Kacey Musgraves debuts 'star-crossed' film, transforms 'trauma into beauty'

Note: This article contains spoilers for Kacey Musgraves' "star-crossed" film. 

With a new album and film, Kacey Musgraves returns — piece by piece. 

The Grammy Award-winning artist on Friday releases "star-crossed," her wildly anticipated follow-up project to 2018's critical and crossover smash "Golden Hour." 

In a music video for the lead single "justified," she invites listeners to "fall apart" — which is how you'll find Musgraves (literally) at one point in the 45-minute feature, directed by music filmmaker Bardia Zeinali. 

But this shattering sadness isn't permanent.

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In the film and album, Musgraves delivers a three-act story that takes listeners through devastating lows of a breakup (she and singer-songwriter ex-husband Ruston Kelly publicly split in 2020) to the emotional rebuild that follows.  

Musgraves debuted her self-described "modern tragedy" Tuesday in Nashville, Tennesse, with a screening at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Surrounded by friends, artists and industry colleagues — from Maren Morris to Brothers Osborne and country newcomer Breland — onlookers watched as Musgraves smashed matrimony (again, literally) on a theatrical genre-bending trip to "a light at the end of the tunnel," as she sings at one point. 

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"Nashville as a whole, the people that I love and that I'm inspired by, I don't know what I would do without this town. I'm so thankful for the people that are in it," Musgraves said on stage before the screening. "Ultimately, I'm really thankful for the opportunity to transform trauma into beauty and I hope you guys really enjoy this."

"I hope it doesn't suck," she added, with a laugh.

The Paramount+ film, shot in 10 days in Los Angeles, stars Musgraves alongside appearances from Eugene Levy, Victoria Pedretti, Princess Nokia, Symone and Megan Stalter.

Her most ambitious project to date, "star-crossed" marks Musgraves' first album on a joint venture with longtime label UMG Nashville and Interscope Records; she returned to Nashville-based "Golden Hour" producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk to produce the album. 

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"As this new record was being presented, I was really nervous about where we were going, only to find that Kacey put her entire heart and soul into something without walls ... for us," UMG Nashville president Cindy Mabe said on stage Tuesday night, adding:  'Kacey is one of those artists that transcends time and space and music." 

"star-crossed" offers Musgraves' layered modern synth-pop with touches of acoustic-country influence and — most of all — the unassuming wisdom she's shared throughout her work since "Follow Your Arrow" planted her flag nearly a decade ago among Nashville's sharpest modern songwriters. 

For example, listeners hear Musgraves build a landscape of '90s mallrat escapism on "Simple Times." She sings: "I need to step away, if I don't I'm gonna go insane/ 'Cause being grown-up kinda sucks, and I'm really just missin' the simple times." 

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Last month, Musgraves told Apple Music: "I'm excited to share 'star-crossed' just because people know me to be a songwriter that writes about what I'm going through. And I think it would have been extremely awkward if I just acted [like] this last chapter didn't happen for me. So I think you saw my highlight reel with 'Golden Hour' and this is the other side of that. And I mean there are beautiful parts of that too."

And as with the best of "Golden Hour," Musgraves excavates on "star-crossed" for the complicated, sometimes overlooked moments between happy and sad. 

Or, as she sings on "Justified": "Healing doesn't happen in a straight line." 

Still, she gets there — piece by piece. 

'star-crossed' 

• Tune in: "star-crossed" the film debuts Friday on streaming service Paramount+.
• Catch her live: Musgraves brings her "star-crossed: unveiled" tour to Bridgestone Arena early next year. More information at bridgestonearena.com.