Golden Hour is the fourth studio album by American country music singer and songwriter Kacey Musgraves, released on March 30, 2018, through MCA Nashville. Musgraves co-wrote all 13 tracks and co-produced the album with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. A country pop record, Golden Hour also contains elements of disco, electropop, electronica, and yacht rock.

Golden Hour debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200. Receiving widespread critical acclaim, the album and its songs won in all four of their nominated categories at the 61st Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The album's first two singles also won awards: "Butterflies" for Best Country Solo Performance and "Space Cowboy" for Best Country Song. Golden Hour also won Album of the Year at the 52nd Annual Country Music Association Awards. In 2020, Golden Hour was ranked at 270 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Background and recording Musgraves wrote and recorded most of the songs from the album throughout 2017. When asked about the writing process, she said, "I have a lot more love songs this time around, and I've never been one to write a love song and really feel it." She continued: "That probably sounds like the most depressing thing ever. [But] I'm coming off getting married and being in this golden hour of my personal life, where all these things are finally coming to fruition. I found myself inspired to write about this person and all these things he brought out in me that weren't there before." Pieces of the album were recorded in a studio above a horse stable owned by musician Sheryl Crow.

In a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Musgraves discussed being under the influence of LSD when composing the songs "Mother" and "Slow Burn" and how it helped her creative process; "I'm not going to tell anybody to run out and do anything that wouldn't be suitable for their mind or their lifestyle, but it did have positive effects for me."

Promotion and packaging On March 10, 2018, Musgraves announced the Oh, What a World: Tour in support of the album while performing at the Country to Country music festival in London. The first twelve dates of the tour were announced on March 12, through Musgraves stating on social media that tour dates in other countries would eventually be added. The tour began on October 13 in Oslo, Norway. Musgraves announced a second leg of the tour, titled the "Oh, What a World: Tour II", in February 2019.

Musgraves' sister Kelly Christine Sutton took the cover photo for Golden Hour over a two-day photo shoot in and around their hometown of Golden, Texas. Sutton, who also is credited with designing the album's packaging, has previously worked with Musgraves for all of her albums' artwork. When considering the cover photo, Sutton recalls Kacey "wanted to use this paper fan, and we are usually on the same page with ideas, but I couldn't picture it. We went out into this wide open field. We needed one with no trees, so there was sky only. Almost immediately after we reviewed the photos, we just knew we had it."

Critical reception

Golden Hour received rave reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 89, based on 18 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic rated the album five out of five stars and called it "warm and enveloping, pitched halfway between heartbreak and healing—but (it) lingers in the mind because the songs are so sharp, buttressed by long, loping melodies and Musgraves' affectless soul baring." Writing for The Independent and rating the album a perfect 5 out of 5, Roisin O'Connor states the album is "a reminder that sometimes – often, if you're looking in the right places – life is beautiful." Additionally, it was a Spin "Essential" and of the genre-bending songs on the album, reviewer Katherine St. Asaph calls it "not classicist, but perhaps it might be classic." The album was rated number one by the BBC poll of polls, a compilation of best-of-the-year lists across 35 music reviewers, on a list of the best albums of 2018. The album also placed number one in The Village Voices Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 2018.

Commercial performance Golden Hour debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 and at number one on the Top Country Albums chart with 49,000 album-equivalent units, with 39,000 of that figure being pure album sales in its first week. It marks Musgraves’ third number one on the US Top Country Albums chart. It also debuted at number one on the Americana/Folk Albums chart. In the chart week following the 61st Grammy Awards, where Golden Hour won Album of the Year, the album returned to the top ten, climbing to number nine on the chart, selling 35,000 copies. In February 2019, the album has reached 310,000 in album-equivalent units sold. On June 28, 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units. As of February 2020, the album has sold 735,000 units in the United States and was certified Platinum on May 7, 2021.

In the United Kingdom, Golden Hour debuted at number six on the official UK Albums Chart and at number one on the UK Country Albums chart. It marks Musgraves' first top ten album in the UK.

Track listing Credits adapted from liner notes.

All tracks are produced by Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk, and Kacey Musgraves.

Personnel Credits adapted from liner notes.

