Parton…There’s got to be a world where all these things can live together.” RS’20 As Spin magazine’s Katherine St. Asaph said, it isn’t “classicist, but perhaps it might be classic.” SP “Golden Hour’s lush yacht-country production re-envisioned what millennial pop might sound like.” RS’20 Not only did she explore diverse sounds, but she wrote “some of the most honest and genuine tunes of her career.” AZ The album is “warm and enveloping, pitched halfway between heartbreak and healing – but the album lingers in the mind because the songs are so sharp, buttressed by long, loping melodies and Musgraves’ affectless soul baring.” AMG The songs sway “between casual confessions and songs about faded love.” AMG Musgraves said she wrote more love songs for this album as a result of getting married and finding herself “inspired to write about this person and all these things he brought out in me that weren’t there before.” WK Musgraves’ voice “is reminiscent of folkies like Suzanne Vega or Sheryl Crow…it’s not a belting voice, but it’s a remarkable instrument, capable of imbuing with winsom empathy songs like Lonely Weekend and Happy & Sad that might otherwise be tweenish sap.” SP “Even the druggy tracks” SP like Mother and Oh, What a World “approach Disney levels of earnestness.” SP Not only did Golden Hour take home the Country Music Association’s award for Album of the Year, but she landed Grammy gold with awards for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. She also took home Grammys for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for her first two singles, Butterflies and Space Cowboy, respectively. Notes: The Japanese version of the album included three bonus tracks – “Merry Go ‘Round” and “Follow Your Arrow” from her 2013 Same Trailer, Different Park album and the Violents Remix of “High Horse.”

Review Sources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Kacey Musgraves AZ Amazon AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erelwine RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” SP Spin review by Katherine St. Asaph WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 8/17/2020; last updated 4/24/2022.

David Bowie Heathen released

Heathen David Bowie

Released: June 11, 2002 Peak: 14 US, 5 UK, 9 CN, 9 AU Sales (in millions): 0.18 US, 0.1 UK, 1.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: glam rock/classic rock veteran

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Sunday [4:46] Cactus (Francis) [2:55] Slip Away [6:05] Slow Burn [4:41] (6/11/02, 19 AA, 94 UK, 69 AU) Afraid [3:28] I’ve Been Waiting for You (Young) [3:00] (10/02, --) I Would Be Your Slave [5:14] I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship [4:06] 5.15 the Angels Have Gone [3:58] Everyone Says “Hi” [3:58] (9/1/02, 20 UK) A Better Future [4:11] Heathen (The Rays) [4:18] Songs written by David Bowie unless indicated otherwise. Total Running Time: 52:08 The Players: David Bowie (vocals, keyboards, guitar, saxophone, stylophone, backing vocals, drums) Tony Visconti (bass, guitar, recorders, string arrangements, backing vocals) Matt Chamberlain (drums, drum loop programming, percussion) David Torn (guitar, guitar loops, Omnichord) The Scorchio Quartet Carlos Alomar, Gerry Leonard (guitar) Sterling Campbell (drums, percussion) Lisa Germano (violin) Mike Garson (piano on “Conversation Piece”) Earl Slick (guitar on “Conversation Piece”) Tony Levin (fretless bass on “Slip Away”) Mark Plati (guitar, bass) Jordan Rudess (keyboards) Lenny Pickett, Stan Harrison, Steve Elson (saxophone) Kristeen Young (vocals, piano) Pete Towshend (guitar on “Slow Burn”) Dave Grohl (guitar on “I’ve Been Waiting for You”)

Rating: 3.611 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Heathen marks a new beginning for David Bowie in some ways — it's his first record since leaving Virgin, his first for Columbia Records, his first for his new label, ISO — yet it's hardly a new musical direction. Like Hours, this finds Bowie sifting through the sounds of his past, completely at ease with his legacy, crafting a colorful, satisfying album that feels like a classic Bowie album.” AMG “That's not to say that Heathen recalls any particular album or any era in specific, yet there's a deliberate attempt to recapture the atmosphere, the tone of his '70s work — there's a reason that Bowie decided to reteam with Tony Visconti, the co-producer of some of his best records, for this album — even if direct comparisons are hard to come by. Which is exactly what's so impressive about this album. Bowie and Visconti never shy away from electronic instrumentations or modern production — if anything, they embrace it — but it's woven into Bowie's sound subtly, never drawing attention to the drum loops, guitar synths, and washes of electronica.” AMG “For that matter, guest spots by Dave Grohl and Pete Townshend (both on guitar) don't stand out either; they're merely added texture to this an album that's intricately layered, but always plays smoothly and alluringly. And, make no mistake, this is an alluring, welcoming, friendly album — there are some moody moments, but Bowie takes Neil Young's eerie I've Been Waiting for You and Pixies' elusively brutal, creepy Cactus and turns them sweet, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, either.” AMG “In the end, that's the key to Heathen — the undercurrent of happiness, not in the lyrics, but in the making of music, a realization by Bowie and Visconti alike that they are perfect collaborators. Unlike their previous albums together, this doesn't boldly break new ground, but that's because, 22 years after their last collaboration, Scary Monsters, both Bowie and Visconti don't need to try as hard, so they just focus on the craft. The result is an understated, utterly satisfying record, his best since Scary Monsters, simply because he'd never sounded as assured and consistent since.” AMG Notes: A 2-CD version of the album includes a bonus disc with remixed versions of “Sunday” and “A Better Future” as well as the 1970 song “Conversation Piece” and an outtake of “Panic in Detroit.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for David Bowie AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/20/2008; last updated 8/9/2021.