Kacey Musgraves — wandering East Texas wordsmith,  cosmic country storyteller, and known genre-bender has always been a small-town girl with a thirst for the larger world. Her songs carry a wide-eyed glow, but her observations on the human condition offer an incisiveness that is staggering.

Middle of Nowhere, the sixth album from the eight-time Grammy winner, including the prestigious overall Album of the Year for Golden Hour, exhales with a dust-blown clarity and ease that feels both evocative and calming. In a fraught world, this record invites listeners to embrace what is, laugh about what isn’t, and move forward more realized. Chill, whole, free.