Japanese-American musician Mitski released a new album titled “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We” in July. Rightfully so, the album was met with critical acclaim scoring a 90/100 on Metacritic.
When I say I adore Mitski’s music, I really do. She was my top artist on Spotify in 2021 and not to brag, I was in the top 1% of her listeners (just for context).
When she released her album in July, I was a bit skeptical. My pattern with her is that I tend to dislike her newer albums when they’re just released.
Her most recent albums “Be the Cowboy” (2018) and “Laurel Hell” (2022) weren’t my favorite. “Be the Cowboy” had a pretty solid set but not as memorable as others. Shout out to TikTok’s repetitive use of them. “Laurel Hell” really took a turn for me because of its drastic shift in indie-pop and rock to cheesy 80’s pop.
Obviously Mitski should make music she likes. I appreciate her variety of genres and themes from growing up Asian-American to unrequited love but “Laurel Hell” was a disappointing 180 turn.
One of the top songs from that album was “Should’ve Been Me,” which sounds like Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” to me.
I expected her newest album to build off of her previous poppy tunes, so I procrastinated on listening to it until last month and I was pleasantly surprised when I finally listened to it.
What I love about this new album is the transition from poppy, quick beats to dark, soft and otherworldly sounds balanced with gentle guitars and soft synths. Mitski stated herself that the album incorporated “Spaghetti Western” style, which is a sub-genre of western music that adds Spanish and Italian influences.
I think the best example of this can be heard in her song, “I Don’t Like My Mind,” the fourth track on the album. It’s got a nostalgic 60’s slow dance at prom vibe that honestly gives me MCE.
Her most streamed song as of now and from that album, “My Love Mine All Mine” is spectacular. The gloomy and soft melody contradicts the mystical charm of the song’s theme, which surrounds the impermanence of all things in Mitski’s life except love. At first, I interpreted this love as a physical romantic partner, though according to a Genius interview, Mitski explained the song is actually about the love she possesses inside herself and for herself.
That’s pretty awesome, if you ask me. It makes me feel like a sexy vixen when I take a candle-lit bubble bath with rose petals.
Other songs such as “Star” and “Heaven” have a perfect blend of 60’s twang and synthy ambiance. Violin bridges reflect the Spanish and Italian western styles and when I listen to them on the train, I picture everyone else fading into blurry pixels. An inclination to tiptoe on the blue line like a ballerina seizes me with a dramatic collapse onto the floor.
And then of course, I hear the conductor announce an unauthorized person on the tracks and the Chicago musk comes back to me. But it’s moments like these that make people love music, and Mitski does it particularly well.
My favorite song from the album is the closing track “I Love Me After You.” Mitski builds up a crescendo of slow soft verses to a rough chorus that’s reminiscent of her earlier albums and hazy like shoegaze and dream pop.
The song itself is about doing acts of love for oneself after breaking up with someone, a theme which contrasts her song “I Will” from “Bury Me At Makeout Creek”, where she over-tends to her lover. I love the nostalgia these homages to her older eras carry.
This new album also has a song titled “I’m Your Man”, which plot-twists at the end in the same pattern as her “Puberty 2” song “I Bet on Losing Dogs,” where listeners are led to think Mitski is dating disappointing people, until she reveals she is the disappointing person, and the perspective of the song is from a man. She is the losing dog, he does the betting. It was the perfect song to accompany my girlboss tears during my first situationship. #slay.
“I’m Your Man” begins with Mitski claiming her partner is an angel and she is a dog, another reference to “I Bet on Losing Dogs”. The ending then twists where listeners realize Mitski’s lover is actually the narrator of the song putting her on a pedestal. The endling line, “I betray you like a man” hones in on previous themes of toxic masculinity and offers a satisfying counterpart to “I Bet on Losing Dogs.” It’s the antithesis of women seeking male validation. It’s as if Mitski sent me a message in a bottle saying, “you’re doing great!”
I could go on for hours talking about this album. I’m currently binging it as I write this review. I’m excited to see what Mitski will produce in the coming years. She’s been releasing albums pretty quickly, so hopefully we’ll receive more of her enigmatic talent again soon. Until then, I’ll keep dreaming about doing pirouettes on the train.