‘The Architect’ by Kacey Musgraves - Lyrics & Meaning

The night of her album's arrival, Kacey Musgraves delivered an intoxicating live performance of 'The Architect' on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The live debut of the Deeper Well offering was celebrated by viewers as awe-inspiring.

Backlit in blue and crowned in a dainty bandana, Kacey Musgraves was her serene and sure self throughout the performance, the tune's delicate yet impactful verses leaving listeners yearning for more of the artist's indelible new release.

Quickly becoming a fan favourite, on March 19, Musgraves announced that the song will be sent to Country Radio.

'The Architect' is airy and graceful from the very first notes, the acoustic lullaby coming to life in a breeze of swift strings and vulnerable vocals. It's a dreamy serenade, all whispers and whimsy, as the artist contemplates our lives here on this earth.

The message is heavy, an existential meandering made more manageable under the song's gossamer melody.

"Even something as small as an apple
It’s simple and somehow complex
Sweet and divine
The perfect design
Can I speak to the architect?"

The song opens with simple wonder as the singer contemplates the make-up of something as seemingly insignificant as an apple. It's a perfect creation just as it is – Sweet and divine / The perfect design – and she looks to the source to understand.

"There’s a canyon that cuts
Through the desert
Did it get there because of a flood?
Was it devised or were you surprised
when you saw how grand it was?"

That wonder grows throughout the song as Musgraves looks around. She puts something larger, more substantial, the Grand Canyon, under a microscope. Studying its cracks and striations, she asks: "Did it get there because of a flood? / Was it devised or were you surprised / When you saw how grand it was?"

She looks to "the architect," the creator and mastermind behind all these things big and small, for the answers. Be it from god or goddess, nature or science, she seeks reasons for it all, asking:

"Is it thought out at all?
Or just paint on a wall?
Is there anything that you regret?
I don’t understand
Are there blueprints or plans?
Can I speak to the architect?"

Musgraves turns her view inward, inspecting herself under the same questioning eye, pondering, "Am I shapeable clay?," asking "the architect," "Or is this as good as it gets?"

In the song, she wonders about herself, if she's too broken or too hard to love, inquiring how our lives fit into this masterplan:

"Does it happen by chance?
Is it all happenstance?
Do we have any say in this mess?
Is it too late to make some more space?
Can I speak to the architect?

After all the contemplating and considering, she closes 'The Architect' with the biggest question of all:

This life that we make
Is it random or fate?
Can I speak to the architect?
Is there an architect?"

“Even something as small as an apple
It’s simple and somehow complex
Sweet and divine
The perfect design
Can I speak to the architect?

There’s a canyon that cuts
Through the desert
Did it get there because of a flood?
Was it devised or were you surprised
when you saw how grand it was?

Is it thought out at all?
Or just paint on a wall?
Is there anything that you regret?
I don’t understand
Are there blueprints or plans?
Can I speak to the architect?

Sometimes I look in the mirror
And wish I could make a request
Could I pray it away?
Am I shapeable clay?
Or is this as good as it gets?

One day you’re on top of the mountain
So high that you’ll never come down
Then the wind at your back
Carries ember and ash
And burns your whole house to the ground

Is it thought out at all?
Or just paint on a wall?
Is there anything that you regret?
I don’t understand
Are there blueprints or plans?
Can I speak to the architect?

I thought that I was too broken
And maybe too hard to love
I was in a weird place
Then I saw the right face
And the stars and the planets lined up

Does it happen by chance?
Is it all happenstance?
Do we have any say in this mess?
Is it too late to make some more space?
Can I speak to the architect?

This life that we make
Is it random or fate?
Can I speak to the architect?

Is there an architect?”

––

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