Well Played: A Review of Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well
When you dive into Kacey Musgraves’ lovely folk-country album, Deeper Well, you’ll likely discover the singer/songwriter secure, but searching. After love (captured on the masterpiece that is 2018’s Golden Hour) and loss (poured out on 2021’s star-crossed) come self-healing, (personal and professional) lessons learned, even a few unanswered questions, all reflected on 14 sonically soothing, acoustic-centered tracks, with Musgraves’ angelic voice at the heart (of the woods).
Here, Musgraves is at her earthiest. Throughout the album, she and her writing team have incorporated references to the natural world and its inhabitants, the seasons and the afterlife: With the opener, “Cardinal,” the scarlet-red bird is seen as a messenger “from the other side” (an expression Musgraves also adds to “Dinner with Friends”). She also asks: “Are you just watching and waiting for spring?” With “Too Good to be True,” Musgraves musters the courage to open herself up to that foreshadowed new beginning (“Summer’s gone, but you’re still here/For both of us, it’s been a year”), yet subsequently on “Moving Out,” cohabitation comes with challenges. She sings metaphorically, “That big tree in the front yard lost a limb,” and uses the season of autumn to signify the decay of that relationship, evidenced by the following track, “Giver/Taker” and its opening line: “Sundown and I’m lonely in this house.”
But it’s the title track, as well as “Sway” that document her quest for centeredness amid all the changes that life can bring “without a warning,” words expressed on “Too Good to be True” and similarly on “Cardinal.” Musgraves never pretends to have it all figured out; in fact, on “The Architect,” she paints a series of scenarios to convey a balance of curiosity and confusion about creation, and life on the planet, leading, once again, to confirm Musgraves’ knack for relatability through lyrical construction. By album’s end, “Nothing to be Scared of” finds her dipping her toes in the relationship waters once again. And if life and love ever get murky again, Musgraves now knows she can always go back to the well.
Photo 1: “Cardinal” music video, directed by Scott Cudmore; Photo 2 and 3: “My Saturn Has Returned” promo for Deeper Well (cinematographer: Mika Matinazad).
Pop Playlist: The Smiths: “Please, Please, Please…”
The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” is just shy of two minutes long, but it efficiently goes straight to the heart of desperate longing. The lead singer, Morrissey sounds as if he’s in mid-prayer, a plea to experience “Good times for a change.” Acoustic guitar, and the defeated sadness in his voice, create a somber tone, yet not one of complaining, but contemplation. There’s disappointment, but he’s also hopeful; he’s the “good man” who doesn’t want to “turn bad.” The lyric, “Haven’t had a dream in a long time” may be the track’s most vulnerable, with the later “what” in “get what I want” open to interpretation, the “what” replaceable with “who.” (Morrissey has in fact applied this lyric change during live shows.)
The song works well in the heartwarming (and heartbreaking) film about the confusion of unrequited love, (500) Days of Summer, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) and Zooey Deschanel (Summer). In the hopes of getting Summer’s attention, Tom plays the song out loud for co-worker and fellow Smiths admirer, Summer, only for Summer to walk right by his desk.
“Please, Please, Please…” has been covered by Deschanel (She & Him), and the Dream Academy, whose version appears in the film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Two-Minute Warning: She & Him: “I Knew It Would Happen This Way”
The solemn “I Knew It Would Happen This Way” is the bonus track on She & Him’s Volume 2. It features an acoustic-guitar intro followed by dreamlike electric guitar, reminiscent of something playing on the jukebox at the Double R diner in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks.” Zooey Deschanel’s equally ethereal vocals barely utter lyrics such as “And you don’t want me anymore”; “I won’t be waiting on the dock.” This weary-sounding character now knows her prediction about the relationship has come true and is most assured of her decision to leave. M. Ward concurs musically and provides a brief acoustic run to quickly close out this two-minute vignette.