Did Mitski just make her best album?
On Sept. 15, Mitski released her seventh album, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.” The album features 11 songs and spans 32 minutes.
Her pre-released song “Bug Like An Angel” features choir backup vocals that set the scene for the album’s narrative perfectly. Mitski draws heavily on the Americana folk, religious trauma themes popularized by her “Sad Girl Starter Pack” sisters Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain.
Mitski revises her melancholic sound with a Southern-inspired twang. I’m reluctant about country western music in general, but Mitski romanticizes it, simply bringing a new genre into her forlorn universe.
I have three easy favorites from the album: “The Deal,” “When Memories Snow,” and “My Love Mine All Mine.”
‘The Deal’
You could spend hours analyzing the pure poetry of Mitski’s lyricism. The power of her writing makes the lyrics fully function as a work of literature. She didn’t sell her soul in “The Deal” — she gave it away.
“I want someone to take this soul. I can’t bear to keep it. I’d give it just to give.”
Regardless of personal interpretation, her vocals are haunting. The song begins with a soft strum and reaches one of Mitski’s signature emotionally charged ballads.
‘When Memories Snow’
The entirety of “When Memories Snow” is intense
“And when memories melt I hear them in the drainpipe. Dripping through the downspout. As I lie awake in the dark.“
It’s the shortest song on the album at under two minutes, but unrelentingly powerful. The instrumentals are cinematic and unapologetically grand. Her strong vocal projection heightens the sound; the song ends overwhelming.
‘My Love Mine All Mine’
Mitski released a music video and a “behind the song” explanation for “My Love All Mine” on the day of the album’s release.
Mitski explained the one thing she has is her love. It’s devastatingly relatable, no one writes love like she does. She touches on relationships frequently, but it’s never quite romantic. Raw emotions of yearning, sorrow, and anguish are translated through song
“Nothing in the world belongs to me. But my love, mine all mine all mine.”
It’s melodically slow and the country influence is definitely there but subtle.
The album
As someone who didn’t fully connect to “Laurel Hell,” this album was refreshing and reignited my love for Mitski’s music.
It’s experimental and fun but has all the magical Mitski elements you can’t find anywhere else. She’s one of today’s greatest singers/songwriters.
Give the album a listen and be transported into Mitski’s divine, deranged bible-belt fantasy.
