Kacey Musgraves’ Epic Divorce Album Has Us In Tears, Plus 2 Other Powerful Female Artists You Should Be Listening To
On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed the three new albums you need to listen to this fall. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!
Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. You can also find BuzzFeed Daily wherever else you might listen to your favorite podcasts!
So let's dive right into it! Recently we talked to Elamin Abdelmahmoud about the music he's playing on loop. Here's some of what we learned:
BuzzFeed Daily: So today we wanted to open up the floor to you and ask you what you're listening to. And I want to start with...Star-Crossed, which is Kacey Musgraves' new album. Did you expect to love it this much?
BuzzFeed Daily: ou said it was this album is about her divorce from her husband, Ruston Kelly, who is also a country music artist. So does it feel like a divorce album when you're listening to it?
@paramountplus / GIPHY / Via giphy.com
EA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not to be rude to Kacey, but I'm not trying to listen to this music in the spring. It makes a lot of sense to release this in the fall. This is a fall record. This is a winter record. This is a meditative record where you walk around and it's a little bit cold outside and you're like, "Yeah, life does suck. And I do have feelings." And she's so good at sort of crafting this specific landscape here.
BuzzFeed News: Now let's talk about someone else who is bringing something new to the country music scene. And that's Yola and her album Stand for Myself.
BuzzFeed Daily: Most musical artists tend to break into the industry at a younger age, but Yola actually just turned 38, which honestly I love. She's been working on her music her entire life, but this is only her second full-length album. Do you feel like that extra level of maturity adds something to her music?
Easy Eye Sound / YouTube / Via youtube.com
EA: 100% percent. I feel like if we came to know you as an artist in your teens and early 20s, that creates a very intimate relationship because you're kind of growing up in front of our eyes. But conversely, if you have had time to just kind of go away and not be in the spotlight as you develop your sound and kind of hone what you want to say, I think we meet you at a more mature place.
And it's just really compelling to me to listen to artists who kind of break later in their career, whether it's later albums — which we'll talk about with Little Simz in a minute — or in the case of Yola, just a later age.
BuzzFeed Daily: You mentioned Little Simz, so I want to pivot to her and her album, Sometimes I Might Be an Introvert. Now, a lot of rap and hip-hop in 2021 has been defined by artists who aren't afraid to get personal or vulnerable in their music. Artists like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and even Kanye regularly write music about what makes them sad. So, why do you think the shift is happening in general?
BuzzFeed Daily: Little Sims is already getting a ton of critical acclaim for this album. She's been praised by artists like Kendrick Lamar and Ms. Lauryn Hill, which is cementing her reputation as one of modern hip-hop's greatest talents. But when an artist puts out something as critically successful as this album, they usually feel a lot of pressure to create something even better for their next project. How do you feel about that?
@mahalia / GIPHY / Via giphy.com
EA: Something compelling to me about Little Simz — and same thing with Yola — is this isn't even her first record. It isn't even her second. I think it's her fourth. She's been around for a while and these are four albums, but also she's dropped, I think, five or six mix tapes in between, including an incredible mixtape just last year.
So we're again meeting an artist, not in a moment of "I'm young and I have this breakthrough. And then that record company is trying to figure out how to make money out of me." She knows who she is. She knows what she's going for. When you listen to that album, there isn't a horn out of place. There isn't a drumbeat out of place. It's it sounds very intentional, very meticulous in the way that it was crafted. And so that makes me not worry about artists like that. It makes me go "I think you'll be fine." It doesn't actually matter how much attention this thing gets, you're not going to fall into the trap of trying to recreate it because you're. Honoring where you are on your fourth album. We'll see where the first one goes.
We’re sad to say goodbye to an absolute icon — Willie Garson, who played Stanford on Sex and the City, has passed away.
Many of his costars posted tributes to Willie, including Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis — who applauded his quote “fearless commitment to single fatherhood” — and Cynthia Nixon, who wrote: “He was endlessly funny on screen and in real life. He was a source of light, friendship and show business lore. He was a consummate professional — always.”
Willie’s White Collar costar Matt Bomer also shared a message about his friend, calling him quote “someone who lifted me up, who made me better, and who always, always made me smile.”
Moving on, Uma Thurman recently wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post about Texas’ recent abortion law.
In it, Uma reveals that she had an abortion as a teen, saying quote ??“It has been my darkest secret until now. I am 51 years old, and I am sharing it with you from the home where I have raised my three children, who are my pride and joy.”
She went on to call the law quote “yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged” and that “women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk."
Uma also made a point to mention those who will be preyed on by “vigilantes” who will take advantage of the fact that they can sue providers and anyone involved in carrying out an abortions.