The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
★★★☆☆
I’ve loved “My Love Mine All Mine” for the longest time and always postponed listening to the album, or any album from Mitski for that matter. I’ve partially listened to Lush but The Land Is Inhospitable always seemed like the special one, it was due for over a year but here I am now. Mitski sounds ethereal. sad, but not a typical one. the kind of sad who’s fun to converse with, to learn from. the type the shines a light instead of whining about the darkness over and over.
Bug Like An Angel starts quietly but builds up to a gospel-like sonic experience. the choir sounds intimate, but there’s an untold “I told you so” in the whole thing
Did you go and make promises you can’t keep? Amateur mistake
I try to remember that the wrath of the devil was also given him by god
Buffalo Replaced starts with a heavy riff. so many mentions of bugs and insects so far!
Sometimes I think it would be easier without her
But I know nothing can hurt me when I see her sleepin’ face
the build-up at the end is similar to that of the previous track.
Heaven, very folky. it’s probably the slide guitar. it’s more emotional than the previous ones. more literal, more romantic. the melodies sound more like what I’d expect from her.
Now I bend like a willow thinking of you
I like that it’s not some shallow love poem. it recognizes the dark and the absurd, it knows that the dark awaits us all around the corner, but it also cherishes the beauty as well, it knows that “here, in our place we have the heaven for the day”. that contract is what I enjoy. there’s a beauty you can choose to enjoy and then there’s the darkness that tortures you either way.
I Don’t Like My Mind, who does, right? it’s very honest, personal and real. I’m hoping for some deeper concepts than a workaholic stress-eating at work though. The Deal sounds a lot like Radiohead’s Nice Dream, the lush acoustic guitar strumming in a hurry. the melody is very beautiful, comforting like a lullaby.
I want someone to take this soul, I can’t bear to keep it
Will somebody take this soul?
the viola (?) after the second verse where the bird replies sounds like a 50’s Disney animation. is it a hallucination? is it faith? the change in the tempo is very well used as a means to convey a change in atmosphere. the electronic drums sound a bit weird but it does “work”, it feels like the climax, a waking-up from a purgative state. it has enlightenment in it, maybe not ease but a sort of lights shone upon the fabric of reality. a “win” after all, not the win you expected but a win nonetheless. can you still call it a win though?
Your pain is eased, but you’ll never be free
When Memories Snow sounds huge! so many horns and cymbals. it’s like a fever dream, just as dissonant, short-lived, climactic and bleary, and it’s over just as quick as “memories melt”.
“My Love Mine All Mine”, my beloved. very wet, singable, like a forgotten memory of a kiss. the warmth of the sun shining onto your face. a bit desperate. not sweet and feel-good but floating, flying on a bed of voices that each caress a piece of the listener’s soul. a vociferation against the turn of events. as desperate, as unleashed, as ceded.
Moon, a hole of light
Through the big top tent up high
Here before and after me
Shinin’ down on me
Moon, tell me if I could
Send up my heart to you?
So, when I die, which I must do
Could it shine down here with you?
‘Cause my love is mine, all mine
The Frost sounds folky again, has a narrative. implies solitude, being left alone. a kind that brings not only nostalgia, but the burden of being responsible for memories of better times.
Now I’ve no one to tell
probably the most elaborate substance in the album
The Star sounds too much dissonant and short, I like the electronic arpeggios. I’m Your Man screeches of an impending doom, “One day you’ll figure me out” and then it all will end. there’s an undertone of guilt because of a betrayal, however justified by simply “being a man”, despite being trusted “like a god”
I’m sorry I’m the one you love
No one will ever love me like you again
So when you leave me, I should die
I deserve it, don’t I?
I Love Me After you is the final track, I expect hearing a bit of release, contextually and/or sonically. it fails doing that, it’s rather vague. it’s too monotonic and the lack of a narrative resolution is felt. it ended the story in the most self-centric way.