Mitski is still exploring new sounds on her seventh album ‘The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We’
Indie-rock singer-songwriter Mitski, prominent in the sad-angsty-girl demographic, is well known for residing in the cracks between genres. Mitski’s seventh album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, comes in at just over a half hour, with eleven wildly different tracks. One theme runs through the whole album, connecting each unique song: the idea of a love that will live on.
The album begins quietly, with the strumming of a single acoustic guitar in “Bug Like An Angel.” In this track, Mitski touches on the topic of alcoholism with the line, “As I got older, I learned I’m a drinker / Sometimes a drink feels like family.” While the instrumentals are fairly soft and simple, a gospel choir adds emphasis to certain lines, really moving the listeners. These religious themes are furthered by the complex lyrics, “I try to remember the wrath of the devil was also given him by God.”
A Zeppelin-esque guitar runs through “Buffalo Replaced,” painting a picture of an abandoned Western town. Mitski personifies her hope with the lyrics, “I have a hope, though she’s blind with no name / Sometimes I think it would be easier without her / But I know nothing can hurt me when I see her sleeping face.” This gritty track is classic Mitski, but is followed by the song “Heaven,” which is a style we’ve never seen from her. A definite highlight of the album, “Heaven” is reminiscent of an old love ballad. Mitski’s vocals truly shine, perfectly calm and soothing on this track. She romantically croons, “Now I bend like a willow, thinking of you / Like a murmuring brook, curving about you / As I sip on the rest of the coffee you left, a kiss left of you.” Even though “the dark awaits around the corner,” Mitski still asks her partner if they can “stay awhile and listen for heaven,” describing a perfectly still moment in a turbulent relationship.
Throughout her entire career, Mitski has always been incredibly adept at invoking such pain and emotion in her listeners, giving them a glimpse into her own feelings. This album follows tradition with the heartwrenching track “I Don’t Like My Mind.” Mitski sings about her struggles with mental health and overthinking with emotional lyrics such as, “There’s another memory that gets stuck inside the walls of my skull waiting for it’s turn to talk.” She sings about her job being her only solace, the only thing that distracts her from the great pain she’s in, and repeatedly begs “Don’t take this job from me.”
“When Memories Snow” is composed of one of Mitski’s infamous complex metaphors. She beautifully compares her memories to the snow she shovels off of the driveway. Although she’s attempting to get rid of them so she can move on with her life, it’s only temporary and they still haunt her at night. About her career, she painfully sings, “Could I go on break? Be back in my room writing speeches in my head, listening to the thousand hands that clap for me in the dark?”
With a dramatic turnaround, the next track might just be the most romantic song Mitski has ever written. “My Love Mine All Mine” is the perfect song to slow dance to, similar to an early 2000s ballad of pining. Mitski confides in the moon, “Moon, tell me if I could send up my heart to you / So when I die, which I must do, could you shine it down here with you?” She wants her love to shine down on her partner, even after her death. Although the chorus is very lyrically simple, Mitski’s delivery makes it stunning. Her vocals are the loveliest and warmest they’ve ever been, as if she’s basking in the moonlight of her love.
In Star, Mitski literally compares her love to a star. However, this is much more complex than it might seem at first glance. When a star dies, people on Earth still see it for millions of years after. She’s saying that her love will live on long after they’re gone. Even though their love is over, Mitski still sings “I'm yours no matter.” Her feelings still live on even though their love is dead. “Isn’t that worth holding on?” Is the memory of past love enough to sustain a relationship in the present?
“I’m Your Man” has some of the best, most complex lyrics on the album. The instrumentals begin with simple guitar strums, as Mitski sings, “You’re an angel, I’m a dog / Or you’re a dog and I’m your man / You believe me like a god / I destroy you like I am.” While these lyrics are simple, there is so much painful meaning behind them. When Mitski says, “I’m your man,” she doesn’t mean this positively. She makes this clear later in the song when she states: “You believe me like a god / I betray you like a man.” The album comes to a crescendo in this song’s outro, with the twangy guitar sounding like a showdown from a Western film. The focus moves to barking in the background, along with some male choral vocals, representing both the dog and the god.
In her seventh project, Mitski shows her listeners that although love is often synonymous with pain and heartbreak, it is also the very best of humanity. While we all die in the end, love is our legacy, for it will live on when we can not.
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is out now.