Kacey Musgraves - 2013 Anticipation

The (positive) WaPo review describes it as a "wellness lifestyle record."

Feel free to wince a little upon hearing that Kacey Musgraves is now singing about the holistic benefits of moon bathing and jade bracelets, but please know that unlike other recent pop albums that dabble in wellness woo-woo — Lorde’s “Solar Power,” FKA twigs’s “Caprisongs” — the singer’s new record, “Deeper Well,” totally gets away with it. Why? Because Musgraves is a country star who ultimately believes in Willie Nelson more than astrology, tarot or Goop. She knows that the greatest country songs ever written aim to provide tidy answers to the thorniest questions of existence. Lucky for those of us who think of wellness lifestyles as spiritual make-believe for people with money, those are still the kinds of songs Musgraves wants to write.

(Technically he calls it a "wellness lifestyle album," but same trailer.)

it's a nice little album, but the plaintive directness i admired about the song "deeper well" is an exception among the tracks here, most of which struggle to rise beyond lyrically mundane. it helps that "deeper well" has one of her most classically gorgeous melodies, the others seem to go in one ear and out the other.

Better than where most lifestyle brands would have those melodies go.

I really wanted to play the contrarian in this thread. A mostly acoustic, chill album that doesn’t really have any big singles actually sounds perfectly up my album. And on first listen I was really taken with it. But after a week of many listens I’ve more or less landed where many of you have. It’s a fine record, just ok. I agree that it’s lacking a lyrical sharpness that is really required when musically it’s so unchanging (and maybe four songs too many at that).

Perfectly up my *alley*