Star-Crossed (album)
Star-Crossed (stylized in all lowercase) is the fifth studio album by American singer Kacey Musgraves. It was released on September 10, 2021, by MCA Nashville and Interscope Records. Musgraves co-wrote and co-produced the album with American musicians Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, with whom she collaborated on her fourth studio album, Golden Hour (2018), as well.
Star-Crossed
September 10, 2021
2019–2021
Watershed (Nashville)
47:32
- English
- Spanish
- Ian Fitchuk
- Daniel Tashian
- Kacey Musgraves
The album's subject matter was inspired by Musgraves' personal journey of heartache and healing following her divorce from American singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly. She described Star-Crossed as chronicling a "modern tragedy", taking influences from Romeo and Juliet, the famous play by English playwright William Shakespeare, and cited Bill Withers, Daft Punk, Sade, Eagles, and Weezer as her musical references for the album. Star-Crossed is primarily a pop record, infusing elements of folk, dance, rock, and psychedelic music, while retaining the country poise of its predecessor. It consists of mellow ballads, propelled by steady tempos, analog synthesizers, looped drums, and layered harmonies.
The album was preceded by the promotional single "Star-Crossed" on August 23, 2021, followed by "Justified" as the lead single a few days later. "Camera Roll" was released to adult alternative radio as the album's second single on January 24, 2022.[1] A companion film titled after the album and featuring its music, directed by Bardia Zeinali, was exclusively released to Paramount+ alongside the album's release.
Star-Crossed received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who regarded it the "divorce album" of Musgraves' discography, in contrast to the celebration of marriage in Golden Hour. Most of the reviews of complimented its genre-blending production and Musgraves' intimate storytelling, while the rest felt it is an inferior work to Golden Hour. Star-Crossed placed on many year-end best albums lists of 2021. Commercially, the album arrived inside the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and topped the country genre charts in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. One of the album's tracks, "Camera Roll", was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Background and recording[edit]
In March 2018, American singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves released her fourth studio album, Golden Hour, which received widespread critical acclaim and won in all four of its nominated categories at the 61st Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album.[2] It debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart and at number one on the Top Country Albums chart.[3] To support the album, Musgraves embarked on two concert tours: the Oh, What a World: Tour and the Oh, What a World: Tour II.[4]
In March 2021, Musgraves was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. In the cover story, she delves into self-care and the personal work she has done during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] Musgraves also revealed that as of January 2021, she had written 39 songs for the project, and she's once again working with Golden Hour co-producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian.[6]
In April 2021, it was reported that the album would be released via Interscope Records and UMG Nashville.[7] In May, during a cover story for Elle magazine, Musgraves revealed that the album sees her tackling her divorce from country singer Ruston Kelly after two and a half years of marriage.[8][9] The two were married in October 2017,[9] and filed for divorce in July 2020.[10] Musgraves also revealed that the record contains 15 of the now 40 songs she wrote during the pandemic.[11]
In August 2021, during a cover story for Crack Magazine, it was revealed that the project would be released before the end of the year, feature jazz flute and a kato, and have "more of a foot in country than Golden Hour".[12] During an appearance on Dr. Maya Shankar's podcast A Slight Change of Plans, Musgraves sang snippets of two of the songs from the album, "Camera Roll" and "Angel".[12] On August 21, to celebrate her birthday, Kacey shared a snippet of the title track, which was released as the lead single two days later.[13] The album was recorded in Nashville in early 2021, in under three weeks.[14] In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Musgraves elaborated on what to expect sonically from the album, noting that although the album would be more country than Golden Hour, it would be combined with more musical influences.[15]
Commercial performance[edit]
Star-Crossed debuted at number one on the U.S. Top Country Albums chart, earning 77,000 album-equivalent units, of which 47,000 copies were pure sales, from its opening week.[68] It became Musgraves' fourth number-one album on the chart.[68] The album also debuted at number three on the all-genre Billboard 200, and number one on the Americana/Folk Albums chart;[68] it became Musgraves' fourth top-ten album on the former and her second chart-topping debut on the latter.[68] In addition, the album also accumulated a total of 38.23 million on-demand streams of the album's tracks.[69] Six songs from Star-Crossed charted on the US Hot Country Songs chart, with "Justified" at number 22, "Simple Times" at number 31, "Breadwinner" at number 36, "Star-Crossed" at number 37, "Good Wife" at number 41 and "Cherry Blossom" at number 44.[68]
In the United Kingdom the album debuted at number ten, becoming Musgraves' second consecutive top-ten album on the UK Albums Chart.
Awards ceremony controversy[edit]
Grammy Awards[edit]
On October 10, 2021, Universal Music Group Nashville record label president Cindy Mabe wrote a letter to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. following the decision to place Musgraves' album in the pop music categories instead of the country music categories in regards to the forthcoming 64th Grammy Awards.[70][71]