Pageant Material

Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2015 Ratings: #224 / 1021
User Score
Based on 438 ratings
2015 Rank: #179
Liked by 31 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

94
Paste
At 26, Musgraves has kept her wonder, honed her focus and remained true to her core.
90
PopMatters

Her self-definition as an artist is an inescapable part of the storyline on Pageant Material; she better defines her persona than on the prior album, while dazzling us more with the surfaces and the interiors of the songs.

90
SPIN

There’s nothing not country about every step she takes; what separates and sends Musgraves soaring higher than her peers is her writing — the storytelling on Pageant Material could fill a memoir, secondary sources and all.

90
Billboard
This is an even better album than her last, with more consistency and variety. And Musgraves still excels at chiding Southern tradition.
83
A.V. Club
She’s not pop country. She’s country, pure and simple, without all the glitter and flash.
83
Pretty Much Amazing

There are no stomping blues-rockers here, no rockabilly or harmonica hoedowns as there were on Same Trailer; everything’s pretty low-key. Sometimes this restraint can be tantalizing in the best ways.

80
Exclaim!
Smart, funny, empathetic and wise, Musgraves is one of the best in the business right now — even when it seems she might be treading water.
80
Evening Standard
Now that Taylor Swift's abandoned country, Kacey Musgraves is the genre's new hope.
80
The Irish Times

Same Trailer had buckets of attitude which Pageant Material inherits, but the new album is more measured, reserved and conscious of its Nashville roots while continuing to rock the lyrical boat.

80
The Telegraph
The plucky Texan singer blends crisp country licks with a witty live-and-let-live philosophy.
80
Uncut
Today’s most successful country acts are big-hatted men singing fairytale homilies about trucks and broads. Musgraves’ willingness to address a life built on knotty contradictions give her songs resonance far beyond Golden’s borders.
80
Pitchfork
One of the remarkable things about Musgraves is not how much she has deviated from country norms, but the way she expands them.
80
American Songwriter
From beginning to end, it’s an absolute charmer. Every pretty melody, every sweet-tart lyric, every vocal and instrumental flourish … they definitely earn her – to borrow a title-song reference – a 4.0.
80
AllMusic
This lush sound is old-fashioned but, despite her stated rebellion and taste for weed, much of Musgraves' sensibility is fairly traditional.
80
musicOMH

Listeners with open minds are strongly recommended to give Pageant Material a try. It’s brimming with wit and wisdom, and it really should have featured on more end-of-year lists.

70
Rolling Stone

It misses some of Trailer's storytelling wistfulness and formal experiments — but track for track, it's stronger, an object lesson in Nashville songwriting.

60
Slant Magazine
Her music is as rooted in organic country and western traditions as ever, flush with cosmopolitan strings, instrumental banjo breaks, and generous portions of pedal steel, but the songwriting comes less organically, too often stretching itself thin over a genre that's historically benefited from a measure of simplicity.
60
The Guardian
The melodies still stick, but it feels as if Musgraves has filed down her spikes in order to consolidate her position as country music’s princess.
60
NOW Magazine
She sounds older and smarter, but a bit unsure of which way to take that experience.
60
No Ripcord

The songs have a slightly ready-to-wear feel to them. Musgraves plays up her lyrical prowess to the detriment of the instrumentation, which is crisp but generic and unremarkable.

60
The Observer
A cheerful rejection of the male country establishment.
50
Consequence of Sound
For now, saying the same thing over and over, even in fancy phrasing, is just another broken record.
Missing_Lyriks
75

I’m mindin’ my own biscuits all right… should probably hit the gym because they’re all extremely heavy 🫠

MAN
57

Nice way to follow the debut!

AyeItsJoey
60

the miss congeniality of whatever pageant hole won

AlbertoAngarita
92

Literally mind your own business and life will be gravy!! Love this album so so much, glad to be back in my Kacey era ❤️❤️

Seb_Harris
60

Kacey's follow-up to her debut is more polished but the charm is still there.

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Added on: May 13, 2015