Here’s Everything We Know About Kacey Musgraves’ New Album ‘Star-Crossed’

Kacey Musgraves won four Grammys in 2019 with her critically acclaimed 2018 album, Golden Hour, including Album of the Year. Over three years after that project’s release, the country star is gearing up for her most-anticipated project yet.

Star-Crossed is heavily inspired by the singer’s recent divorce from singer Ruston Kelly. It’s set to be jointly promoted by Interscope and UMG Nashville, in a rare service to both the country and pop markets. She’ll also release a 50-minute film on Paramount Plus to accompany the album.

To help fans keep track of the latest developments, Genius rounded up everything we know about Kacey Musgraves' Star-Crossed below:

Star-Crossed is set to drop on Friday, September 10.

Musgraves shared the artwork alongside her album announcement. It’s a picture of a broken heart necklace, reflecting the album’s theme of heartbreak:

Musgraves shared the album’s title track and lead single on Monday, August 23:

The iTunes pre-order revealed the full, 15-song tracklist:

1. ​"star-crossed"
2. “​good wife”
3. ​"cherry blossom"
4. “​simple times”
5. ​"if this was a movie.."
6. “​justified”
7. ​"angel"
8. ​"breadwinner"
9. ​"camera roll"
10. ​"easier said"
11. ​"hookup scene"
12. ​"keep lookin’ up"
13. ​"what doesn’t kill me"
14. ​"there is a light"
15. “​gracias a la vida”

The majority of Golden Hour was co-produced by Musgraves, Ian Fitchuk, and Daniel Tashian, and both collaborators are back for star-crossed. Fitchuk and Tashian are both listed as producers on the album’s title track.

Musgraves divorced Ruston Kelly, her husband of two years, in 2020, and the album is largely inspired by the dissolution of their romance.

“The word tragedy just popped into my mind. And I was like, ‘Whoa, what if the album was formulated like a modern Shakespearean or Greek tragedy?’" she told Elle about the project, noting that it was inspired by years where—despite her career success—she felt “like I was dying inside. I was crumbling. I was sad. I felt lonely. I felt broken.”

She told Elle that she found it scary but cathartic to turn her pain into art for the world to consume.

“It’s daunting to put your emotions about something really personal on display,” she said. “I haven’t spoken much about this chapter, and I don’t feel like I owe that to anyone, but I owe it to myself as a creator to flesh out all these emotions that I’ve felt, and I do that through song. It would be strange if I didn’t acknowledge what happened in my life creatively, but it is scary to be like, ‘I’m about to share my most personal thoughts about me, about this other person, about a union that I had with someone.’ I mean, I’m not a ruthless person. I care about other people’s feelings. So it’s kind of scary.”

In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Musgraves explained how she strived to marry the album’s very literal lyrics with its storybook styling.

“I feel like this record couldn’t be more literal in some ways, but I also feel like it’s got this theatrical fantasy take,” she said. “I wanted there to be that classical story, that classical vibe kind of woven through these other modern sounds. I always love when something traditional and something futuristic meet. I’m always intrigued by that.”

She also elaborated on her approach to genre.

“There’s aspects of this album that sound a little more country than Golden Hour, but I feel like I’m tapping into more influences on this album,” she said. “There are some moments where it bring it back to that, where you can see the relation to my previous music.”

Genius will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.