Confession time: this article is actually a Worst to Best list, but I realised that my ordering was pointless. Are you ready for a controversial statement? Mitski only gets better and better. It's her progression per each album that makes her discography so superior, and for that reason, I like everything she's done just a little bit more than the thing she did before. You may disagree, but I humbly request that you contemplate my position as I state my cases below, piece by piece, record by record. For full effect, do yourself a favour and listen to the albums as you go. They're all 30 minutes, so it's not a demanding ask (even if every Mitski-minute does more than most artists can achieve in an entire song). I suppose therein lies another reason as to why she's done so well. She's the perfect fit for today's attention-deficient consumerism world.
Finally, if, at any point during this journey, you tumble into the pit of Mitski Obsession, do not be afraid. We know it happens suddenly, and we understand that it can be overwhelming, but there are many of us here to help you get through it. May I once again suggest buying the book I wrote so that you can learn absolutely everything there is to know about the lady? Yes? No? Whatever. Let's get to the music already.
07. Lush
Chamber Art Pop31 January 2012
Spotify
Debut albums are tricky business. In most cases, first records are either the worst or the best piece of work musicians produce, but it's challenging to consider LUSH one or the other. As it was released while Mitski was still in music college, it's no surprise that it's an unripe version of the heroine we've come to worship. Yet, in some backwards land, Mitski has also aged in reverse, as this is one of her most mature projects, trading her later pop sensibilities for classical piano compositions beyond her years.
Another advantage LUSH holds above her beneficiaries is a collection of songs from years and years of early songwriting, the tons of material she'd spent her life composing finally finding a home. On the one hand, this vast conglomerate gives us her least coherent album sound-wise. On the other hand, it's also her most versatile, which, in the greater Mitskiverse, is her debut's most significant boasting point.
Irrespective of these pros or cons, there's no denying LUSH is exceptionally impressive in any artistic context. I mean, "Bag of Bones" is the first song she ever wrote, which alone proves how fast she blasted through the door running. And above all else, it set our expectations for a lengthy career carrying bags of existential melancholy, romantic yearning, and identity insecurities. So much fun!
"LUSH is my very first album. I’d never produced an album before, meaning I’d never asked and organised people to do things for me in order to make ideas in my head audible. I recorded the album using the studios available in my music conservatory, with my musician friends who were passionate about good music and who cared enough to take time out of their lives to help me produce something good, not to mention meet and embrace the anal-retentive obsessive perfectionist-Mitski that I’ve learned I become in the studio. So far, the bond between people born out of making music together has been better than any great sex I’ve ever had."
– Mitski
– Mitski
06. Retired From Sad, New Career in Business
Chamber Art Pop1 August 2013
Spotify
Here's the second of two Mitski college albums, and while there is a fierce online debate, I have a couple of reasons as to why I believe Mitski's sophomore rose higher than her debut.
The first reason is the speedy time frame she had to muster up this new set of songs (one year!), which, in true Mitski fashion, encapsulated a period of her life in perfect audio form. Such a restricted cocoon naturally evolved into a far more consistent experience, and unlike LUSH, this album sounds like a project project rather than a mere assemblage of compositions.
But the second (and perhaps more notable) reason is the pure grit of determination she presented here. Stretching far beyond her means, Mitski utilised every inch of the college assets available to her, convincing her orchestral classmates to build elaborate soundscapes behind her songs while leaping to the film team to produce a video treatment for every song. To date, Retired From Sad, New Career in Business remains her only fully visual album.
Needless to say, these tunes are still very much Baby Mitski. Yet, through songs like "Strawberry Blonde", we could taste where she was headed. And that work ethic? It spoke volumes, demanding the world listen, proving that she was destined to crack the industry either by talent or force, whichever came first.
"I didn’t suffer any sophomoric album grief or anxiety actually, because my second album felt like such a completely different beast. My first album is more a collection of songs I’d compiled over a long period of time, while the songs on my second album were written over a more focused period of time, with the intention of putting them together into one album. My first album was also all about me learning how to arrange simple melodies and harmonies for various instruments, and about me getting used to the recording process itself. By my second album, I was secure enough in my recording processes and techniques to focus more on writing for an orchestra, as well as on actually being a producer, organising 60+ people and getting everyone on the same page, which was pretty hellish."
– Mitski
– Mitski
05. Bury Me at Makeout Creek
Indie Slacker Rock11 November 2014
Spotify
Another year, another Mitski. And I do mean another Mitski, as in a whole new version of her.
Bury Me at Makeout Creek was a creature born of necessity. Without the comforts of college studios, orchestral friends, and easy-to-access instruments, Mitski looked around at what was available, and she worked it out. Perhaps the most significant change was when she traded her trusty-but-non-portable piano keys for the strings of the guitar, a much more convenient piece of equipment. The only hiccup is that she did not actually know how to play the guitar, but no worries, she learned how to do that this year as well.
As a result, our Mitski v2.0 leaned deeper into the simplicity of punkier ideals, emerging on the other side with an aggressively noisier album. Which, interestingly enough, was exactly what the people wanted.
