Kacey Musgraves’ new album, Star Crossed, is one of the best albums of 2021. That’s already been established. And since she made the record with the same folks she collaborated with for its predecessor, Golden Hour, and this new record tells the story of that perfect love going awry, it makes sense that the two be seen as companion records. But while Golden Hour was released when Kacey was a relatively underground country singer, the record won the most prestigious Album Of The Year Grammy, and catapulted her to full-fledged pop stardom.
So, when Musgraves went to submit Star-Crossed to the Grammys for country genre awards, they seem to be punishing her for her success by refusing to let the album be submitted in the country category. Yes, this record pushes sonic boundaries, veering into electronic and pop production at times, but it it’s also decidedly folk and country influenced, perhaps even moreso than Golden Hour was. The decision is a strange shift from the Recording Academy, who happily let hip-hop inflected country by men into the fold on a regular basis.
Kacey decided to respond to the decision with a fitting subtweet today. “You can take the girl out of the country (genre) but you can’t take the country out of the girl,” she wrote to caption the Tweet.
You can take the girl out of the country (genre) but you can’t take the country out of the girl. pic.twitter.com/dZaqoFsI7I
— K A C E Y (@KaceyMusgraves) October 13, 2021
And this is why we love her.