“I know that I ended it, but why won’t you chase after me? You know me better than I do. So why didn’t you stop me?”
In the space of a short verse and a chorus from her song Why Didn't You Stop Me?, Mitski sums up the complexities of being in your 20s. And while this short verse and chorus can in no way sum up who Mitski is exactly, her fifth album Be The Cowboy touches on those irritating hypocritical moments we create in the quest for love and self-discovery.
Slipping into the roles of fictional characters on her latest record, she transports the loneliness she feels as a touring artist into those people, making those feelings of isolation more relatable to those of us who are most definitely not touring artists. Even though she’s our candidate for this week’s VBF, Mitski’s chutzpah means that she probably doesn’t need us as her own VBF. I mean, she’d probably flat out refuse the offer and that’s fine. No, really, it is. We’re not bitter. Not even slightly.
Born Mitski Miyawaki in 1990 to an American father and Japanese mother, Mitski moved around a lot, attending high school in Turkey and then eventually moving to New York to study film. Growing up, she was constantly influenced by western pop culture but with an Asian influence. In a recent interview with GQ's Eve Barlow, she admits she didn't realise that, until very recently, Life on Mars was a David Bowie song and not an original by the Indonesian performer Anggun.
Taking hold of this outsider role, combined with her blunt outlook on relationships, her songs are confidently contradictory. On Lonesome Love, she deconstructs the pain of unrequited love down to one line: "Why am I lonely for lonesome love?".
Loveless relationship
On Me and My Husband, she plays the role of a wife who's convincing herself that everything is fine in her loveless relationship: "And I'm the idiot with the painted face in the corner, taking up space. But when he walks in, I am loved, I am loved".
To illustrate an even more complicated spin on loneliness, Nobody plays around with a cheery, almost ironic disco beat while she despairs that there isn't a human near who can help her out in her hour of need.
With songs that start like they're midway through a very intense conversation, Mitski's writing style is charged and passionate. She captures small moments of pain and uncertainty and sets them alight. Your American Girl, taken from her fourth album Puberty 2, meshes the thrill of a new relationship with the conflict of dating someone from a different background to you, hinting at the sacrifices we make to be in the company of someone we love.
“If I could, I’d be your little spoon and kiss your fingers forevermore,” she sings gently in the opening verse, before the climatic chorus with distorted guitars crashes in: “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me but I do, I think I do. And you’re an all-American boy. I guess I couldn’t help trying to be your best American girl.”
A little bit punk in its delivery, grungy in texture but totally pop in its catchiness and its honesty, Mitski’s music goes back on itself and then flips its initial narrative over completely, leaving us on the same confused level as her. And are we even human if we are not confused at least 50 per cent of the time? If you want to find some comfort in the never-ending fire balls of confusion that life throws our way, then Mitski is the cowboy for you.
Mitski plays The Tivoli Theatre on September 22nd.
