My Saturn has returned

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

22/03/24 : Deeper Well - Kacey Musgraves

I'm pleasantly surprised to meet Kacey on our travels - I've liked her since her debut album.  It's hard to believe that was 11 years ago and she's put out a decent set of albums in the intervening period, so this was one I'd already checked out, so I can write it up straight away.

And, somewhat disappointingly, it's merely perfectly fine.  She's still got a lovely voice and crafts a fine tune, but for me it's all a bit downplayed and unfocussed in comparison with previous albums - it just kinda slid by me without making much of an impression.  I liked the title track, "Jade Green" and "The Architect" but it doesn't feel like this is going to have too many revisits.

We're at a pleasingly high #3 with a new entry this week (her highest placing here so far) with the rest of the top five being Ariana Grande (impressively holding on to the top spot), The Weeknd, Noah Kahan and Justin Timberlake (a new entry) and we have one more new entry in the top ten for Caity Baser (#7) which feels like a fine effort from the lass.

I thought Ariana would be at #5 this week so I was on the right lines but underestimated her staying power - unfortunately I think Kacey will be doing well to hang around at all but I'm going to guess at #74 (picking a number at random).  And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten, four in the top twenty and nine in the entire chart.

Wikipedia has a few paragraphs on the album, but very little content.  It mentions that she's touring next month to support the album - I tried to get tickets but they sold out very quickly, so she's certainly got a core fanbase here.  The critics were mostly pretty nice about the album but Pitchfork got it right for me when they said the songs "aren't particularly satisfying when you know what she's capable of" and commercially it's dented the charts in a few countries - #9 in Ireland feels quite low for this kind of thing over there.  One I thing I noticed was there are a couple of very talented musicians involved in the album with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk playing over twenty instruments between them - and they sing as well!

"Customers also listened to" Scott McCreery, Kenny Chesney, Chase Matthew and Gabby Barrett - all of whom I can tell you absolutely nothing about.  I liked this enough, but wanted to like it more so was left with a feeling of disappointment - maybe I'll grow to like it more, but I somehow doubt it will get the chance.

15/03/24 - Catchy but same-same
29/03/24 - Fine but unnecessary