Album Review: Mitski Asks Us To “Be The Cowboy” of Our Lives
Mitski is a rock star, and I will not hear any counter-argument. Her newest record, Be The Cowboy, feels like bricks and feathers falling on your soul. On one hand, she can be light and enthralling like confetti falling from a birthday sky. Yet, on another hand, she can rip into the heaviness of being a woman figuring herself out while have the burdensome task of observing how others figure her, as well.
I would love to say that I have never cared about what others think, and that no outside decisions influence my life or choice-making. Yet, that would be an alternative fact. The truth is that people impact each other, and Mitski’s lyrics are all about witnessing how her surrounding loves and frenemies have shaped her self-image. Still, all this “self-analysis” is veiled under lyrics that could make Walt Whitman and Rupi Kaur say, “Wow!” She masks the struggles of female repression and oppression with beauty; like seeing a disco ball being smashed into thousands of shiny, tiny mirrors.
Mitski – Nobody (Official Video)
“Remember My Name,” “Two Slow Dancers,” “Lonesome Love,” and “Washing Machine Heart” are rock-powered glam with twinges of disco pop and verses of pain. Mitski has managed to take frustration and sand it down until it smoothly shapes your emotional walls. Every melody is a frame for her svelte, lissome voice to ply through feelings and make them flexible. Feeling repressed is tethered to feeling stuck in your life/ relationships, and tracks such as “Geyser” and “Pink In The Night” bend hardened emotions in self-empathy. Remember, at all times, the best way to analyze who loves you is to analyze how you love yourself.
Mitski – Two Slow Dancers (Official Lyric Video)
Be The Cowboy is just further proof that Mitski is awesome. Not every artist can express so concisely and attractively what is is to simultaneously breakdown and breakthrough your life. Yet, by drawing a sense of mysticism from her guitar and a moral sensibility from her character, driven tracks, Mitski is the album you play when you want “thinking inside” to feeling like “rocking out.” For More Information On Mitski And To Buy BE The Cowboy On August 17 Click Here.
Mitski – Geyser (Official Video)
