Out of the disco and into the Nashville skylines: Mitski explores country.
She announced it in a voice message, her seventh album – she was in Nashville and was currently recording her new album. Almost a year and a half after LAUREL HELL, which finally cemented her status as a new pop star for the strange present. Between synth surfaces that are sometimes spherical and sometimes shimmering with disco glitter, the Japanese-American singer explored the gray area between you and me. The result: a hit, a bestseller, and Mitski, who actually wanted to leave the music industry, was in the middle of it, more than ever, including the Harry Styles support tour and “Rolling Stone” covers.
So now THE LAND IS INHOSPITABLE AND SO ARE WE, an album title that is even darker, even edgier than its predecessor. There is no trace of disco anymore, rather Nashville has left its mark on the album. Mitski plays with folk and Americana elements, taking us to the American south with mosquitoes, fireflies and freight trains behind the house on “Bufalo Replaced”, or to a trailer park with barking guard dogs somewhere on “I’m Your Man”. in the desert. She gathers us around her campfire to tell stories in whose strongest moments black is still the brightest color.
The album opener “Bug Like An Angel”, for example, a meditation on alcohol addiction that makes do with minimalist guitar and choir and whose heartbreaking lyrics (“As I got older, I learned I’m a drinker / Sometimes a drink feels like family”) breaks hearts right from the start. At other times she sings against a full orchestra of piano, choirs, strings, organ and wind instruments. She then gives in to the country clichés on “Heaven” and especially “The Frost”. This would fit into the country charts if it weren’t for the undertone of the typical Mitski weirdness that prickly defends itself against too much complacency.