Sitting At The Crossroads with Mitski on Nothing’s About to Happen To Me
On her latest release, Mitski threads together small-town claustrophobia, romantic self-erasure and simmering rage into a tight, emotionally loaded collection.
I feel like Mistski’s album release schedule is when I’m reaching a crossroads or a big decision in my young adult life. Or maybe I just take it a little too personally, either way, this album is great, and it made me cry (as per usual).
The album starts with one of the big, heavy-hitting themes of the album: reputation and the lack of control over your own narrative. During In a Lake, Mitski feels stuck in a loop by the same-iness of living in a small town, and she yearns to start over, to leave, she wants to “backstroke forever in a lake.”
Where’s My Phone is anxiety-inducing, paranoid and angry. You feel like you lose a part of yourself when you misplace your phone, as they’ve become so intrinsic in our lives and identities. The guitar rises with her anxiety, eventually climaxing in a sort of blacked-out panic attack where nothing is coherent except for that one question that caused that panic in the first place. It feels like rocking back and forth after nobody offered to help you look for the thing that you lost. She also mentions wanting to fit in as she’s singing, and wishes she had a “clear glass brain” instead of all these thoughts she has to deal with. Surprisingly reflective, I really love this one.
Ah yes, the classic people pleaser song that I’ve come to expect to cry to on every Mitski album. Cats is horribly sad – she’s singing about a relationship with a partner that she wishes would leave her so she doesn’t have to rip the band-aid off herself. It’s a song about the co-dependence loop that can come from certain relationships, but not wanting to fight for it anymore if that person were to leave you. Jail!
If I Leave is sort of a continuation of the narrative of Cats, but in this one, she’s more reflective about how replaceable she feels to her partner, but how irreplaceable that partner feels to her. Another heavy-hitting theme on this album is general isolation, whether it be that small town she was talking about, not being able to fit in, or feeling alone in a relationship. She can’t imagine her life without the darkness and gloom, but she also can’t imagine her life without her partner, because they accept her darkness, and are the only one that truly knows her. Another sad one, another jail sentence!
Dead Women hits hard on the themes of having little control over your own narrative, especially after you die. This one feels angry; it made me angry. Women’s rights, livelihoods and autonomy have consistently been in societal danger, and many of the higher-ups are still attempting to control them. Mistki, herself, also discusses how she’s felt used during her career and general life, and she has the feeling that she may only exist for the outside’s entertainment. It’s very reflective, but it’s angry, as it should be.
Mitski stays within the topic of a declining mental health with Instead of Here, choosing to isolate herself from those who care about her and lose herself in suicidal ideation/habits. Besides mental health, this is also a reflective song about the high expectations put on her throughout her career, and the overthinking that comes with it. As I’m writing this, I’m realising the whole album is sad. Thanks Mistki, I hate (love) it!
She should be put in jail for I’ll Change For You, and all my chronic people pleasers out there know what I’m talking about. This song makes me want to rip my heart out of my chest and offer it to someone who doesn’t want it, y’know? It’s actually pretty upbeat-sounding for a song with such a terribly sad subject, and the instrumentals are back at it again – the strings, the piano at the end, the ambient noise of bars and cars, it’s incredibly immersive, and that makes it even more difficult to listen to.
Oh boy, Rules! What an upbeat-sounding song with a soulful country feel. I sure hope the lyrics don’t make me cry. The instrumentals on this album are so top-notch, which I’ve come to expect from Mitski and her team, but never quite like this! This song makes me feel like I’m strolling down a new city block with optimism, but unable to rid myself of some fear and resentment in my heart.
That White Cat starts like a Bond track, but devolves into this consistent marching beat with some angry guitar. This is another song where she sort of feels like she’s losing control of her own narrative and giving herself away in favour of caring for and protecting this “cat”. Towards the end of the song, she starts listing out other animals that are using the house that was hers for their own benefit. Yet another people-pleasing song, but this one makes me want to rip my hair out and scorn everyone who’s ever taken advantage of my kindness. It’s great, and we feel like we’re dropping into insanity with her as she goes through this thought process.
Charon’s Obol sounds a little bit like classic Mitski, but also very similar to the new sound she took on for her last album, The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. This sort of folky, melancholy, quiet rhythm with her signature reflective vocals. Her use of guitar and background harmonies in this one is also incredible; it makes me endlessly emotional for this girl and her doggies. This is another song that really hits on another big theme in this album: societal pressures, reputation, and being at peace with things as they are.
The last song on the album, Lightning, feels more alternative and grungy, yet remains relatively reflective and quiet. It’s all about death (a recurring theme) and a cathartic feeling of life after death – she wants to die while being paranoid about it, practically begging for that lightning to come and strike her down to be reincarnated as the rain. There’s something really beautiful about that. I’ve never thought about being reincarnated as the rain, but she makes it sound so gorgeous.
I love this short, sweet little album. It makes me sad, it makes me angry, it makes me love Mitski and her songwriting even more. If you like her more folksy and reflective sound, I really do recommend it, but maybe listen to it with a few tissues lying around.
