With her warbling and echoing vocals that possess such vulnerability and barely contained emotions, indie artist Mitski has produced some of the finest records of the last decade. Ruthlessly deliberate in their production and both indignant and grateful at the access her music has given strangers into her life, in her last two albums, Be the Cowboy and Puberty 2 she solidified herself as a billowing force to be reckoned with. In Laurel Hell, her latest album, she grapples with her ongoing stormy relationship with an art form that can be as equally therapeutic as it is exposing.
As a whole Laurel Hell, despite the inherent quality that is evident in a Mitski album, doesn’t quite live up to some of her strongest outputs, lacking the overall cohesion of some of her best work. It picks up steam as it progresses, especially after a few opening songs that falter in fully engaging with the listener, too staid and cruising in apathy.
“Stay Soft” is an early highlight, especially with how she utilizes unusual vocal pitches in the pre-chorus. The second verse demonstrates further playfulness, as it’s stripped bare aside from backing electronic percussion before the full sound returns. Each time the lyric “open your heart like the gates of hell” is sung, the volume and vocal expression grow in intensity. It’s one of the first examples of some of the peculiar instrumental pairings she’ll display on the album.
There’s a purposeful, cinematic touch to the album as a whole. Her songs, as always, produce waves of colors, and the ones in Laurel Hell are particularly consuming.
Insomnia-inspired “Heat Lightning” is quieter in how it engages with its listeners but doesn’t lose that cinematic touch. A jazz-inspired number, the snare drum, and piano take center stage, culminating in a song that’s loose and sultry, a perfect embodiment of its namesake. Through the steady verses, she captures the lazy restlessness that comes with heavy eyelids but an electrified mind.
One of the most intriguing elements of Laurel Hell latest is how deceptively simple it can be on the first couple listen throughs. We see this in numbers such as “The Only Heartbreaker” which coasts on a standard but effective structure. Embellished with throwback instrumentals, it’s lyrically repetitive but perhaps that’s the point. She’s keeping her heartache close to the chest after feeling as if her audience were looking for her pain to represent all of theirs, looking for too much at once.
“Love Me More” – like “The Only Heartbreaker” – relies on simplicity in framing but in this case, there’s much more going on beyond the repetitive lyrics. Listen to the first verse and pre-chorus alone as they transition from one to the other into the chorus and you’ll notice how the sound accelerates, the sound and emotion euphoric, desperate, in its need to be heard.
“Everyone” is a letdown that only a few songs in grinds the momentum built by “Stay Soft” to a halt. Still, with its retro 80s synth it’s demonstrative of the creative instrumentality with a creative lack of guitar and emotive vocals, but it should’ve at least been shifted to another space on the tracklist. The cohesion of the album as a whole might’ve been greater had more weight been put into building off of the drama and thrill of some of her biggest numbers. Others such as “There’s Nothing Left For You” are forgettable, despite individual nice touches such as her always strong vocals.
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“Should’ve Been Me” is easily the most dynamic song on the album based on the instrumentals alone. Oddly jaunty with confessional style lyrics above it, it showcases Mitski’s elastic versatility and inability to be boxed in.
Similarly, “I Guess” is a song of yearning, reminiscence, and heartache that so captures the tangible emotion she’s able to imbue into a given lyric, a consummate performer who, despite reservations of how she engages with fans, understands all too well the immeasurable empathy shared through a well-worn song. Music is a tool of connection through heartbreak as a means to find fellow sufferers who can help mourn a loss through similar, barely contained emotions. Now, in this number, with fragmented thoughts, she’s envisioning a life to build outside of music.
However, the song also manages to be hopeful, reverent, and content in its meanderings, allowing the perspective shift in the last song to be all the more potent. Because “That’s Our Lamp” is not a happy song, dealing with more relationship woes and the self-doubt that comes in questioning a relationship and the love being expressed. That said, there’s a brilliant choice being made to pair those sorrowful lyrics with music that’s lively and playful. “That’s” where you loved me” she sweetly croons as it diverges into a big band sound with echoing reverberations, chanting, and horns that create a sound so sonically vast it again only opens a potential new avenue for the singer-songwriter to explore.
While Laurel Hell isn’t able to live up to her highest points, it still showcases why Mitski is one of the finest songwriters working today. Her emotions are big and captured beautifully by frenzied and deliberately impatient instrumentals as her vocals barely keep pace with their speed. Music is the embodiment of all that she’s working through so if it feels like a definitive ending of a chapter, that much must be true too.
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