uh oh.........mitski is back.....i am 'unwell'
Got an email from Mitski HQ today...she's back with a song called "Bug Like an Angel" and a new album called The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We? With a humming gospel choir that comes in the first time like an electric fly swatter from God? And lyrics about how sometimes a drink feels like family? I'm in this photo and I don't like it, baby!!
The story of Mitski's success is inextricable from the story of Mitski running away from it. Once an amusing poster, she left Twitter after the social media attention on her started curdling; in 2019 she announced an indefinite hiatus from music, and the rollout of 2022's Laurel Hell very much had the vibe of "I need to put out one more album on my record contract and then I'm out for good." I have always appreciated her candor about music as labor (the blunt way she talked about how making a steady living as a musician got her the healthcare she required to get rid of her acne really stuck with me) and don't blame her for having such a overtly tense relationship with fame. Remember when she asked for people to not film her entire concert on their phones and those people got upset? Mitski was 100% the canary in the coal mine for the total degradation of concert etiquette and fan behavior, now we've got people throwing phones at Bebe Rexha and getting mad at dudes for daring to come to boygenius shows...as far as I'm concerned, Mitski can be as loud about her career ambivalence as she wants, but I am glad she decided to come back.
I was lukewarm on Laurel Hell, just like I was lukewarm on Lorde's Solar Power and Maggie Rogers' Surrender — I don't know what I wanted from my female solo artists in the post-peak-pandemic world, and so I didn't know what to do with what they gave me. All those albums probably need a re-listen now that I'm past my Pfizer-fueled party mania where the only music I could tolerate was LMFAO. And if the new Mitski single is any indication, the new album is gonna....it's gonna hit, for moi. "I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night" — me
