Kacey Musgraves has announced the March 15 release of her fifth studio album, Deeper Well, and along with the news, she’s shared the title track, a plainspoken folk-pop tune about growing older and wiser. The new LP follows 2021’s genre-hopping divorce epic star-crossed, and it was apparently inspired by New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. She even recorded at Electric Lady, the studio founded by Jimi Hendrix.
“I was seeking some different environmental energy, and Electric Lady has the best mojo,” Musgraves said in a press release. “Great ghosts.”
Produced by Musgraves in collaboration with frequent collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, “Deeper Well” opens with Musgraves—now 35—taking stock of her recent past. Toward the end of her 20s, her “Saturn Return” period, Musgraves got married to fellow country singer Ruston Kelly, whom she’d later divorce. A bunch of other stuff the public doesn’t know about probably happened, too. It was a transitional time, but it taught her a lot.
My Saturn has returned
When I turned twenty-seven
Everything started to change
In particular, these years taught her there are “two kinds of people.”
One is a giver and one’s always tryin' to take
All they can take
On the chorus, she cuts ties with unnamed people who weren’t doing her any good.
So I’m saying goodbye to the people that I feel
Are real good at wasting my time
No regrets, baby, I just think that maybe
You go your way and I’ll go mine
Musgraves spends the second verse describing her attempts at self-medication (and bong construction).
I used to wake and bake
Roll out of bed, hit the gravity bong that I made
And start the day
But as with those people she casts off in the first chorus, Musgraves decides it’s time to jettison these unhealthy coping mechanisms.
So I’m getting rid of the habits that I feel
Are real good at wastin’ my time
No regrets, baby, I just think that maybe
It’s natural when things lose their shine
In the final verse, Musgraves reflects on her Texas upbringing and reiterates the song’s main idea: You have to live life and learn from your mistakes.
When I was growing up
We had what we needed, shoes on our feet
But the world was as flat as a plate
And that’s okay
The things I was taught only took me so far
Had to figure the rest out myself
“Deeper Well” comes with a music video in which Musgraves, clad in prairie chic, wanders through a rural environment filled with floating rocks. In the end, she catches a ball of light in her hand.
You can read all the lyrics to “Deeper Well” on Genius now.
