Biblical ballads: a review of Mitski’s latest album

Cosmic. To concisely summarize the seventh and newest album of singer/songwriter Mitsuki Miyawaki, professionally known as Mitski, borders on impossible, but this word most accurately captures its magnitude and nuance. The album, released Sept. 15 and titled “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” takes on a slower and more mature tone than its predecessors. With varied recurring motifs such as religion and nature, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” evokes the impression throughout its half-hour duration that Mitski is singing up to the heavens.

Mitski is well-known among many adolescent audiences as a maker of “sad girl music.” However appealing her songs may be to angsty youth, they express a certain emotional depth relevant to audiences of all ages that is difficult to find in today’s music culture. As songs of all genres are increasingly geared toward online audiences, artists focus on building their music around a 30-second snippet that can be isolated as audio for a TikTok or Instagram reel. Unprecedented to Mitski, her hit songs such as “Nobody” and “Washing Machine Heart” became just that around 2018 when her album “Be the Cowboy” was released. Rather than chasing this type of social media fame, “The Land is

Inhospitable and So Are We” catches Mitski in a period of quiet and gentle introspection. Melancholy, yes, but with an ultimate note of warmth.

The album opens with the acoustic “Bug Like an Angel,” which gives the opening image of its narrator looking up through the bottom of a glass at a bug that, framed by the sky, looks like an angel. Mitski goes on to explore this theme of religion and religious suffering through the lens of alcoholism. From the perspective of someone drunk and at rock bottom, Mitski asks the question: is suffering meaningful because it was created by God for a reason? Or does God intend the hurt it makes?

“When I’m bent over, wishing it was over… I try to remember the wrath of the devil / Was also given him by God,” Mitski sings.

However, the heavens are also utilized as a metaphor for love. With the track “Star,” Mitski provides the comparison of an old romance to the light of a dying star — something that has long since ended but still can be remembered as a guiding light. Similarly, “Heaven” captures this celestial tone with the narrator’s claim that being with her lover is comparable to being in heaven.

Even as Mitski gazes at the sky, she ties her spiritual and mental worlds to the physical with songs such as “My Love Mine All Mine,” a standout track on the album with streams

in the tens of millions. In this soft, lyrical ballad, the protagonist pleads with the moon to allow her to keep something permanent of herself behind on Earth when she eventually dies — in this case, the love she possesses. Mitski, in a behind-the-song YouTube video, expressed her value of love. “To love is the best thing I ever did in my life, better than any song I’ve ever written, better than any achievement by far,” Mitski said.

Here’s to hoping she keeps looking skyward.

Mitzki / YouTube