‘Middle of Nowhere’ finds the lucid Musgraves embracing the uncertainty of change and the freedom of solitude, while affording herself the space and grace to capture this transitional period of her life through song.

Musgraves’ sterling sixth studio affair deserves to be embraced neither as epilogue of what’s come before nor as prologue of what comes next in her repertoire.

Musgraves’ fifth studio affair unfolds as an acutely introspective album that effectively straddles the lines between the personal and conceptual.