LIVE REVIEWS
Madison Beer’s first decade in the pop sphere has been eventful. She went viral – in that innocent, no-frills 2012-era way – as a 12-year-old when Justin Bieber bigged up an Etta James cover she posted to YouTube; a record deal and management by Scooter Braun soon followed. Intrusive tabloid attention and pitfalls of fame weren’t far behind: the New York-born artist was diagnosed with PTSD following leaked explicit images when she was just a teenager. She has been candid in her responses and how to use her platform to enrich and educate her audience, and earlier this year at 24, she released a memoir The Half of It to fill in the gaps of her story.
Since that breakout moment, however, the music has felt scant. A smattering of singles aside, we’ve had just two full bodies of work, 2018 EP ‘As She Pleases’ and her 2021 debut album ‘Life Support’, in that period. A penchant for diaristic lyrics aside – which anchored ‘Life Support’ – Beer’s sound has been frustratingly non-distinct: everything from whispery-pop to shiny radio-rock has been employed to surround her pristine vocals.
On ‘Silence Between Songs’, there’s an effort to rectify that and to allow some of her core influences to reveal themselves. Speaking to Lana Del Rey in Interview Magazine in June, Beer says that she’s currently in the best place “mentally and emotionally”, and feels “confident in the music”. As she should: we have something of a signature sound for much of ‘Silence Between Songs’, a clear nod to Tame Impala’s psych-rock as well as swooning ‘60s pop and rock.
‘Home To Another One’, the standout single, is so well-made and so direct in its execution, that it’d feel at home on Kevin Parker’s ‘Currents’. Opener ‘Spinnin’ – which Lana earmarked as her favourite song – follows Alexandra Savior into that lush, retro-infused sound, Beer’s voice still possessing a remarkable clarity. ‘Showed Me (How I Fell in Love with You)’ interpolates The Turtles’ 1968 version of ‘You Showed Me’, first performed by The Byrds, and as lesser interpolations of old hits continue to flood the market, this should be a lesson in how it’s done.
Yet there’s one too many generic, string-laden ballads, and a stop-start feel to the record, a frustration given how enlivening its highs are. But if anything, it feels like a record Beer has been desperate to make since the very beginning: she’s come a long way in her time in the spotlight, but now we’re finally getting to know her true sound.
Kacey Musgraves has cast a spell across London’s Roundhouse. Dry ice shrouds the Texan artist and her 8-piece band in a hazy mist, the lighting dramatic – at times it evokes the break of dawn, others a thunderous rainstorm. And at the eye of this hurricane is Musgraves, her luminous vocals shining as brightly as the disco ball that’s illuminated during a rousing rendition of ‘Anime Eyes’. With the audience — who obey requests to be in the moment and not just view the gig through a lens — enraptured, the ethereal magic of the live show threads throughout.
Tonight’s gig is part of the ‘Deeper Well World Tour’, the shows accompanying Musgraves’ sixth studio album released earlier this year. It’s a record that saw her “navigating new beginnings”, as she said about its titular track: “Sometimes you reach a crossroads. Winds change direction. What you once felt drawn to doesn’t hold the same allure. You get blown off course but eventually find your footing and forage for new inspiration, new insight and deeper love somewhere else”. Or, as she more succinctly reflects in its chorus: “And I’ve got to take care of myself/I found a deeper well”.
This live setting, with the lush arrangements delivered by Musgraves’ double-denim clad band, is where the songs shine, the resilience and complex emotions they convey shining through. The power of opener ‘Cardinal’ ricochets through the venue accompanied by fleshed out instrumentals, while the lilting ‘The Architect’’s quietly questioning lyrics resonate in their subtle accompaniment.
Tracks that faded into the background on ‘Deeper Well’ at times work better here, too. ‘Jade Green’ is taken from a subdued slow burn into a thundering storm, Musgraves swathed in lights of the titular colour, strobes evoking lightning and crashes of percussion closing out the song, before the chaos subsides into a musical ‘Rainbow’. ‘Lonely Millionaire’, meanwhile, is elevated in this setting, the slinky track coming with mass sing-a-longs.
Yet for all the mysticism and magic when the music is playing, in-between songs Musgraves charms in a very different way. Her breezy wit juxtaposed with gut-wrenching music reminiscent of fellow on-stage entertainers Adele or Lewis Capaldi. As the band gear up for a quieter point in the set and huddle in closer at the front of the stage, Musgraves delights the audience with her tight-5 about the food poisoning and stomach upset she started the tour with, which soon spread around her touring party like wildfire. How did we get onto this story? An audience heckle that sounded a bit like a Spice Girl prompting Musgraves to reveal “I met Sporty the other day and almost shat myself! Speaking of…”
That’s not to say this humour isn’t also evident in Musgraves music — the excellent couplet “If you save yourself for marriage, you’re a bore/You don’t save yourself for marriage, you’re a hor-rible person” is sung with gusto by the crowd, in a stripped back rendition of ‘Follow Your Arrow’ (a cut from Musgraves’ debut studio record ‘Same Trailer Different Park’). And there’s rousing renditions of the jubilant kiss-off ‘High Horse’, and the eye-roll at an insecure ex on ‘Breadwinner’.
As she closes with a cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ ‘Three Little Birds’ and a short snippet of ‘Easier Said’, Musgraves tells the audience: “I hope your well has been deepened”. With the spell-binding communal magic of being in the moment and Musgraves’ powerhouse performance, we don’t doubt they have.
Kacey Musgraves played:
‘Cardinal’
‘Moving Out’
‘Deeper Well’
‘Sway’
‘Too Good to Be True’
‘Butterflies’
‘Happy & Sad’
‘Lonely Weekend’
‘Lonely Millionaire’
‘Follow Your Arrow’
‘The Architect’
‘Nothing to Be Scared Of’
‘Heaven Is’
‘Jade Green’
‘Rainbow’
‘Golden Hour’
‘Anime Eyes’
‘Don’t Do Me Good’
‘Justified’
‘Breadwinner’
‘High Horse’
‘Slow Burn’
‘Three Little Birds’ (Bob Marley & The Wailers cover)
‘Easier Said’
