'Bells & Whistles' by Megan Moroney, with Kacey Musgraves – Lyrics & Meaning

As one of the two features on Cloud 9, ‘Bells & Whistles’ tells the tale of the all too predictable difficulties of simply being a woman. Coming in at track eleven on Megan Moroney’s highly anticipated third studio album Cloud 9, the moving track feels like a comforting sense of relatability for all the girls who have just never quite felt like enough.

Released on Friday February 20, the track has been gaining excitement since Moroney dropped the tracklist of her Am I Okay? follow-up album and a very familiar name was featured on the track.

Recruiting fellow female country legend Kacey Musgraves, ‘Bells & Whistles’ feels as if it might have been Moroney’s dream come true. As a long time fan, the ‘Tennessee Orange’ singer has taken a few songwriting lessons from Musgraves throughout the years. The tongue-in-cheek, playful yet clever quips and hooks that are scattered throughout Moroney’s catalogue have often felt like tributes to the Golden Hour queen herself.

The emotional track could be read in a few ways. Whether the two country singers are comparing themselves to other girls a guy might be interested in, or to other girls in the music industry, the sentiment is the same: Am I too much? Almost like a more somber version of Musgraves’ own ‘Pageant Material’, the track explains the difficult reality of female expectations. With a sweet, self-confident ending, though, Moroney and Musgraves both know exactly who they are, and they’re not compromising for anyone.

With Moroney heading out on a world tour in 2026, we’re hoping that there will be space to make ‘Bells & Whistles’ a permanent feature on the Cloud 9 Tour setlist. Maybe we’ll even get lucky enough to have a surprise ‘Slow Burn’ guest.

‘Bells & Whistles’ starts with plenty of pedal steel guitar, immediately setting the scene in the country world. The story is accompanied by some simple acoustic guitar strums, Musgraves’ vocals coming in on the chorus and creating a dreamy combination of the two stars’ sounds.

Percussion is added as the song progresses into the second verse, a musical confidence and strength mimicking the lines we’re being given. As some whistling is thrown into the mix, the song could’ve fit into Musgraves’ ‘Follow Your Arrow’ era – a classically country track, with a signature female style, the song closes with that same crying pedal steel.

"She laughs at your jokes
She don’t tell you no
You walk in half past three
She’s just glad you got home"

Like most of the story on ‘Bells & Whistles’, Moroney is singing about another girl, one that in terms of societal expectations, seems pretty “perfect”. Rather than starting arguments or expressing disappointment, this girl is polite and absorbs the world around her as if it’s her only responsibility, not even commenting when she’s been let down.

"She don’t put on no makeup
And don’t bleach her hair
And she wouldn’t be caught dead in
The clothes that I wear"

Both Moroney and Musgraves have inevitably run into plenty of criticism for their clothes, hair, make-up and appearance. Especially for women in the music industry, physical appearance is a constant source of conversation. Either wearing too much makeup or not enough, dresses too short or not short enough, you can’t win.

In this case, though, Moroney sings about how this “ideal girl” couldn’t look any more different from her. Perhaps the ‘Tennessee Orange’ singer feels she fits in on stage, but in everyday life she’s just… too much?

"She don’t get mad
She don’t get mean
She lets you be right when you’re wrong as can be
I know why you like her
She’s sweet and she’s simple
She’s like me without the bells and the whistles"

The chorus of the track sees the singers listing all the reasons why this girl is easy to like: “She’s sweet and she’s simple”. Even to the point of letting others be right when they’re very much wrong, keeping quiet fits within those female expectations, but it’s something Moroney and Musgraves aren’t willing to do. It’s not that they can’t do it, it’s just that it would go against everything they stand for; it would dampen their personalities and hide their bells and whistles.

"Her heart ain’t on the highway
She’s steady, she’s sure
She don’t ask many questions
She thinks less is more
She don’t come with the spotlight
She’ll wait around all day long
And you don’t have to worry
You’ll wind up in a song"

On Musgraves’ verse of ‘Bells & Whistles’, she really leans into the complex life of someone existing within fame. Living life on the road isn’t something to build a home life on. Having a “spotlight” follow you everywhere isn’t going to make the start of a relationship easy – romantic or not.

On the final line, Musgraves notes how with the “ideal girl”, you wouldn’t “have to worry you’ll wind up in a song”. Female songwriters being criticised and dissected for the stories they tell is a tale as old as time, a theme that has appeared in Moroney's and Musgraves' catalogues before, alongside legendary storytellers like Taylor Swift. Being criticised for creating the art that so many consume? Again, women just can’t win.

"She's smart and sentimental
Quiet, calm, and gentle
I’m a lot of things
But damn, I ain’t simple"

In a true moment of confession and dismissal of expectations, the country stars are making it as clear as can be, “damn, I ain’t simple”. In any scenario – work, performance, romance, friendship or anything else – Moroney and Musgraves aren’t removing their bells and whistles for anybody. They wouldn’t be the artists we love, if they did.

She laughs at your jokes
She don’t tell you no
You walk in half past three
She’s just glad you got home

She don’t put on no makeup
And don’t bleach her hair
And she wouldn’t be caught dead in
The clothes that I wear

She don’t get mad
She don’t get mean
She lets you be right when you’re wrong as can be
I know why you like her
She’s sweet and she’s simple
She’s like me without the bells and the whistles

Her heart ain’t on the highway
She’s steady, she’s sure
She don’t ask many questions
She thinks less is more
She don’t come with the spotlight
She’ll wait around all day long
And you don’t have to worry
You’ll wind up in a song

She don’t get mad
She don’t get mean
She lets you be right when you’re wrong as can be
I know why you like her
She’s sweet and she’s simple
She’s like me without the bells and the whistles

She smart and sentimental
Quiet, calm, and gentle
I’m a lot of things
But damn, I ain’t simple

She don’t get mad
She don’t get mean
She lets you be right when you’re wrong as can be
I know why you like her
She’s sweet and she’s simple
She’s like me without the bells and the whistles
I’m not me without the bells and the whistles

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For more on Megan Moroney, see below:

Megan Moroney

Artist

Kacey Musgraves

Artist