Singer-songwriter Mitski infuses her signature indie-pop with country influences in her seventh studio album, “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We,” released on Sept. 15, 2023.
This is Mitski’s most “American” album yet, inspired by old spaghetti westerns and the pure essence of America, with all its pain and power. The synth and electropop that characterized her 2022 album “Laurel Hell” is gone, and the darker, more muted nature of this album instills it with an expansiveness that feels like freedom.
The album opens with “Bug Like an Angel,” in which she paints the first strokes of a rich American landscape with the bare strums of her guitar. This song is raw and confessional: “As I got older, I learned I’m a drinker / Sometimes a drink feels like family,” she sings. A gospel choir erupts in the background, chorusing “family” and then fading just as suddenly. The contrast is jarring, but it works well – a testament to Mitski’s talent for playing with the unexpected.
The next song, “Buffalo Replaced,” transitions to a gritty guitar and country-inspired instrumentals. She paints a picture of a boundless countryside, dropping the listener into the vast expanse of a prairie. “Freight train stampedin’ through my backyard / It’ll run across the plains like the new buffalo replaced,” she sings. Already, Mitski is cinematic with her references and the way she creates the album’s sense of place. Through both her lyrics and the accompanying instrumentals, she evokes imagery that sets up the unique landscape of the album. Though this theme of stripped-down Americana is most visible in the first few tracks, it continues to thread throughout the album in subtle ways.
As Mitski’s distinct voice pierces through a slow melody, “Heaven” is a reprieve from the heaviness of the two previous tracks. This is possibly her most explicitly romantic track on the album: though something dark exists around the corner, she crafts a cherished heaven with her lover. Sweeping violins make this song feel like a quiet fairytale, and it is one of the most gorgeous tracks on “The Land is Inhospitable.”
However, “Heaven” is just a fleeting comfort – the introspective angst returns in the next two tracks. “I Don’t Like My Mind” is imploring, depicting Mitski’s tormented mind and persistent memories. She works too much to escape herself; she wails, even as she asks for a reprieve from the confines of her head. In “The Deal,” her voice switches between high and clear to deep and throaty as she begs for the burden of her soul to be taken away. “I can’t bear to keep it / I’d give it just to give / And all I will take are the consequences,” she sings. “The Deal” is haunting in its imagery, stirring some unnamed emotion deep in the listener’s chest.
Throughout the album, Mitski’s lyricism (as expected) is stunning. Rather than a singer, her primary role seems to be that of a storyteller: she conveys melancholy, satire and romance through her signature abstract style. “The Land is Inhospitable” contains lyrics that are quite minimal, often cutting out or repeating to reveal the intricacies of pure music. Though it might seem counterintuitive, the gaps between lyrics help her construct the nature of her surroundings, adding to the strong atmospheric element of each track.
“The Land is Inhospitable” also asks a broader question: What do we each leave behind for the people after us? For Mitski, she wants to leave her love. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski said in a press release. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” Throughout the “Land is Inhospitable,” Mitski masterfully intertwines stories of love and loneliness, heartbreak and hope, until it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.
The heart and soul of the album lies in “My Love Mine All Mine,” which completely captures that sentiment. The song is not about the love as a person in her life or the love that others give to her, but rather about her own capacity to love – the love that comes from her. Her voice is velvety, adding to the dreamlike quality of the track.
The bliss of the previous song turns into an aching isolation in “The Frost.” She is “forgotten,” navigating the world alone, and again, her lyrics are simple but gut-wrenching. “You’re my best friend / Now I’ve no one to tell / How I lost my best friend,” she remarks, and the tranquility of her voice serves as an agonizing contrast to the painful words she utters.
“Star” is a more otherworldly counterpart to “The Frost” and is yet another example of Mitski’s ability to balance contrasting themes. Rather than the loneliness of lost love, she chooses to appreciate it for what it once was. Through it all, there’s a certain twinkling, cosmic sense of optimism, as she sings, “That love is like a star / It’s gone, we just see it shining … / Isn’t that worth holding on?”
Though it’s the album’s penultimate song, “I’m Your Man” is an excellent closer. Cicadas chirp, dogs bark, and there’s an eerie shriek of a toad, set once again against the backdrop of a folk guitar. The track is a sort of reckoning, a final outlet for her fury, before she finds a sort of closure in “I Love Me After You.” This final track is liberating, a catharsis that fills the space of her loneliness
As an album, “The Land is Inhospitable” can only be described as a triumph: it’s sweeping yet candid, rich in its complexity but still simple. With all her brutal honesty, Mitski navigates the unfamiliar territory where love and loss intersect, extending an invitation for us to follow her into a surreal American landscape.
Listen to Mitski’s “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” on Spotify:
