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 also collaborated on her fourth studio album, Golden Hour (2018).
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. In contrast to her earlier albums, Star-Crossed is primarily a pop record, infusing elements of folk, dance, rock, and psychedelic music while retaining some of 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. 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 as the "divorce album" of Musgraves' discography, in contrast to the celebration of marriage on Golden Hour. Most of the reviews complimented its genre-blending production and Musgraves' intimate storytelling, while the rest viewed Musgraves' pivot towards pop as uninspired and felt it was an inferior work to Golden Hour. Star-Crossed placed on many year-end lists of the best albums 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 UK and the US. 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 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. It debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart and at number one on the Top Country Albums chart. To support the album, Musgraves embarked on two concert tours: the Oh, What a World: Tour and the Oh, What a World: Tour II.
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. 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.
In April 2021, it was reported that the album would be released via Interscope Records and UMG Nashville. 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. The two were married in October 2017, and filed for divorce in July 2020. Musgraves also revealed that the record contains 15 of the now 40 songs she wrote during the pandemic.
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". 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". 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. The album was recorded in Nashville in early 2021, in under three weeks. 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.
Influences
Musgraves cited Bill Withers, Daft Punk, Sade, Eagles, and Weezer as inspirations for the album. Regarding her status as country musician, she said "I feel like I don't belong to country in any way on one hand, but on the other hand, I'm deeply rooted in that genre. So I'm not owned by it." The album's lyrics were conceived by Musgraves following her divorce from Kelly. In the Rolling Stone interview, the singer explained that as she was conceptualizing the album earlier this year, she kept coming back to Greek tragedies, and their three-act structure. The album is also inspired by William Shakespeare's popular tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
Music and lyrics Star-Crossed is a pop and country pop album with folk, dance, disco, soft rock, alternative rock, and R&B elements. It is characterized by ballads, layered with harmonies, analog synths, and drum loops. Slate critic Carl Wilson said the album expands on the "mellow psychedelic-country-synth sound" Musgraves discovered on Golden Hour with co-producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian. The country music committee of the Recording Academy ruled Star-Crossed and its singles ineligible for the country categories at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, saying they are "not sufficiently country"; Variety said Musgraves' submissions would presumably move "over to pop categories."
The album's subject matter discusses themes of marriage, divorce, and post-breakup emotional healing, whereas its track-list is divided into three sections, which Musgraves dubbed as "three acts". Variety Chris Willman differentiated Star-Crossed as her "divorce album" while Golden Hour was her "honeymoon record".
Songs
"Star-Crossed" is a psychedelic and country song, driven by a Spanish guitar and heartbeat-like percussion, about Musgrave's personal journey. The song opens with a bed of harmonized "ooh" vocals, before the singer sings, "Let me set the scene." What follows is the recounting of a divorce, with papers signed, possessions divided, and names changed. Musgraves described the title track as "a pared back, Latin-inflected ballad about resigning from a relationship and accepting fate without bitterness", noting that it "swells into a pattern of guttural electric guitar, spectral strings and a chorus of voices". The track is inspired by the history of Romeo and Juliet.
Promotion and release On August 23, 2021, Musgraves announced that her fifth album will be called Star-Crossed and revealed the release date. On the same day, she revealed the track list across her social media. Star-Crossed was released on September 10, 2021. On October 2, Musgraves appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed "Camera Roll" and "Justified," the latter wearing only a guitar and cowboy boots.
Film
On August 23, 2021, Musgraves posted a trailer across her social media for a 50-minute companion film, titled after the album. The film was launched exclusively on Paramount+ the same day the album was released, September 10, 2021. The film, characterized as having "a sense of heightened reality", was directed by Bardia Zeinali from a concept by Musgraves and Zeinali, and shot by cinematographer Matthew Libatique. The film was shot over 10 days in Los Angeles and features cameo appearances by actors Eugene Levy, Victoria Pedretti, and Diane Venora, RuPaul's Drag Race winner Symone, rapper Princess Nokia, and comedian Meg Stalter.
Tour
The album was supported by the Star-Crossed: Unveiled tour, Musgraves' seventh headlining concert tour and first arena tour. It began on January 19, 2022, in St. Paul, Minnesota and was intended to be concluded in Toronto, Canada on February 25. However, the Toronto concert was cancelled a few hours before the performance. This tour comprised 14 shows. King Princess and MUNA served as opening acts.
Critical reception
Upon release, Star-Crossed received generally positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 78 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Lauren Dehollogne, reviewing for The Line of Best Fit, lauded Star-Crossed as Musgraves' "most raw and honest album to-date" and hailed her as one of the best songwriters of her generation. He called the album a "near therapeutic experience", accentuated by its honeyed vocal performances and minimalistic "dreamy" melodies. Writing for NME, Hannah Mylrea called Star-Crossed an intricate, "powerfully honest depiction of heartbreak" with sonically diverse songs and "brutally honest" lyrics, finding Musgraves address uncomfortable emotions. Entertainment Weekly critic Leah Greenblatt stated Star-Crossed comprises themes covering both "the essence of country music (love hurts, life is hard) and an extremely 2021 refraction of it." Slant reviewer Jeremy Winograd described the album as an intimate, eclectic, "effortlessly melodic and accessible" album far from country or pop radio tropes. Winograd stated even some of the album's less stripped-down tracks are arranged in a very simple fashion, emphasizing Musgraves' stylistic vision and eschewing formulaic pop.
DIY Ben Tipple observed, much like its predecessor, Star-Crossed "takes the storytelling of her country roots and presents it with pop grandeur", but this time with a darker tone. Tipple complimented the blend of both retrospective and contemporary pop production in the album, while also making space for Musgraves' "personal storytelling". Gabrielle Sanchez of The A.V. Club said the album is her "least country" effort, leaning into the modern pop and disco influences that she began to incorporate in her music with Golden Hour. Writing for Exclaim!, Dylan Barnabe highlighted that the album is an emotionally vulnerable, "ballad-heavy" record, divided into sections explaining the "exposition, climax, downfall, and resolution of Musgraves' love story". David Smyth of Evening Standard recognized adulthood's aspirations and its harsh realities as the album's overarching motifs, and its sound "a less dramatic progression than that between Golden Hour and its more traditional predecessors."
Other reviews were critical of the album. Pitchfork critic Sam Sodomsky found Musgraves "burrowing inward" in Star-Crossed, singing stark, simplistic lyrics, but amplifying her "obsessive self-reflection" for mainstream appeal. Sodomsky underscored the album's dichotomy between vulnerability and triumph, and regarded its best moments as "artful" while the rest "feel forced." Paste writer Ellen Johnson said, while Star-Crossed "can't quite touch the otherworldly iridescence" of Golden Hour, it is "still a hell of a listen." Johnson commended the production by the Tashian/Fitchuk duo and Musgraves storytelling skills, but picked "Angel", "Easier Said", and "Keep Lookin' Up" as mid-tier tracks. In his AllMusic review, senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote Star-Crossed offers "a full-blown song cycle" detailing the breakdown of Musgraves' marriage. He dubbed it a "quintessential divorce record" and admired its soothing production, but felt the lyrics suffer from "blunt literalism".