Makeout Creek? More like Breakout Creek. With this album, Mitski smashed out from her shell and landed face first on a much bigger map, suddenly carrying the reputation as the loud, angry, distorted guitar girl, which took her a long time to shed. Nevertheless, some of her earliest classics are found here, for example, "Townie" but even more so, "First Love / Late Spring", which is permanently stuck in my head. In fact, this record was such a level-up that if you press your ear to the darkest corners of the web, you may find the most hipster of Mitski fans swearing this as her best work.
I don't know about that, but what Bury Me holds above every other one of her albums is the stench of desperation from a musician who was running on sheer tenacity, willing herself to succeed even if it meant switching instruments, adapting sounds, and recording in people's kitchens (she did that). She must've been relieved when this giant leap did the trick, but even if it hadn't, I'm willing to bet she'd still be going for it today. That seems undeniable. Music lives inside her bloodstream.
"I had just graduated from music conservatory and I was living in Brooklyn slash Queens slash wherever I could. I had no money, no resources, and I just had a few friends in bands who had guitars and drums and stuff. So I made that album in makeshift studios and people's houses, anywhere I could. And that was the spirit of the album. Where instead of going out and trying to find ways to realise my vision, I just kind of looked around at what I had and said, ‘what can I do with what I have?’"
– Mitski
– Mitski
04. Puberty 2
Indie Rock17 June 2016
Spotify
At this point in our story, Mitski's name had tapped shoulders across the world, and people had turned to listen. The labels were quick to follow with Dead Oceans gobbling up her signature and shoving them into a legitimate studio. And by them, I mean two people: Mitski, and the unsung champion of our story, Patrick Hyland. He has produced every single one of her records except for LUSH. Take a pause to acknowledge that if you love Mitski, then you equally love Hyland because so much of what we hear is due to his magic.
But Mitski was still the name brand, and with so much additional attention riding upon her, the question was clear: could she match the instant-stick success of Bury Me? You already know the answer. If her last album was the icepick that broke her to the masses, Puberty 2 was the space rocket that blasted her through the stratosphere. By building upon her raw indie sound and her deeply personal lyrics about isolation, this record fully developed Mitski into the artist we recognise today. So much so that Puberty 2 remains the beacon of her skillset for many listeners, frequently cited as her peak work by fans and critical publications alike.
Ok, so are you ready for some blasphemy? I consider it her most overrated album. Don't shoot me! It's not that I don't love it. Believe me, I LOOOOVE IT. But for the oodles of accolades piled upon its head, it has some songs that stand taller than others, and it isn't as flawless as some may claim. Instead, it is my opinion that this was the album where Mitski had finally finished warming up, and from here, we have nothing but hot perfection.
"By my fourth album, I felt like I knew how to record an album. For my first and second ones, at least I was still a student in college, in music conservatory. A lot of that recording process was just about learning how to even record an album, learning how to direct people, learning how to give good performances in-studio which is very different from live and different from playing privately. So by the fourth one I think I got the hang of it and I could actually focus on the music, which I guess doesn't make much sense because the whole point of recording an album is to make the music. I think for my first three albums, a lot of the recording wasn't... I shouldn't say wasn't about the music... but I was really caught up in just doing the thing and I wasn't thinking about the thing itself as much."
– Mitski
– Mitski
03. Be the Cowboy
Indie Art Pop Rock17 August 2018
Spotify
When it comes to debates or fistfights about Mitski’s greatest record, Be the Cowboy is a favoured competitor and, in so many ways, the one I can most easily justify.
Whatever our protagonist was doing before this album was one thing, but here, everything was dialled up a notch, then intentionally shoved sideways from expectations, throwing away her signature distorted guitars to prioritise artier smarts and conceptual personas. Even better: Be the Cowboy is without blemish, every song standing strong, nobody letting the team down.
It’s no surprise, then, that Be the Cowboy is accepted as her most critically acclaimed offering, called the Absolute Best Album of 2018 by Vulture, Consequence of Sound, Flood Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, and Pitchfork. Even now, with so much time passing, it remains the most iconic Mitski Mitski record on the market as the ideal representation of her overall career. Just the cover alone is the one most people see when they close their eyes.
Nevertheless, you can take the Mitski out of the Mitski, but you can’t actually take the Mitski out of the Mitski or something. The positive affirmation mantra of the Be the Cowboy title and the defensive layers of humour did little to disguise that same vulnerable human beneath. Her thoughts remained complicated, and her heart remained broken, and things were only getting worse under the immense strains of fame. Eventually, she could no longer rise against the turmoil, and by the end of the Cowboy tour, Mitski broke and very publicly quit music. Spoiler alert: she came back! But, whew, that was close! Let’s never do that again!
"I think I was the most pathetic out of all the different albums I’ve made. I was the most anxious, the most unsure. It’s not any one moment. It's a lot of moments of me whining and yelling at Patrick, like, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ just repeating the words ‘I don’t know’ at him and poor Patrick just being like ‘weeeeell, let’s figure it out.’ All my past albums, I had just written what I felt, I was never fully conscious or never fully recognised the fact that there would be people listening to my music after I put it out. This album was the first one where I fully comprehended that I will have people listen to and judge the album when it comes out. That completely changed my process because it kind of filled me with doubt, I guess. I could no longer just completely turn to instinct because I was anticipating all of the interview questions I would get. So I think a lot more second guessing and thinking deeply and being more objective with the theme of this album. But yeah, it was just a lot of yelling at poor Patrick. He was just like ‘I’m trying to make your album!’ and I was like ‘I don’t know, can you just decide for me?’ and he was, like, ‘No, I can’t just decide for you, you have to make this!'"
