Mitski is Inhospitable and So Are We

According to every ear-witness, Mitski has done it again. Her seventh and latest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, not only stacks a crown upon her already mounting pile of crowns but has achieved this feat in yet another unpredictable manner. She has presented a new side of herself. She sounds more relaxed and confident than any other record in her arsenal. And she’s no longer trying to impress anyone, which is undoubtedly a result of already impressing everyone.

However, her artistic path wasn’t always as clear, and Mitski has spent much of her career grappling with her status the bigger it has grown. Little do people know, but only a few short years ago, Mitski was on the verge of throwing it all away.

Early Life

Mitski Miyawaki’s unsettled energy started at a young age as she never dug her roots into a country to call home. Born Mitsuki Laycock in 1990, Japan is her country of origin, as it is her mother’s. However, this was not the case for her father. He was an American man who worked at the United States Department of State. His job forever kept the family bouncing from one country to another, splitting Mitski’s childhood between Turkey, China, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They eventually settled in New York, USA, where Mitski remains today. 

What Mitski lacked in a stable home, she found within the gravitational pull of music. Interestingly, this passion blossomed relatively late in her life, as she only wrote her first song at 18. Nevertheless, once she peeked through the cracks of that wall, Mitski envisioned no alternative future for herself. She dropped out of her film studies at Hunter College and enrolled at SUNY Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music to pursue the art form full-time.

College Albums (2012 – 2013)

While studying, inspiration drenched Mitski, and she released two student albums, namely Lush (2012) and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business (2013). She was still finding her sound with these piano-driven collections, but considering the latter, which featured a 60-piece student orchestra, her ambitious trajectory was undeniable. Criminally, even her most adoring fans overlook these offerings, although retrospective analysis forever favors the work fondly.

Bury Me at Makeout Creek (2014)

When Mitski left college in 2014, whispers of her name had amplified, and Double Double Whammy records took notice. They quickly signed her up, willing to pump her forthcoming third album with deserved attention. Mitski wrote as fast as she could, jumping around friends’ houses to record songs, which was rapidly burning out her wick. The demands of her college degree stacked upon the odd jobs she took to pay rent meant that the fuel to make music was a drained resource. 

Yet, as further proof of her artistic supremacy, Mitski molded her weariness into inspiration for the album itself. She learned how to play the guitar, channeling her frustrations into mean riffs that amalgamated her style into unexplored genres, including punk, folk, and indie. She finished the record, called it Bury Me at Makeout Creek, and released it in November of that year. 

Reviews were scarce but positive. Both Pitchfork (7.7/10) and Rolling Stone (3.5/4) referred to the album as a “breakthrough”, while Allmusic was particularly excited, awarding it a 4.5/5 score. Sure, commercial success continued to elude her grasp, but her name continued to bubble until the inevitable cork exploded two years later.

Puberty 2 (2016)

For most Mitski fans, her fourth album was when they joined the party. 

As the title would suggest, Puberty 2 was a lyrically complex and uncomfortable affair. Here, we were invited deep into Mitski’s insecurities, where she spoke of her depression and alienation regarding her racial identity, no doubt resulting from her constant relocations as a child. However, the music remained lockjawed to DIY ideals, still a powerful member of the indie punk rock club.  

Mitski’s exposed vulnerabilities paid off, and Puberty 2 was one of the most revered albums of 2016. Pitchfork said she “stands apart from—and above—much of the genre”. Spin called it “a high-watermark of post-irony indie”. All the while, the end-of-year lists soared their love through the skies, often hitting the top 10 via the likes of Stereogum (8), Paste (5), and Time (3).

Such an elevated pedestal is historically a fierce threat to an artist. Hype can breed self-doubt, and we have watched so many tumble before her. But in the case of Mitski, her subsequent creative statement not only solidified her godlike status but ascended her to even higher altitudes. 

Be the Cowboy (2018)

In an attempt to “find herself” after the Puberty 2 Tour, Mitski escaped into her reliable outlet of composition, resulting in 2018’s Be the Cowboy. By extending her indie rock signatures, she pushed the boundaries of her more artsy side while dabbling with pop appeals and an electronic flavoring for good measure. For these reasons, listeners have frequently described this record as “genre-defying”, and it remains one of her most critically praised efforts to date.

