Album Review of Be The Cowboy - Mitski
BY NEAL MARTIN |
This month’s album choice is courtesy of 27-year old American-Japanese musician Mitski Miyazaki, mononymously known as “Mitski”. I first encountered her when Pitchfork nominated Your Best American Girl as one of their best videos of 2016. True, the promo was clever and inspired, a visual metaphor for the alienation that a young Asian woman feels growing up in America and the insecurity of trying/failing to appeal to white boys. The song itself completely blew me away. It could have come directly from the halcyon days of early-nineties grunge, commencing with an almost inaudible whisper before that exhilarating moment when Mitski presses her effects pedal and the song explodes towards its angst-ridden cascading guitar-drenched finale. If only Kurt were alive to witness this two and a bit minutes of pop/rock perfection.
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Mitski returns in 2018 with her fifth album Be The Cowboy, perhaps with expectations heightened after previous success and contemporaneous with St. Vincent’s rising profile. Be The Cowboy does not disappoint. Fourteen tracks, almost entirely clocking in at 150 seconds each, combine to create a cohesive, clever and affecting album.
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