Louder: Kacey Musgraves’s Expanding Universe

August 27, 2021

By Caryn Ganz

Pop Music Editor

“What’s a pop star?” Kacey Musgraves replied, when asked if becoming one is her ambition. It’s a question that hovers over a host of our stories this week. There’s Halsey, recording an album with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails that’s “both a homage to 1990s roots and a strategic pivot: away from (seemingly) direct autobiography and toward archetypes,” writes Jon Pareles. There’s Lorde, releasing an LP that wanders from the dramatic, dynamic aesthetic of her last record toward something sunnier and less commercial.

And there’s Musgraves, our Arts & Leisure cover story, drifting around the homey studio where she made her last two albums with two unflashy producers like “a yee-haw Mona Lisa,” as Amanda Hess evocatively describes her. Musgraves’s new album “Star-Crossed,” out next month, “is the psychological hangover” to her 2018 breakout “Golden Hour,” a breakup album told as a tragedy in three acts. Musically, it’s not the “1989” moment some were expecting, but it is arriving with a now-standard pop accouterment: the companion film. Perhaps Musgraves has one foot in country, a few toes in pop and both hands still reaching for the cosmos.

Plus: farewell to Charlie Watts, the unlikely soul of the Rolling Stones, as Ben Sisario calls him in a lovely appraisal. And bravo to Lindsay Zoladz for this charming tribute to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (do you even need to ask if I still know all the words?).

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Kacey Musgraves’s Expanding Universe

After two wry country albums and a Grammy-sweeping breakthrough, pop stardom is calling for Kacey Musgraves. Will she answer?

By Amanda Hess

THE CRITICS

the Playlist

John Coltrane’s Unearthed Live ‘A Love Supreme,’ and 12 More New Songs

Hear tracks by SZA, Fantastic Negrito, Mary Lattimore and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Isabelia Herrera and Giovanni Russonello

Album Review

Backed by Nine Inch Nails, Halsey Connects Past and Future

On “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power,” the 26-year-old musician enlists a longtime role model and takes one step back from confessionals.

By Jon Pareles

Album Review

Lorde Opts Out on the Provocatively Subdued ‘Solar Power’

The singer and songwriter trades the sonic dynamism and moodiness of her 2017 album “Melodrama” for sun-soaked self-assurance on an LP that doesn’t always come into focus.

By Lindsay Zoladz

CHARLIE WATTS (1941-2021)

George Wilkes/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

Charlie Watts, Bedrock Drummer for the Rolling Stones, Dies at 80

Mr. Watts, who had no taste for the life of a pop idol, was an unflashy but essential presence with the band and brought to it a swinging style.

By Gavin Edwards

Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

An Appraisal

Charlie Watts, the Unlikely Soul of the Rolling Stones

In a band that defined debauched rock ’n’ roll, he was a quiet, dapper jazz fan. But their unusual chemistry defined the rhythm of the Stones, and of rock.

By Ben Sisario

John Stoddart/Popperfoto, via Getty Images

Critic’s Notebook

The Uniform Cool of Charlie Watts

With his Savile Row suits, custom shirts and jazzman’s assurance, the Rolling Stones drummer staged his own quiet rebellion.

By Guy Trebay

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Even Billy Joel Mocked ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ I Loved It.

As a 4-year-old, our critic couldn’t get enough of this manic 1989 hit, a crash course in U.S. history. Now the song lives on in parodies and memes.

By Lindsay Zoladz

Critic’s Notebook

Aretha Franklin and the Futility of Trying to Portray Her Onscreen

The new film “Respect” is one of three recent attempts to understand the artist. Only the one that focuses solely on her music comes close.

By Salamishah Tillet

PODCASTS

The Style of Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Era

How West has used fashion to signify musical evolution, how he’s been regarded by the fashion industry and how other musicians are following in his footsteps.

Some Said Lil Nas X Was a One-Hit Wonder. They Were Wrong.

He’s lap dancing on the devil, winning the internet — and redefining what a pop star can be.

By Dodai Stewart, Jazmine Hughes, Tally Abecassis, Elyssa Dudley, Theo Balcomb, Tracy Mumford, Phyllis Fletcher and Sara Sarasohn

OBITUARIES

Chad Batka for The New York Times

An Appraisal

Larry Harlow, a Salsa Revolutionary

The musician, who died on Friday, was a true originator of the genre. An outsider, he lived a Latin music life by immersing himself in Afro-Caribbean culture.

By Ed Morales

Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Larry Harlow, Influential Figure in Salsa, Dies at 82

He was born into a family of Jewish musicians, but he made his mark in Latin music, as a pianist, bandleader and producer.

By Neil Genzlinger

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Don Everly, Older Brother in Groundbreaking Rock Duo, Dies at 84

The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, were the most successful rock act to emerge from Nashville in the 1950s, rivaling Elvis Presley for radio airplay.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

Inge Ginsberg, Holocaust Survivor With a Heavy Metal Coda, Dies at 99

Her rich life, spanning three continents and 11 decades, entailed wartime espionage, volumes of poetry, songwriting and a late-career turn as a rock band’s frontwoman.

By Annabelle Williams

R. Murray Schafer, Composer Who Heard Nature’s Music, Dies at 88

He delved into the relationship between sound and the environment. Many of his compositions incorporated the music of the natural world.

By William Robin

Tom T. Hall, Country Music’s ‘Storyteller,’ Is Dead at 85

Mr. Hall, who wrote hits like “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” helped to imbue country lyrics with newfound depth and insight in the 1960s and ’70s.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

NEWS

A Starry Central Park Comeback Concert Is Silenced by Lightning

An all-star show to celebrate the city’s emergence after the hardships of the pandemic, even as the spread of the Delta variant has driven up cases again, was stopped halfway through.

By Ben Sisario

Why the Baby on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Album Is Suing Now

Spencer Elden, 30, says Nirvana engaged in child pornography when the band used a picture of him naked on the cover of the breakthrough album.

By Maria Cramer

The Struggle to Save a House of Music, and Its Legacy

For decades, the Tangier home of Abdellah El Gourd has been a wellspring of the Gnawa musical tradition and a place of pilgrimage for jazz performers. But it has fallen into deep disrepair.

By Aida Alami

The Charts

Billie Eilish Earns a Third Week at No. 1, Narrowly

“Happier Than Ever” beat out Doja Cat’s “Planet Her” on the Billboard album chart by a margin of 1,000 equivalent album sales.

By Ben Sisario

JoJo Siwa to Have First Same-Sex ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Partner

The “Dance Moms” alum and TikTok personality will join the ABC show as the first contestant to compete in a same-sex pairing.

By Laura Zornosa

R. Kelly Said He Liked ‘Young Girls,’ His Third Accuser Testifies

The third accuser to testify at the singer’s trial said Mr. Kelly described himself as a “genius” who should be allowed to do what he wanted.

By Emily Palmer

Woman Says R. Kelly Made Her Have Sex With Someone Else as Punishment

The second accuser to testify against the R&B star during his trial was once among his vocal supporters, but she said on Tuesday that Mr. Kelly had instructed her to lie.

By Troy Closson

Woman Says R. Kelly Abused Her and Pressured Her to Have an Abortion

The second accuser to testify against the disgraced R&B star said he pressured her to have an abortion, as the second week of Mr. Kelly’s trial began.

By Troy Closson and Emily Palmer