Written by Harley, one of our music writers, and edited by Shraddha, one of our editors!
Back in 2019 when Mitski achieved mainstream stardom with Be The Cowboy, she actually considered quitting music. At a Central Park show, she dismayed the audience by telling them that she will be stepping away from music. But in an interview with the BBC, she admitted that she was ready to “...throw it all away.” She cited many things for her exit: the consumerism of music, specifically, but also her fans that I’ve had real raw experiences with while she was touring for Laurel Hell, last year, her first record since she “quit” music. With the release of Laurel Hell and her current record from a few days ago, The Land is Inhospitable And So Are We, she has returned to the limelight.
Laurel Hell was arguably considered a minor note for her career, but it frequently placed in many year-end lists in music journals, so that should say a lot about the caliber of Mitski’s artistry. It was a lovely 80s-influenced synthpop record that frequently reduced her breathtaking songwriting — arguably her best asset as an artist — into a frustrating aesthetic. The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We is nothing like her previous records, although none of her previous records really sounded like each other. Forgoing the creamy synthpop or cathartic indie rock of her previous efforts, The Land Is… is a more subdued effort that still holds a lot of beauty. Her vocal performances (usually understated) stand out particularly here, rarely buried under fuzz or production. It is her folk album, putting her alongside Sharon van Etten and Angel Olsen.
The singles of the album were gorgeous. “Bug Like An Angel” has her beautiful, visceral lyrics: “sometimes a drink feels like a family,” before a folksy choir joins her and her guitar. The pair of “Star” and “Heaven’s” leaves Mitski earthbound with its unfussy arrangements despite its celestial titles, the former an elegy about the fire of first and lost love, the latter about how heaven can be found simply with a coffee with your beloved. These musical aspects are not foreign to Mitski: most of her songs are about love and the ways it enters and leaves our lives. But deep into her career, and knowing the context of what got her here, these songs now seem so much more colossal.
If anything, the stakes seem so much higher as well. There is the divine judgment in “I’m Your Man,” soulbound burdens in “The Deal,” and hope personified as a buffalo in “Buffalo, Replaced.” Normally her music flickers with theatrical earthly gravitas: see the wall of guitars in “Your Best American Girl” about a white boy, or the disco breakdown of “Nobody.” Here, she sings like someone who has grown weary and dealing with her mortality, and when the record is titled The Land is Inhospitable And So Are We, this record seems more heavy, weighing on your soul, rather than the boy who hurt you.
When I went to see Mitski at her Laurel Hell tour last year, I was standing in the back but I was fully overwhelmed by the crowd. The crowd was predominantly white and Asian, understandable considering Mitski’s mixed heritage, but I recognized more people in that crowd than I ever had. I saw ex’s of my own ex-friends, people as young as 14 going to their first post-mask mandate concert being a bit rowdy, but I also saw why Mitski quite frankly dislikes her fans so much. Her music and identity has always been about being vulnerable and letting that vulnerability connect with so many people, but the wall that keeps her as an artist and her as a person seemed to have disappeared. I can easily imagine if there were no barriers, the amount of people who wanted to rush to her and just simply touch her, hug her, have some sort of access to her. To be honest, I didn’t want that access to her. She sings what I think about in life: how love, connection, and seeing this world with such cosmic wonder can make an inhospitable land hospitable.
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This piece was written by one of our poetry columnists, Harley. Reach him at @ha.rleyn, on Instagram!
This piece was edited by one of our editors, Shraddha. Reach her at @shraddhagulati_ on Instagram!
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