Instrumentation Daniel Tashian – keyboards , bass guitar , background vocals , Fender Stratocaster ), electric guitar , baritone guitar , acoustic guitar , celeste , banjo , electric mandolin , programming , vibraphone , MIDI strings , classical guitar , Elektron sampler , Rhodes Todd Lombardo – acoustic guitar , electric guitar , banjo , high strung acoustic guitar , baritone guitar , slide guitar , classical guitar Ian Fitchuk – drums , keyboards , percussion , bass guitar , Roland Juno-60 , piano , programming , vocoder , banjo , background vocals , Wurlitzer , electric guitar , synth bass David Davidson – violin , viola Carole Rabinowitz – cello Kacey Musgraves – lead vocals , acoustic guitar Russ Pahl – pedal steel guitar Justin Schipper – pedal steel guitar Dan Dugmore – pedal steel guitar Shawn Everett – "dolphin magic" Kyle Ryan – electric guitar

Technical Craig Alvin – recording, mixing Alberto Vaz – recording assistance Zack Pancoast – recording assistance Shawn Everett – mixing Ivan Wayman – mixing assistance Serban Ghenea – mixing John Hanes – engineering for mix Gena Johnson – production coordination Bobby Shin – strings recording Jordan Lehning – editing Greg Calbi – mastering Steve Fallone – mastering

Artwork Kelly Christine Sutton – art direction, photography, design Kacey Musgraves – art direction

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2018) Peakposition New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ) 2 US Billboard 200 4

Year-end charts Chart (2018) Position US Folk Albums (Billboard) 8 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 34 US Top Current Albums (Billboard) 32

Chart (2019) Position US Billboard 200 86 US Folk Albums (Billboard) 2 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 7

Chart (2020) Position US Billboard 200 191 US Folk Albums (Billboard) 2 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 18

Chart (2021) Position US Folk Albums (Billboard) 6 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 41 Chart (2022) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 72

Accolades At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, Golden Hour won Album of the Year and Best Country Album. It became the sixth country album to win Album of the Year and the first country album since 2010 to win Album of the Year. Its songs, "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies", won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance, respectively. +Awards Association Year Category ResultCMA Awards 2018 Album of the Year Apple Music 2018 Album of the Year Grammy Awards2019 Album of the Year Best Country Album ACM Awards2019 Album of the Year CMT Music Awards2019 Video of the Year (for "Rainbow") Female Video of the Year (for "Space Cowboy") CMA Awards2019 Song of the Year (for "Rainbow") Music Video of the Year (for "Rainbow") ACM Awards2019 Single of the Year (for "Rainbow")

+Year-end lists Publication Rank List AllMusic N/A The Best Albums of 2018 American Songwriter 1 Top 25 Albums of 2018 Associated Press 2 Top 10 Albums of 2018 Apple 1 The Best Album of 2018 Billboard 3 The 50 Best Albums of 2018: Critics' Picks Complex 36 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 Consequence of Sound 9 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 Entertainment Weekly 1 The 20 Best Albums of 2018 The Independent 4 The 40 Best Albums of 2018 Noisey 2 The 100 Best Albums of 2018 NPR Music 3 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 Paste 44 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 People 1 Top 10 Albums of 2018 Pitchfork 2 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 PopMatters 2 The 70 Best Albums of 2018 Rolling Stone 2 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 Sputnikmusic 1 Top 50 Albums of 2018 Stereogum 1 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 Taste of Country 1 The 10 Best Country Albums of 2018 Idolator 3 The 25 Best Albums Of 2018 Time 8 The 10 Best Albums of 2018 Uncut 73 The 75 Best Albums of 2018Uproxx 2 The 50 Best Albums of 2018 1 Uproxx Music Critics Poll: Albums The Village Voice 1 Pazz & Jop: The Top 100 Albums of 2018 Vulture 4 The Best Albums of 2018

+Decade-end and All-time lists Publication Rank List The A.V. Club The 50 Best Albums of the 2010sBillboardThe 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010sBillboardThe 25 Best Country Albums of the 2010s Cleveland.com 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s Consequence of Sound The 100 Top Albums of the 2010s Paste The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s Pitchfork 23 The 200 Best Albums of the 2010sRolling Stone 11 The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s 270 The 500 Greatest Albums of All TimeApple Music 85100 Best Albums Uproxx 11 The Best Albums of the 2010s

Certifications

Release history Region Date Format(s) Label United States March 30, 2018 MCA Nashville Japan July 4, 2018 CD Universal Music Japan

References