My final new release of the week is an album that came out at the beginning of the month: Kacey Musgraves’ seventh album, Middle of Nowhere.

I’m a bit shocked that Musgraves already has seven albums under her belt, even if the number is padded a bit by a Christmas release. I’m a big fan of her debut, 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park, and her Album of the Year-winning fourth album, 2018’s Golden Hour, but haven’t found much time for the rest.

Middle of Nowhere is being hailed as a return to form, and my first listen backs that up. The songwriting is sharper and the production sits in the same laid-back country groove as her best work. She sounds comfortable, and comforting.

Written a couple of years after a divorce and a long-term relationship, this album finds Musgraves enjoying singledom (well, mostly… on lead single ‘Dry Spell’ she bemoans her lack of a sex life). She’s reflective and introspective, but mostly buoyant.

She even made time to squash a longtime beef with country star Miranda Lambert, with whom Musgraves has had an icy relationship for a decade and a half. On ‘Horses and Divorces,’ co-written with Lambert, the two women bury the hatchet and decide that “maybe we’re more alike than we think.”

Other guest stars include Willie Nelson and indie folk artist Gregory Alan Isakov, who sings backing vocals on today’s SOTD.

I need to return to Middle of Nowhere but already I can tell it’s a keeper.