Imagine this: You’re walking in a field in the American West with a farmhouse in the distance. The dogs are barking, the chickens are grouping frantically, and the buffalo are restless. The grass you are standing in is knee-deep. You are alone, longingly looking off at the pasture before you. There is an air of desperation.
Mitski’s 7th studio album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, encapsulates this feeling perfectly.
From the melodic Puberty 2 to the elaborate Be the Cowboy, indie-pop singer Mitski has gained international attention. After Laurel Hell, her 2022 synth-pop album, Mitski returns to the music scene with a softer sound haunted by undertones of longing, loneliness, and hope. First inspired by its title, a comical welcome sign to a Western town that read “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” the album opts for an Americana atmosphere. The release contemplates themes of love – whether Mitski laments about mutual love, self-love, or love overall – with a vulnerability deeper than Mitski has ever displayed before. “To love is the best thing I ever did in my life,” Mitski says, reminding her audience, “It’s truly the most beautiful thing I ever did.”
The album opens on a strong note with “Bug Like An Angel” – one of three released singles of the record – that speaks to the nostalgia of growing older and the hardships that come with it. Mitski makes intimate revelations about her drinking habits, painting the recurring imagery of a “bug like an angel at the bottom of [her] glass.” The song juxtaposes the ethereal nature of the album’s majority and almost serves as an in-hindsight warning; “Did you make promises you can’t keep?” Mitski asks us accusingly, “Well, when you break them, they break you right back.” The next two tracks follow a different route: we hear a warped, dreamy version of Mitski’s reality that immediately contrasts “Bug Like An Angel.” Deceptively sweet, “Buffalo Replaced” and “Heaven” draw attention to the exact control that Mitski lacks over herself. Whether or not this facade is subconscious or knowingly put on, Mitski chills us with soft, spacy guitar and muted vocals. However, in a sharp turn of events, starting with “I Don’t Like My Mind,” Mitski drops the act and flares about her self-loathing and deep-rooted trauma.
The album’s core is arguably the strongest, angriest, and most impactful to the track list’s development. Following the hits “The Deal” and “When Memories Snow,” is “My Love Mine All Mine.” Quickly, the soft-spoken, bitter-sweet track has become The Land Is Inhospitable’s most popular, and rightfully so. With beautiful messages about the importance of love, “My Love Mine All Mine” is one of the most genuinely hopeful on the tracklist and epitomizes all of Mitski’s mastery in lyricism and musicality with unforeseen grace and poise. The following songs, “The Frost” and “Star,” continue this trend. Finally, the album comes full circle in the concluding two goosebump-inducing numbers. In a parallel to “Bug Like An Angel,” “I’m Your Man” uses choral voices to further accentuate this. The album ends on a freakishly beautiful, semi-unresolved note with “I Love Me After You.”
The formatting of The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We reflects the stages of grief: Denial in “Heaven,” bargaining in “I Don’t Like My Mind,” anger in “When Memories Snow,” depression in “My Love Mine All Mine,” and acceptance in “I Love Me After You.” Mitski chooses a solid, cohesive story over standalone tracks. While some argue the shortness of the songs may have hindered the record’s potential to develop even further, the potency of each makes up for it. Her poetic lyricism and voice are as strong as ever, and her utilization of a choir in the production was brilliant. The choral vocalists only emphasize the air of isolation hiding in her sweetest songs while drawing attention to her loneliness and conveying emotional vulnerability. The attention to detail in her artistry did not go unnoticed, and any Mitski lover – or music lover in general – could applaud her for her work in composing a consistent and powerful album.
It’s clear that The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We will continue to be recognized for its distinctive atmosphere and, as Mitski has intended it to be, a time capsule of her everlasting love.
