Kacey Musgraves has been to country music what some of the boldest innovators on the Irish scene have been to folk – an artist that holds deep respect for the roots and integrity of her tradition, while also fearlessly pushing the boundaries of its sound, and refusing to abide by the rules of the conservative establishment.

After progressing from the clever quips and rhinestones of her early work, to the psychedelic influences of 2018’s multi-Grammy-Award-winning Golden Hour, she returned with her style-hopping ‘divorce album’, Star-Crossed, in 2021. But if that project was a flushing out of emotion and ideas, her new record, Deeper Well, finds the Tennessee-based singer-songwriter in an entirely new space of meditation and healing.

Stripping back most of the frills (as she recently did with Zach Bryan on the hugely successful ‘I Remember Everything), Kacey is simultaneously returning to her roots and reinventing herself – picture a woodland-foraging, magic-mushroom-microdosing, planet-watching, mood-ring-wearing Laurel Canyon star, and you’re on the right track. She’s swapped out the witty wordplay for raw reflections on life, love and death, with lyrics that are both “simple and somehow complex”, as she sings on ‘The Architect’.

The newfound confidence in her vision has resulted in songs largely based around one natural pulse – while still finding time for experimentation on the R&B-informed ‘Lonely Millionaire’, and channelling her inner Irish folk singer on ‘Heaven Is’. The result is an enthrallingly tender and mindful spring soundtrack, as Kacey takes the reins and embraces change.

8.5/10