It would be strange and hyperbolic of me to open this review with “Everybody loves Mitski!” but the numbers do not lie. With over 19 million monthly listeners on Spotify and countless videos featuring her music on platforms like TikTok, Mitski is a global sensation. Despite this, she did not originally dream of creating music. In fact, she set out to study film. She is not the typical celebrity who yearns for her time in the spotlight. No, not at all; over the years, she’s expressed that she highly values her privacy. Thus, it is important to view Mitski as an artist, as opposed to a celebrity figure.
This is highlighted by the fact that Mitski announced her retirement following the monumental success of her 2018 album, Be The Cowboy. Yet, she changed her mind by 2020, and by 2021, her album Laurel Hell was out in the world. Tracks like “Working For the Knife” touched on her complex feelings towards her success, and music as a whole.
In spite of it all, on September 15th, 2023, Mitski graced our ears and hearts with her highly anticipated new album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. Mitski describes the new release as her “most American album” to date, drawing inspiration from old Hollywood westerns. Deviating from what listeners might expect to hear from modern Mitski, she embraces both a “country” sound in tracks like “Buffalo Replaced,” as well as a dreamy orchestral sound in tracks like “Heaven.” Regardless of the shift in genre and the fact that the album prominently features a 17-person choir and an entire orchestra, every song stays true to the core themes of love, hope, and introspection that Mitski has been praised for from her roots as an indie artist. As listeners, we hear and take note of the high production value, yet the emotions that she is able to raise in us have not diminished since her days of being self-released.
To me, what sets Mitski apart from the average singer-songwriter is her impeccable storytelling. Every single track on this album tells a different story, and invokes completely different emotions in the listener. The very first track, “Bug Like an Angel,” conveys the gritty struggle of an addict as they drink away, while a mere few tracks later, we are being swept away by the romantic lyricism of “Heaven.” My favorite track in this respect is “I’m Your Man,” which illustrates a narrator’s regrets in a relationship using biblical imagery. The song features soft acoustic instrumentals that intensify with the narrator’s emotions into the layered sound of a haunting chorus and barking dogs, which eventually all fade out, leaving only the faint sounds of locusts. Mitski explains in interviews that much of what she sings about does not directly parallel her life, but instead that she embodies a character to express a narrative. It is this ability of hers to honestly conceptualize and express complex emotions in her writing that spans her whole discography and keeps people tuned in and listening. For many of us, we can rely on Mitski to provide some context to our own emotions.
The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We is an incredibly earnest album. Even the tracks that I could not personally relate to struck a chord with me, which is a huge reason why Mitski is one of those artists that I consider an “underrated secret” no matter how popular she becomes. I find this record to be an improvement over Laurel Hell (although I do love Laurel Hell) and rate it a solid 9.3/10. If I had to recommend only one track from the album to you, I would say this: “Heaven” is great if you are currently in love, and “I’m Your Man” would be great if you used to be in love, and you are having a hard time adjusting.
If there is one takeaway to be had from my review, it would be to listen to any Mitski song, not just from this album, because as the temperatures drop, I will be keeping warm by tuning into my emotions with some Mitski.