– Mitski
– Mitski
02. Laurel Hell
New Wave Art Synthpop4 February 2022
Spotify
Let the big argument between myself and everyone else commence!
So there goes Mitski, boogying out of her retirement to a new 80s sound so flashy that it caught many off guard. Within the bewilderment, the Mitski landscape almost unanimously agreed that Laurel Hell was too much too soon, a step down from where we were, or even the worst record she'd ever made. Well, I hear you. I appreciate you. But take a seat as I explain why you are so fucking wrong that it infuriates me.
By all accounts, this is Mitski's "COVID" record, written during the lockdowns and released when the pandemic was still a fresh trauma. For this reason, she felt the world would not benefit from more of her sad introspections, so instead, she spun everything inside of a disco ball, permitting us to deal with our troubles on the dancefloor. Of course, the record was essentially the audio representation of forcing a smile moments before you explode into tears, but that's what makes it so special. It's about what it's hiding. It's about what it doesn't do even when it wants to. To push your artistry away from natural instincts for the sake of general mood takes real guts, and that is what so many listeners are missing.
Granted, some of the complaints were valid. Is every song as good as the next? No. But what it lacks in consistency, it makes up for with the best songs she's ever written, and there are a lot of them, too. Without reservation, I'd place the majority of my favourite Mitski songs on this record, and as a result, I revisit Laurel Hell more than any other. When it's good, it's her greatest album. And it's pretty much all good, baby!
"We were in lockdown, and I was, like, ‘I cannot handle sad music production! I am going crazy, and I need something that I can overtly dance to! That is overtly more upbeat than what I usually do, because I can’t write my usual sad songs and put melancholic accompaniment to it because then it would just be too much. I just needed something lighter for the pandemic!’"
– Mitski
– Mitski
01. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Indie Folk15 September 2023
Spotify
We've come such a long way, Mitski fans, which is why it may appear improbable when I say this: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is Mitski's absolute best work.
Her evolution so naturally leads us to this point. Softer. Slower. Darker. Yet, with the unmistakable emotional intelligence that one can only nurture with the maturity of age. It's as if Mitski is now taking her time with her self-reflections, analysing them without rash decisions and finally finding a resting place within her usual national alienation struggles. And what better genre to make peace with your country than country itself? That's right, an unmistakable Americana twang leapt to the forefront of Mitski's luxuriant atmosphere, and everyone realised it was always kinda there anyway.
No longer would she disguise her melancholy beneath her signature arty pops. Instead, her lyrics rose up stronger than ever before, both in the quality of poetics and their messages of endurance. Which is why, for those of us who were listening, The Land landed into the most profound depths of our guts, and many of us agreed that this was Mitski at yet another level. This may sound like a biased statement on my part, but it's far from an uncommon conclusion. According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, this is her highest-rated album, with an insanely high 90% score. What's more, "My Love Mine All Mine" grew to be her biggest song ever, with many new people discovering Mitski through that gateway single, then plummeting into the ether of her back catalogue, never to return.
Simply put, The Land squeezed the last drop of love from me like a lemon, leaving me on the floor with nothing except an urge to listen to it again, all day on repeat, which I have done. For the entire career of Mitski, I've never been able to pick her most outstanding album. But I now can, and here it is. This is the one. And when an artist's best record is their most recent and their seventh, you know you're in this thing forever.
"When someone says, ‘I love this about you,' I make a mental note: I'm never gonna do that again. Maybe that's a psychological problem I have to deal with."
– Mitski
– Mitski
Conclusion
When I tell my friends I wrote a book about Mitski, they all say the same thing: "Who is Mitski?"It's probably no big shocker that sales for Stay Soft, Get Eaten: The Complete Biography of Mitski have been achingly slow. Still, if I know one thing about Mitski fans, it's that they are more deliriously frenzied than any other collective I've come across. If you've attended one of her shows, you'll grasp what I am saying. It's closer to a cult howling at the moon than a concert experience. For this reason, I remain hopeful that this book will eventually reach the right hands.
Nevertheless, if my job in the Mitskisphere is to merely plant her into a field of new ears, so be it; it's an honour regardless. In case this wasn't clear, I adore Mitski, so my main objective is to do what I think would make her happy. And, no matter what happens, I still win because spending these months upon months researching her words and repetitively listening to her albums over and over was nothing but a treat. I'd happily do it again.
Because, like music to Mitski, writing is my life. I live for the craft. So if I starve to death on the streets, what a privilege that I died doing what I love most. Everyone should be so fortunate, and I am grateful for whatever fate has in store.
"Everything I say is with the caveat that I’m a one-in-a-million luckiest person in the literal world."
– Mitski
– Mitski
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