After a brief hiatus, indie rock singer Mitski is back. Her seventh album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, was released last week on September 15th.
It’s the first album by Mitski recorded featuring a full band, complete with an orchestra and an impressively daunting seventeen-person choir. With ever-so-strong vocals and newly featured instrumentals, it’s no surprise the elusive Mitski has dazzled us once more.
Who Is Mitski?
Mitski Miyawaki, better known as Mitski, was born in Japan in 1990. She moved to America as a teen, where her love of music blossomed in songwriting and school choir. Her entrance into the music scene began during college. By the time she graduated, Mitski had two self-recorded, self-released albums under her belt: Lush (2012) and Retired From Sad, New Career In Business (2013).
The success of her alluringly raw piano ballads fueled the production of four more albums, ranging in intensity and intimacy. With songs ranging from simply missing your mom to the complexities of a breakup, Mitski’s done it all. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is emotional, evocative, and everything we needed.
An Album Full Of Love
Historically, Mitski’s discography has been riddled with the exploration of melancholy, but The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We comes as an album that urges us to love. Her uncannily accurate articulation of everything that comes with being a human in love: the good, the bad, and the ugly, makes for an album that’s beautifully complex.
The eleven-track album stands at about thirty-two minutes, making it one of Mitski’s shorter releases, but there’s enough emotion to last a lifetime. Each track explores some sort of side effect of love, ranging from grief to rage to lust, then back again. It’s an emotional punch to the gut followed by a soft kiss.
The Stand Outs
For the best listening experience, I suggest you listen to The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We in its entirety, but if you’re looking for the highlights, here are my personal top three.
“Buffalo Replaced”
Buffalo may not be the first thing to come to mind, but Mitski’s allegorical comparison of self-love to that of a stampeding buffalo is pure genius. Backed by dreamy synths, the song comes to a peak as Mitski sings about the beauty in roaming buffalo. It’s an unlikely combination of Western meets 80s synth that makes for a lovely listen.
“My Love Mine All Mine”
Love is present once more in “My Love Mine All Mine”, Mitski’s angelic ode to a lover that’s all hers. Her voice is soft yet powerful, a whisper that commands the room. Backed with blissful instrumentals, she plays with a range of tones and volume to sing a perfect representation of falling in love.
“I’m Your Man”
As one of the most unique tracks on the album, “I’m Your Man” features a symphony of barking dogs, acoustic guitars, church choir singing, chirping bugs, and subtle screams that blend in a weirdly beautiful way. It’s eerie but you can’t seem to turn away; haunting but you can’t seem to stop listening. Experimentation with unconventionality is met with Mistki’s angelic, emotional vocals, making “I’m Your Man” a song you won’t forget. My best friend sent me this song when the album first dropped, so it holds a special place in my heart as my first impression of Mitski’s new brilliance.
Final Thoughts
Each track on The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We explores love in its own way. Unrequited feelings of pain are met with dreamy ballads to future lovers, all of which form an album that dives into everything that makes love complicated (and beautiful).
If you enjoyed The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, I highly suggest you take a listen to the rest of Mitski’s music here, where she doesn’t shy away from laying all her cards on the table. Her emotional intimacy draws us in and we can’t seem to let go. Guaranteed you’ll fall in love.
