Review Summary: out with midski, let's get litski
What little time has passed since
Laurel Hell hasn't been kind to that record. In fact, I'd argue it's the worst type of album Mitski could have made at that point in her career. It's not that any of its songs are particularly
bad, but each stylistic choice and shift exposed the worst qualities of her songwriting: every anti-climax and piece of semi-awkward songwriting didn't feel artistic or unique in their newfound synthy coats. Instead, everything felt unsatisfactory and, ultimately and most regrettably, forgettable. Thankfully, chasing a middling foray into synth pop with a more expansive folk-infused album has proven to be a
killer move: enter
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.
Opening cuts “Bug Like an Angel” and “Buffalo Replaced” reaffirm that Mitski’s approach to songwriting can work out beautifully when the music ensures her voice persistently assumes the spotlight - the former being a mesmerising semi-choral tale of religion and alcoholism while the latter spends its time transforming a hazy anti-climax into something oddly satisfactory. However, it’s the overall organic chamber pop vibes that make
The Land… such an enjoyable experience and enhance its brief and subtle surprises. One such surprise comes in the form of the excellent “The Deal”: a well-rounded and genuinely haunting piece that culminates in unexpected and total dissociation. Similarly, closer “I Love Me After You” embraces more dissonant tones to great success, bathing the song’s topics of self-love and healing in something that is at once tangibly and inexplicably eerie.
Unfortunately, the excellence of these moments also highlight that the rest of the album, while perfectly
good, doesn’t fully live up to Mitski’s potential. The back half blurs together in an unobtrusive and ultimately pleasant manner, with consecutive two-minute cuts bleeding into one another and shaping a perfectly cohesive if uneventful stretch of the record. It’s a double edged knife we’re working for here - the
good-not-great quality of much of
The Land… is at once its strong and weak point, enhancing the highlights but exposing concrete shortcomings. Simultaneously, this album is a highly productive move for Mitski, opening up a wide array of new possibilities for future endeavours. One of these days we’ll get another song that crosses the four-minute mark, I can feel it.
