Album Of The Week: Mitski — Be the Cowboy
Our usual Album of the Week writer, Mariella, is busy covering Leeds Festival with our Head of URY Music Alex, so this week’s review is brought to you by Sophia. She might have been disappointed that Slaves’ new album didn't win our AOTW poll, but is there a place in her heart for Mitski too?
I wasn’t best pleased when Slaves’ new record did not win Album of the Week, and Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski, whom I had never heard of, did. That might be expected if you know me. Nevertheless, I took a chance, while Alex and Mariella are at Leeds Festival, to write the AOTW review and to (hopefully) discover a new love for Mitski.
Be the Cowboy opens with what reminds me of church organs: a drone-like sound that acts as a signal to mark that Mitski truly has arrived. And she has arrived for what some critics argue is her best piece of work to date. The drone sound soon trails off to usher in Mitski’s angelic vocals, and by the time an electric instrumental brings ‘Geyser’ to a close, it’s clear that this is a powerful opening to the album.
A favourite track of mine from this release is the third, ‘Old Friend’, where Mitski reminisces as she explores fond memories involving — surprise — an old friend. Her vocal delivery here is perhaps the most restrained on the whole album, but it works well. Following this is ‘A Pearl’, a track that sees Mitski put aside the restrained vocals and demonstrate effortlessly how vocally talented she is.
‘Remember My Name’ then marks a turn in the album: the sweet instrumentals change to heavier ones, but it’s fitting for the track, demonstrating Mitski’s ability to not just perform ballads about love whilst also showcasing her versatility and talent as a musician who deserves to be remembered. All the while, the pleading nature of her lyrics offer the listener an opportunity to recognise the darker side of fame, fortune, and life in the limelight.
The seventh track, ‘Me and My Husband’, has a theatrical vibe to it — a result of not just the offbeat-but-upbeat instrumental but also the monologic delivery of the lyrics. It is a colourful, melodic song that signposts the halfway point in Mitski’s fifth recorded journey.
Transcending this brighter mood to move towards a calmer and romantic one, the back-to-back ‘Pink in the Night’ and ‘A Horse Named Cold Air’ slow the pace of the album and offer up a delicate side to Mitski, an honest and natural exposure. As the album draws to a close, the mood brightens again with ‘Washing Machine Heart’, a lyrically clever song with a simplistic and funny premise that makes it another of my favourite tracks.
Most of the songs on the album come in at less than three minutes — this explains why it runs for 33 minutes in total, despite being 14 tracks in length. However, there is an exception to this trend in the last track, ‘Two Slow Dancers’, which is one second short of four minutes. Here, the pace of the album slows once again, almost to a full halt, as graceful string instrumentals leave the listener with a sense of peace at the end of this brief musical journey. One lyric in particular stands out here: ‘To think that we could stay the same’. This lyric seems to suggest some reason why Mitski has taken such a different approach with this album compared to her last, and perhaps also the reason why no artist is unchanging. This kind of musical evolution is inevitable.
Be the Cowboy is Mitski’s fifth album, and it has been seen by many as her best piece of work to date. I only had to listen to the album once through to know that she exudes natural talent. Up until this week, I was clueless as to who Mitski was, but I now question how I could have been so blind to have missed out on her music before. Her delicate voice had me close to breathlessness during her more timid tracks, and it is testament to how powerfully she sings, as well as proof that less really can be more.
This latest album is definitely one I can see myself returning to endlessly. Blending the themes of love, hope, and fame with her air of honesty, Mistki’s Be the Cowboy is an album I would highly recommend when given the chance. Having entered into it with no expectations, I have been pleasantly surprised to find what is one of the best albums I have heard this year.
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