In the Japanese-American, indie pop singer’s newest album, Mitski shares her vulnerability once again for fans to swoon or sob to. Her new album, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” was released on Friday, Sept. 15. Fans have plenty of options of Mitski songs to stream now that her seventh album was released a year after her previous one, “Laurel Hell,” in 2022.
“The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” is similar to her past albums, which were less than an hour, this one only having 11 tracks and lasting 32 minutes and 32 seconds.
Mitski’s album has been seen as autobiographical and has impacted many listeners’ emotions upon their initial hearing. Many of the tracks have similar rhythms to her fifth album, “Be The Cowboy.” The third track, “Heaven,” does not introduce a new style of music, but its orchestral backing tracks make it a unique song. The classical instrumental tied with her lyrics that are aimed towards a lover produce a heavenly song.
“Now I bend like a willow / Thinkin’ of you / But here in our place / We havе for the day / Can we stay awhile and listеn for,” Mitski sings.
Despite being a short song, fans can enjoy Mitski’s angelic vocals throughout the chorus. She switches up her style as listeners go through the album. Listeners, however, can get a preview of what the message of the album will be.
“Heaven / Heaven / Heaven / Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh / Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh,” Mitski sings.
Mitski successfully engages her audience with this album because it allows her to reflect on herself, while allowing her fans to do so as well. Listener’s emotional reactions are what Mitski wanted to invoke, and fans vividly spread their love for the fourth track, “I Don’t Like My Mind.” In it, Mitski expresses her self-destructive distractions to avoid her own thoughts, and a majority of her fans can relate to the lyrics.
“I don’t like my mind, I don’t like being left alone in a room / With all its opinions about the things that I’ve done / So, yeah, I blast music loud, and I work myself to the bone,” Mitski sings.
Her tracks stop focusing on self sabotage and switch to topics on forever lasting love in her seventh track, “My Love Mine All Mine.” A happy love song is rare since Mitski is known for mentioning tragic romances. She leaves fans in awe as she sings about how her love for her partner will continue past her own death.
“’Cause my love is mine, all mine / I love, my, my, mine / Nothing in the world belongs to me / But my love, mine, all mine, all mine,” Mitski sings.
Mitski’s songwriting skills are shown with her loving and thought provoking lyrics that give hopeless romantics a perfect song. She talks to the moon about her lover with the hopes of her love surviving after she is gone.
“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?” Mitski sings.
The eleventh and final track of the album, “I Love Me After You,” wraps up the vulnerable and emotional album on a positive note. Mitski sings about how she now understands her worth and tries to rediscover who she was before the failed relationship. Before, she only had her love for others, but now she is starting to put herself first.
“Streets are mine, the night is mine / All my own / How I love me after you / King of all the land / I’m king of all the land,” Mitski sings.
Mitski gives listeners a glimpse of her healing journey and the emotions that came from it. “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” arrived just in time for fans who need to reflect on themselves as Mitski shares her perspective.