KACEY MUSGRAVES Middle of Nowhere (Lost Highway) — It makes sense that Kacey Musgraves is ready for a back-to-basics album. More than a decade past the debut full-length that established her as an aces songwriter with a sensibility just a shade too modern to allow her to fully fit into the country music scene that was the Texas gal’s birthright, Musgraves roams away from the luxuriant pop experiments that have colored her work since the Grammy-winning breakthrough Golden Hour. From the album-opening title cut on, Space Kacey brings out the twang on Middle of Nowhere. She documents forlorn codependency on “Back on the Wagon” (“Maybe I’m just naive but I truly believe/ That he really means it this time/ If I sounds like a broken record when I tell you that he’s better/ You know that I wouldn’t lie”) and fesses up to single-gal horniness on “Dry Spell.” Arguably nothing demonstrates her revitalized devotion to Nashville Nation more clearly than mending fences with former foe Miranda Lambert on the common-ground duet “Horses and Divorces.” She brings in country’s longest serving king, Willie Nelson, to warble warmly on “Uncertain, TX,” but he’s long been happy to join her circles. What still impresses this most is Musgraves’s skill with clever, evocative lyrics. With “Abilene,” a melodic story of woe, the line from Musgraves to the great Bobbie Gentry has never looked straighter. The following cuts sound dandy anywhere: “I Believe in Ghosts,” “Loneliest Girl,” and “Mexico Honey.”

MODERN WOMAN Johnny’s Dreamworld (One Little Independent) — The hardscrabble fight on the cover of Modern Woman’s debut full-length, Johnny’s Dreamworld, is a solid indicator of the sounds found therein. Sophie Harris, the band’s frontwoman and primary creative force, is clearly fascinated by ideas in conflict. The material on the album is informed by the schisms of post-punk, but each song is ready to zing off in an unpredictable direction at any moment. The album-opening title cut is funky and noisy, and “Daniel” manages the neat trick of being ambient and intense at the same time. Harris’s voice soars across the tracks with operatic power and elegance that calls to mind Bats for Lashes or even Kate Bush, the grand dame herself. There’s a danger embedded in these songs; the lyrics often tell cryptic stories of violence and escape. Those sentiments suit the sonics, whether the imploding art rock of “Offerings” or the clanging, clamorous “Fork / Heart.” The creativity is explosive on the album. It’s a riveting beginning for an exciting new group. Dream of these cuts: “Neptune Girl,” “Blessed Day,” “Dashboard Mary,” and “The Garden.”