Kacey Musgraves's Feelings Are 'Justified' In New Heartbreak Anthem

Kacey Musgraves dropped a new heartbreak anthem called “Justified” on Friday (August 27), plus a music video in which she tries to heal from the loss of a relationship.


The video starts with a Musgraves driving solemnly through a desert while listening to a commercial on love counseling from the vehicle radio. As she cruises down the road, she passes through a couple of different environments and weather: a green-lit tunnel, a snowy forest, rain, a urban city, and an autumn highway.


Her outfits also switch to resemble the climate and landscape. In the desert and tunnel, she wears a white dress. Throughout the winter, she wears a denim jacket or a flannel. In the city, her face is covered by large shades. “If I cry just a little bit and then laugh in the middle / If I hate you and I love you, then I change my mind,” she sings. “If I need just a little bit more time to deal with the fact / That you shoulda treated me right / Then I’m more than just a little bit justified.”


Her phone continuously pings with cruel reminders of her past relationship. Written in all-caps, the notifications are spam about forgotten memories, the honeymoon phase, the day of the breakup, and her denial. She keeps getting distracted, despite the song’s warning: “Don’t go for your camera roll.” The video concludes as she attempts to swerve away from a potential vehicle crash.


“Justified” is the second single off Musgraves’s forthcoming fifth studio album Star-Crossed, which is set to be released on September 10. In a February cover story for Rolling Stone, Musgraves revealed the album could be structured like a Greek tragedy and have a grave tone because of the turbulent state of the U.S. And the world while in the coronavirus pandemic.


“This last chapter of my life and this whole last year and chapter for our nation — at its most simple form, it’s a tragedy,” she mentioned. “And then I began looking into why portraying a tragedy is actually therapeutic and how it is a form of art that has lasted for centuries. It’s because you set the scene, the audience rises to the climax of the problem with you, and then there’s resolve. There’s a feeling of resolution at the end. I was inspired by that.”


Working on the album was also a form of therapy and healing from her recent divorce from nation singer Ruston Kelly, and that sentiment is echoed in her new single and its music video. “[The marriage] just simply didn’t work out," she mentioned. "It’s nothing more than that. It’s two people who love each other so much, although for so several reasons, it just didn’t work. I mean, seasons change. Our season changed.”


Star-Crossed will follow her 2018 studio album Golden Hour. The album was critically acclaimed, debuting No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on The best Nation Albums and Folk Albums charts. At the 2019 Grammy Awards, it won all four of its nominated categories, including Album of the Year and Best Nation Album. Kacey Musgraves will also join a long line of performers at the 2021 Video Music Awards once she performs her single “Star-Crossed” live for the opening time on September 12.