2013’s Best Albums (So Far): Idolator Editors Pick Their Favorite 10

Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailor Different Park Released: March 19

I’ve already championed Kacey Musgraves pretty passionately in this space — I basically followed her to Bonnaroo because I love her so much — but I’ll continue to keep crowing about the greatness of Same Trailer Different Park, Musgraves’ major-label debut and the most keenly drawn set of songs about small-town life that country has seen in a minute. Of course, her twangy vocals have a lovely heft to them, the production is impeccably spare, and the melodies are often ingeniously catchy, but it’s the lyrics that are so utterly peerless. At once sure-footed and vulnerable, spangled with vividly rendered details more evocative than a hundred abstractions.

The first song on the album, “Silver Lining,” hinges on the hook, “If you’re ever gonna find a silver lining / It’s gotta be a cloudy day / If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning / You’re gonna have to stand in the rain.” It’s a nice encapsulation of why she’s the best: On Same Trailer Different Park, there’s a sad, gorgeous tension between hopelessness and optimism that will likely make it one of the year’s most enduring releases. — SAM LANSKY