Same Trailer Different Park

Music and lyrics

Same Trailer Different Park draws on styles such as rockabilly, blues rock, country folk, and catchy country pop. Its songs are performed midtempo, and written from a Middle-American perspective, featuring stories of challenges and setbacks faced by men and women who struggle with their surroundings. "Follow Your Arrow" examines the small-minded perspective of small-town life. On "Merry Go 'Round", Musgraves sings over a shuffle beat and banjo about emotional, material, and addictive liabilities that prevent people from escaping restrictive lifestyles. Jonathan Bernstein of American Songwriter wrote that Musgraves' characters are "well-wishers and help-seekers, deadbeats trying to be better and do-gooders that are falling behind", and that she focuses on "small, pivotal moments, when they come to terms with their own faults and dreams, when they’re on the verge of a breakthrough or a meltdown."

Commercial performance

Same Trailer Different Park debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 42,000 copies in its first week. It also entered at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart. The week after winning two awards and performing at the 2014 Grammy Awards, sales for the album in the United States increased 146%. The week of February 6, 2014, the album returned to No. 1 on the U.S. Top Country Albums Chart and saw sales increase a further 177%. As of July 2015 the album has sold 519,000 copies in the US.

Critical reception

Same Trailer Different Park received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 88 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 11 reviews. Tammy Ragusa of Country Weekly called it "distinctive in both its arrangements and lyrics." AllMusic's Steve Leggett commended Musgraves' "flair for telling it like it is and making it sound like bedrock, obvious wisdom", and said that the album is "more than a collection of songs just aiming for the country charts." MSN Music's Robert Christgau called her "the finest lyricist to rise up out of conscious country since Miranda Lambert, if not Bobby Pinson himself." Jon Caramanica of The New York Times observed "a boatload of identifying details" in Musgraves' lyrics and called it an "acidic and beautiful" album that is indebted "at least a little bit to Ms. Lambert's durable template." Will Hermes, writing for NPR, said that her "wordplay feels effortless and conversational", and found Musgraves' "spirits of carpe diem and dysfunctional romance" to be "squarely" in the tradition of country music.

Grady Smith of Entertainment Weekly said that the album "continually showcases ... her writing prowess" because "Musgraves has a way of injecting humor into even her most melancholic musings." At Paste, Holly Gleason noted Musgraves "sings unvarnished truths" while maintaining "the sunniness that is the right of the young" that is done "With a voice that’s pretty, but brazen, Musgraves has no problem slinging attitude, crying bullshit or coyly advocating same-sex amour/dope-smoking while skewering hypocrisy." In addition, Gleason saw this album as "a manifesto that'll never come true," which she asked the question "is dignity enough to get by on?", and her response was that by a "thin margin, but one Musgraves walks straight into the sunset." Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone felt that, although Musgraves lacks a powerful singing voice, the album "showcases a songwriting voice you won't hear anywhere else in pop: young, female, downwardly mobile, fiercely witty." David Burger of The Salt Lake Tribune vowed that the album "is not only intriguing vocally but engaging lyrically". Taste of Country's Billy Dukes commented that the album "is well-written, edgy (yet familiar) and coated in 'cool.'" Jerry Shriver of USA Today said the songs are "honest with themselves and don't wallow in self-pity", and that Musgraves' singing is "pretty and clear but usually unsentimental." In December, Rolling Stone ranked Same Trailer Different Park number 28 on its list of the 50 best albums of 2013. It won the Best Country Album award at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in January 2014. On April 6, 2014, Same Trailer Different Park won Album of the Year at the 49th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic and liner notes.

Charts and certifications

Same Trailer Different Park debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 43,000 copies in its first week of release.