The Guardian immediately awarded it full marks, noting that “Mitski’s songwriting trademarks are strong enough to transcend the stylistic revamp”. In another 100% score, Now Magazine were surprised to “discover that pop songs, as loud and vibrant as they often are, can be quite devastating”. Paste observed that she was “fast making herself into one of the most interesting songwriters of her generation”, with an 8.3/10. End-of-year accolades spoke even louder volumes, and Be the Cowboy was the #1 album of 2018, so said Consequence of Sound, Vulture, The Line of Best Fit, and the forever-difficult-to-please Pitchfork. 

Battles with Fame

Sadly, Mitski was not ready for the sudden limelight tearing a hole into her private life, and she struggled to carry the strenuous interest piled upon her. Much of this newfound stress was a reaction to her wild fans, with whom Mitski developed a love/hate relationship. According to the Wall Street Journal, her followers were so “culty” in their dedication that they rivalled “Taylor Swift and BTS in intensity, if not size”.

Mitski’s mental health crumbled, and she contemplated leaving the industry for good. In 2019, while performing in Central Park, she announced that this show would be her last “indefinitely”. The hipster domain mourned, praying it wasn’t true, but we only had ourselves to blame. Mitski was another victim of the unrestrained celebrity worship we amass upon our heroes as if they are not human. Their stars shine bright until we snuff out their light with our all-consuming demands for more, more, more. It was our fault that we’d lost our indie queen.

Laurel Hell (2022)

Thankfully, this was not the case! The insuppressible artist inside of Mitski prevailed, and she returned in 2022 with her sixth offering, Laurel Hell. Nobody was disappointed by the release, even if some thought it slightly missed the impossible peaks of her previous achievements. Regardless, fanatics and critics alike adored its synthy new wave nods to the 1980s, and every publication worth its salt included it somewhere on their end-of-year lists. These included NME (21), Pitchfork (43), and Rolling Stone (60). 

That same year, Mitski unlocked a rare achievement with her track This is a Life (co-written with Son Lux and Talking Heads’ David Byrne). As the lead single for the Everything Everywhere All at Once soundtrack, this song was nominated for an Oscar. Such an accomplishment proved to be the final golden straw needed, and The Guardian assertively announced Mitski as the “best young songwriter in the United States”. 

As previously seen, such an overwhelming shower of accolades is dangerous for a private figure like Mitski. She could be struck by another bout of panic at any moment, reeling into a retreat like before. But, instead, the opposite occurred. Now operating on pure creative spirit, Mitski sprinted forward at an immense rate. Just over a year later, she announced her seventh studio album. She called it The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. And it has landed, very suddenly, with us right now, in September 2023.

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We (2023)

“The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people. 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.”
– Mitksi (Album Press Note, 2023)

Those who thought Mitski’s top-shelf offers had fallen behind us are embarrassingly mistaken. The Land Is Inhospitable proved, once again, that Mitski has ample artistic energy to expend and can fashion it using tricks we’ve never heard. By stripping back the layers and leaning into the softness of orchestral folk, her introspective melancholy has never sounded so inviting. Indeed, many are calling this her most flawless album to date.

Don’t believe us? How about The Telegraph stating, “[Mitski] stands alone in her lyricism and heart; on this album, she also seems less frightened by the potential fruits of her own talent”, awarding it full marks. Or the Independent who instructed us to “give it time and space at night, when you’re alone, to allow its wild darkness to shine,” with another 10/10 score. Or perhaps The Guardian who observed, “In the best possible sense, Mitski feels out on her own,” yet another 100% appraisal. In fact, on the review-aggregation site, Metacritic, The Land Is Inhospitable, currently boasts a 92 Metascore overall. It is her highest ever, and we are willing to bet good money that 2023’s end-of-year lists will elevate it accordingly.

“If I ever found a place where I belonged, that in itself would be an identity crisis to me.”

– Mitski (The Guardian interview, 2016)

From her beginnings, Mitski’s unique talent was a contortion of her existential alienation into joyous hooks that yanked the listener into her orbit. Her every album explores different crevices of her mind using unseen angles, and while we feel like we are slowly getting to know Mitski, we are also certainly nowhere near her. But with the strange comfort of The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, it feels like we are on the cusp of falling into a new era of the artist, one with so much more to give and, what’s more, she is willing to give it to us. It’s an exhilarating time to be a Mitski fan because those of us who hear it—who genuinely hear it—know that she exists in a space far above anyone else in the world.